Lineage II Preview

Sony Online's EverQuest may have been the headlining success story for online RPGs in the US, but the success of NCsoft's Lineage reached a completely different level in Asia, where the game reportedly has millions of regular players. While many players who are used to the 3D graphics of EverQuest and Dark Age of Camelot may very well wonder at Lineage's success, especially considering that game's dated 2D graphics, NCsoft has used that success to establish an enviable position in the industry. The publisher is carrying several games, including the online superhero game City of Heroes, and it also has a major sequel to Lineage coming. It doesn't take more than a second look at the screenshots to see that Lineage II is a big graphical step up from the original game, but the developers hope that the sequel's deeper gameplay will make it a hit on US shores.

Lineage II has been in development for two years at NCsoft's studio in Korea. The game's development is almost in the final stretch, but the NCsoft Austin studio--founded in 2001 by Ultima's creator, Richard Garriott, and the designers of Ultima Online--has been working to localize and test the English version of the game and shape the core design to better suit US tastes. There are a few more months before the US beta, but we recently had a chance to see the latest version of the game.

At the core of the game's crisp visuals is none other than Epic's Unreal technology. As you'd expect, NCsoft has created its own networking code for the persistent-world game, but the very high level of detail in the characters and the environments is due in good part to Epic's graphics engine. Compared with the characters in other online RPGs, Lineage II's characters have a very distinct anime look. In fact, carrying giant, ornate swords, the stylized characters wouldn't look out of place in a Final Fantasy game. One of NCsoft's major goals for the sequel has been improved character customization, and as is standard in 3D online RPGs, you can choose from several basic physical attributes when creating an avatar and further define the look of your character with a large variety of visually distinct weapons and armor. Different types of armor actually change the contours of your character's body, so a suit of plate mail, for example, can look particularly imposing with its fashionable extra protection for the shoulders.

Starting a new character is designed to be as easy as possible. You won't have to worry about making a mistake in the initial setup, because the number of choices you have to make up front has been pruned to a minimum. Once you decide on the character's gender, race, physical attributes, and name, you're almost done. The only class decision to make is whether you want your character to be primarily a fighter or a magic user. All the more-detailed skill and class choices come later. As soon as newly created characters arrive in the world, they're equipped with either a weapon and two pieces of basic armor (distinct segments for the upper and lower body) or two spells (one for attacking and one for healing), depending on the first basic class choice. Then it's on to hunting easy creatures in and around the starting point. The mouse-driven interface seems quite simple, and movement in the game is accomplished by clicking on the ground in a third-person perspective, rather than with the standard first-person shooter controls, as is common in many other games of this kind. However, it is worth noting that interface features and other specific gameplay details are not necessarily representative of the final game.