Mobile game company Netmarble is bringing over a new game from Korea. They are releasing Lineage II: Revolution to the global market on Novermber 15th. That's right the MMO Lineage is coming out brand new in a mobile game format. They had a big showing at Twitchcon (check out my interview I had while there). But can an MMO on a phone work? Very few have been successful in the West. This is our Lineage II: Revolution review.
All of this was played on my phone (a Samsung Galaxy S5) and to be honest it looked good. There was an options menu to change some graphics and it's meant to be played not only on newer phones but older ones as well. I was impressed with how good it looked and played on my phone. Even with multiple players on my screen, I felt little to no slow down. The Unreal Engine at work.
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The lore for Lineage II: Revolution is set 100 years in the past from the PC Lineage 2, giving the player access to a slightly different experience. You start out being able to choose between four races which are gender locked. Human male, Elf female, Dark Elf ma, e and Dwarf female. From there you pick a starter class which can transition into one of two sub-classes at level 31 with the completion of seven quests to unlock it. While every race has the same starter classes, the sub-classes differ slightly for each.
While the gameplay and quests you get definitely feel like what you would expect for an MMO, you have an option for auto questing. It's a feature prevalent in mobile games especially overseas. With a simple touch of the quest in the journal, your character starts to go where he needs to and starts automatically killing mobs. You can set various skills for whether or not you want them to be used in auto attack situations. You can even determine if you want your character to use mana and health potions.
I found auto questing to be odd at first since I'm used to doing things for myself, but I got used to it eventually. I found it came in handy while I was cooking dinner to just tap the screen and have my character do what he needed to while I finished. It's really easy to not auto quest as well and do things manually while exploring the various areas of the game. For a mobile game, it's like an "Idle Option". Something you can do to let the game progress while you work at the office. The Korean version has auto combat for dungeons, but this has been taken out for the global release.
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Here's a quick look at some of the main features:
- The leveling system was easy to get used to as was the upgrade mechanic for armor/weapons.
- The various armors and weapons looked good as well.
- There are mounts you can acquire as you level up. They have various types including some that are gilded in gold.
- The dungeon system starts you out small going solo against boss mobs, but eventually you have stronger boss mobs for which you need more power or a group for.
- What crafting there is, is more based around getting some items to upgrade your gear.
- There is great art throughout as well as good voice overs for various main NPCs and quest givers.
- There is a market in game that you can buy various bundles with or potions, but nothing that I felt I needed to be able to enjoy the game.
Lineage II: Revolutions has all the trappings you would expect from an MMO, including PvP. It launches with Fortress Sieges which is thirty versus thirty live combat. It can get quite chaotic during these fights with skills going off left and right and trying to survive long enough for your skills to come off cool down to get that last hit in to take down the enemy player. PvP is the aspect that the game shines in with these huge battles and bigger ones to come in future updates.
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Overall Lineage II: Revolution felt like a solid release into the mobile MMO gaming market that I enjoyed playing and I look forward to see how it continues to evolve. With more features and more content coming, it could become the defacto MMO on mobile.
