Lineage II

In Lineage II, players create a character, choose the race and personalise the face and hair in style, color, expression, and gender.

Every player begins the game in a temple in their character's race's zone (for example: Humans start in "Talking Island" and the Dark Elves in "The Shilen Temple"). Typically, players can choose between a mage and a fighter in each race except Dwarves and Kamael, which can only be fighters.

The game follows a fictional history through sets of plots called "Sagas". There are currently four sagas: "The Chaotic Chronicle", "The Chaotic Throne", "Goddess of Destruction", and "Epic Tale of Aden". Large-scale updates/expansions are known as "Chronicles" (also known as "The Throne" in The Chaotic Throne, "Chapter" in Goddess of Destruction, and "Episode" in Epic Tale of Aden), which introduce new story elements as well as new features and add-ons. They are released every six months.

Each expansion features new skills, quests, areas, and items. Some expansions also increased the level cap.

Hyeong-Jin Kim, the production team head for Lineage II, came up with the basic concept for the game in early 2000. Development happened in October–November of the same year. Kim and producer James Bae have stated that their reasons for developing a prequel for Lineage rather than a sequel is that "Lineage will continue to be updated as a game", and that they did not want to risk a conflict with the direction of updates that Lineage will take in the future.

According to Kim and Bae, the game's initial subtitle, "The Chaotic Chronicle", was developed with the intention to express the large-scale war, strategies, conflicts, and collaborations that they hoped to encourage among players.

The overall reception for Lineage II is mixed; the game received average review scores from various video game rating websites. Andrew Park of GameSpot said that the game "offers either a repetitive grind or a stiff challenge", and is not suitable for casual gamers who can only play an hour or less per day. Allen "Delsyn" Rausch called the Kamael "an interesting race in that, unlike other Lineage II races, they focus specifically on the warrior path with high-level class paths segregated by gender".

The Chronicle 5: Oath of Blood expansion won the Expansion of the Year award at Stratics Central Editor's Choice Awards 2006, and Lineage II earned an Honorable Mention for the Game of the Year award. During the 9th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Lineage II received a nomination for "Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year".