At first I was overwhelmed with what massively multiplayer online games have to offer me who mostly played single RPGs before. Eager to explore this new universe, I wasn’t picky when creating my character and ended up playing another brawny melee duelist. Following the initial quests I got immersed into Lineage overnight and hardly noticed that one may call the MMO approach to storytelling superficial. And who even cares when you get your first D grade gear from Execution Grounds and go for your first raid with your clanmates. It’s the visual style of Lineage 2 which turned out to be quite friendly - not too flashy, excellent balance between middle ages and fantasy - that got me chained to the screen. There’s even a replica of the Notre-Dame cathedral… I am still humming Giran theme when I am writing this and I had fanart of Cruma Tower as screensaver on one of my old phones. Not to overlook social aspect of the game, discussing the game in chat and teamspeak was almost as enjoyable.
As it usually is with your first toons, I hardly followed any advice and got quickly upset that my Gladiator designed to decide fates couldn’t put up a fight. So I put some hours into reading wiki and guides on forums trying to understand how the world of this game works. After that the game would finally grant me a nice feeling of progress and accomplishment and grinding won’t be a drag anymore, especially when everybody at my party mastered their characters. It’s funny how I got half of my high level equipments as a prize for contributing to the clan activities. Soon I got reasonably good at understanding how various classes should be played, their role in party and limitations. It was time to make my next character, so I chose Hawkeye. And that’s when Lineage 2 shined at its finest.
When you’re fairly decently leveled, mass open-world PvP just never ends. You get killed over a quest mob? Comeback with your friends and take that culprit and get his yummy weapon. Out of all MMOs I played after, Lineage 2 is the only game where I felt that death really matters, you always feel challenged. Although playing solo is acceptable, being a member of a huge clan is where all the fun’s at. Explosive fights for weekly raid bosses and long castle sieges. I remember my hands shaking during my first siege and the tears of joy after the first win. In other games I miss seeing huge clan alliances rise or decay on behalf of mischievous treachery. Game of thrones are children’s fairy tales compared to war between TwilighT and Syndicate’s “russian mafia” on european server Teon. Endgame is hard to climb to, but it is rewarding.
Lisa graduated in a couple of months and I spent more than 3 years in Lineage 2. Server I played on is dead by now and it may seem that Lineage 2 lost most of its prime. But may that sound corny, your first MMO RPG is like first love you can never forget. It started like a casual fling, but for me Lineage 2 of that era defined what massively multiplayer online game should be. And no other game lived up to that.
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