by Cody
“Micajah” Bye, Managing Editor
Being an MMORPG journalist, it pays to know the games that
you’re covering. From Runescape
to EVE Online,
I’ve tried almost every game that’s popped out on
the market these last few years, jumping into world after world in
search of that invaluable MMOG that will combine evocative PvE and PvP
gameplay with the ability to turn on my toaster in the mornings.
It’s been a valiant struggle to continue to be adequately
proficient with these games – I’m definitely busy
most of my days – but occasionally a game will fall off my
radar for a few months while I try to perpetuate my virtual self in
another game.
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/14897"
title="New Kamael Females Running Through the Zone">
src="/image/view/14897/preview"
width="200">
style="font-style: italic;">New players can
expect a much improved new player experience in this iteration of
Linage II.
When it comes to Lineage
II: The Chaotic Chronicle, I’ve been admittedly
lax in my attempts to play the game. With just a few days of
out-of-beta experience under my belt, it’s definitely one of
my least played MMOG titles of all time. Yet the game continues to draw
my attention. As fancy new screenshots or descriptions of the political
system arise every few months, I find my interest piqued over and over
again. It’s a game that continues to draw a tremendous crowd,
even after nearly four years of playable service. I decided it was time
to finally dive in and see what the
style="font-style: italic;">Lineage II
developers had achieved in my years away from the game.
Just as I was making this resolution, Opal Lertutai, an associate
communications manager for NCsoft, sent me an email informing me that
the Lineage II developers
were holding a press junket for the upcoming expansion of the game at
their NCsoft studios in Austin, Texas. Doing a bit of research, I found
out that The Kamael (the
name of the new expansion) was set to bring a whole new race to the
game, which was very intriguing considering that all of the
game’s previous expansions have been free. With that
curiosity in mind, I told Opal that I was set to head out to the great
state of Texas. Next thing I knew, I was on a tiny jet jumping from
Kansas City to Austin to spend a whole day learning all I could about
the upcoming expansion.
Our day was basically split into two parts, the first part being an
reintroduction to Lineage
II (for those of us who hadn’t played the game
recently) and the second half featuring a several hour long play
session where we toured the new areas, created new Kamael characters,
and generally experimented with the game. Since I’ve already
covered most of the details of the expansion in my general
style="font-style: italic;">Kamael preview (
href="http://tentonhammer.com/node/14665">which can be found
here), I’ll be diving right into my hands-on
experience with the content update.
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/14896"
title="Powering Up">
src="/image/view/14896/preview"
width="200">
style="font-style: italic;">The Kamael are a
new race in Lineage II. They are also extremely striking in appearance.
Initially, the developers simply told us to go ahead and check out the
character creation portion and play with the new Kamael characters.
Rolling up my sleeves, I crafted a fine looking female Kamael named
"Busty." She was a fetching young lass, with her one wing and white
hair. I received a nod of approval at my choices from one of the QA
testers sitting next to me, and I set off into the world.
From my previous adventures in
Lineage II, I distinctly remember that the new player
experience in the game left a lot to be desired for. If my memory
serves me correctly, I was moving through the levels with great ease
until I hit a wall in my progression; a very large wall that had me
dying over and over again and thus losing all of the experience I had
gained previously. If I had been given a bit more guidance by the
developers, perhaps I would have been better able to advance my
character.
Luckily, new gamers won’t find the same sort of harsh
treatment in this early version of the game. New tutorials and quests
have been introduced into the gameplay mechanic to insure that players
won’t be mindlessly racing off into the woods to fight a
monster that’s too difficult for them. As
“Busty” journeyed throughout the Isle of Souls (the
new Kamael island), I noticed that the L2 developers had spent a good
deal of time narrowing the initial journey so that players have a
distinct path to follow from one area to the next. I conversed with a
large number of NPCs who were more than willing to give me
instructions, point me in the right direction, and simply be helpful to
my cause.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Lineage II Game Page.
