Lineage 2M launched in South Korea a couple of days back in South Korea, and perhaps there was more buzz about the Purple software than the game itself. Currently in its beta version, key features such as live-stream are missing, but the basics such as official YouTube videos, forum, customer service etc are there, along with acting as the gateway to cross-platform gameplay for Lineage 2M. NCsoft has said its future games will make use of Purple as well, along with a potential global launch. Here is a quick look at the software.
To my surprise, Lineage 2M does not offer any character customization when selecting the race and class. It is definitely a norm these days, and it seems NCsoft might be worried about adding more size to its already-large installation files. Still, this is the first mobile MMORPG in a long time which doesn’t have a customization feature. Just to be clear, I was never a Lineage player, and Lineage 2M could probably use an exclusive new class to spruce things up a little. The cinematic is awesome, but I doubt players will remember it.
Next, we take a look at Lineage 2M itself. I felt that NCsoft did not try hard enough to re-invent the wheel, and stuck to the classic “postman quests” right from the start, which is also known as the “Kill X” quests. To be honest, in the first hour or so, that is the main content which I experienced. In 60 minutes, I was expecting to have been given a quick guide on PVP, party dungeons, raids, etc but they never came. Perhaps it is this old-school formula which made Lineage and Lineage II such big hits in South Korea all these years.
