Lineage II unveiled

NCsoft has unveiled Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle, its upcoming sequel to its popular online role-playing game Lineage: The Blood Pledge, which currently has more than 4 million active accounts worldwide. Unlike its isometric predecessor, the new game will be powered by Epic's Unreal 3D engine, and it will be set in a 3D medieval fantasy world full of castles, dragons, magic, and large-scale sieges.

Players will assume the role of one of several character races--including human, elf, orc, dark elf, and dwarf--each of which has a different path of advancement. In addition to playing their initial character, players will be able to raise nonplayer characters as apprentices and later use them as their own characters.

Lineage II will also include a number of skills based on races and classes. For instance, fighters will have the option to use a special manual combat mode similar to the system used in fighting games, in which the timing of attacks is taken into account. Magicians will have access to different spheres of magic, such as white magic, black magic, and summoning.

As in the previous game, Lineage II will be based in part on large-scale battles between groups of player characters. The game's new party system and alliance system add new features to help players work together, and the game's new 3D engine will make siege warfare more realistic, and will include large siege weapons and strategic positions for characters.

Lineage II is being designed to be easily accessible at the lower levels, and players will gain access to more complexity as their characters progress in the game. At the higher levels, players will deal with large-scale war, in-game politics, and a detailed economic system.

We've posted some screenshots from the game in the gallery above. For more information, watch the video trailer linked below and visit the official Lineage II Web site, which contains a description of the game's story, characters, and monsters, as well as a gallery of screenshots, some downloadable wallpaper images, and answers to frequently asked questions about the game.