Q4 2012 is most realistic at this point, they still need at least 2 - 3 more BWEs imo to test the Asura and Sylvari, higher lvl contents, bug fixing, more system optimization, game balancing, and polishing.

Don't bother downloading, you need a far better graphics card to run it.

The new tutorial zone and the easy exp quests from level 1 - 75 really doesn't do the game justice at all. Neither does the new PK system which essentially creates a newbie "safe zone" since low level characters won't dare to PK and have to deal with the increased penalty.

Lineage 2 back in the earlier Chronicles (c1 c2 c3) gave me that sense of accomplishment like games such as Demon or Dark Souls does for many people because it was much more challenging.

Before you pretty much started with the clothes on your back, no free equipments handed to you, you had to earn every adena to buy the gear you needed, and also there wasn't enough SP to learn every skill so you had to choose carefully. Higher grade gear had to be crafted from gathering lots of different materials all over the game world.

No free buffs, so either you just stuck with your own self buffs (if you had any), look for someone and ask for buffs (might cost ya), or buy some items that gave you small buffs.

Lack of good equip and buffs means mobs were much tougher than they are now, so it was actually challenging. You had to do various quests to earn enough adena, and class change quests were much longer and some were chain quests.

On top of all this there would be regular PvP/Pks even at low lvl so you had to watch your back.

Everything I've listed above is pretty much gone from the level 1- 75 experience now as they spoon-feed you everything you need to lvl up faster to focus on their late-end game "awakening" experience, so it isn't surprising that lower levels feel so dull, generic, no sense of accomplishment (which I feel so too atm).

If you really wanna give Lineage 2 a go I'd say at least get a char to 76+ since the game's focus is on later level contents.

I played this game back in April 2010 when it was still in beta. The game had potential, one of the better Asian mmos in terms of gameplay so props to the developers.

Now, the publisher, IGG = I GOT GREED.

I quit the game as soon as I noticed the pay to win "events", and up to today they are still post these "events" weekly. It was my first IGG game so if this was a trend well known before then sucks I didn't do enough research first.

The "events" are pretty much like this (platinum = item mall currency bought from real money):

Exchange 1000 Platinum = some bonus prize, Exchange 2000 Platinum = cooler prize, Exchange 4000 Platinum = very awesome prize. That's not all! Be the top 5 Platinum exchangers and win this uber prize!!!

Note that 4000 Platinum equals $220 USD.

These few months this "uber prize" has been stuff like "highest refined items" or "special super powerful equipment not yet ingame", so you get the picture. Their marketing strategy is pretty much milk as much money from the small addicted playerbase before the game dies. Doubt even 1% of that $ is put back into development of new game content.

Go check the news section of their website if you don't believe me, 90% of announcements are these "events". IGG doesn't even try to hide it is pay to win. I know most other F2P publishers do these too to an extend, but IGG is just the worst I've seen after trying out many other F2P games.

TLDR: Worst kind of F2P mmo, publisher's milk as much $$$ as possible from the few "top" players like gambling addicts. Stay well away (from IGG games in general too).