Lineage: The Blood Pledge: Information from Answers.com

Platform: IBM PC Compatible
Release Date: November 07, 2001
Genre: Role-Playing
Style: Persistent World Online RPG
Similar Games: Neocron (IBM PC Compatible), Dark Age of Camelot: Gold Edition (IBM PC Compatible), EverQuest: The Scars of Velious [Jewel Case] (IBM PC Compatible)

Game Description

The world of Lineage: The Blood Pledge sets a stage for combat, interaction, and character development. At first glance, Lineage: The Blood Pledge is reminiscent of titles like Baldur's Gate or Diablo II, featuring an isometric perspective on 2D "sprite" characters in detailed, hand-painted background environments. Separate pop-up menu windows for character information, inventory management, and spells are another common feature. While these other successful role-playing games may feature some multiplayer options, however, online play is the primary focus of Lineage and this game does not support single-player adventuring.

Based on his behavior -- be it lawful, neutral, or chaotic -- the player's character will develop a reputation and the game's NPCs and the other human-controlled characters will react to him accordingly. Interaction with other avatars becomes an important factor of gameplay, even for the "lone wolf" character. The game's subtitle itself conjures notions of the dynamic diplomacy between human-controlled player characters which is only possible in such an online environment. There are eight different regional "locations" in the persistent online world of Lineage: The Blood Pledge, each offering its own unique atmosphere and challenges to the progressing player character.

The game's fantasy medieval setting is based on the similarly titled comic book series by Ilsook Shin. Extremely popular in Korea prior to its US release, the original Lineage boasted over 2.7 million registered users by early 2001. The game was updated, enhanced, and brought to the States by NCsoft Corporation, Ltd., a company founded by Richard Garriott (who is also known by his in-game alter-ego "Lord British"). Garriott was the creator of the influential Ultima series and pioneered "massively multiplayer online role-playing" with the release of Ultima Online in 1997.

~ T.J. Deci, All Game Guide

Review: Overall

Simplicity is the governing attribute of Lineage: The Blood Pledge. From the point-and-click interface to the short character creation process, everything about the game concentrates on eliminating unnecessary distractions. For some role-playing gamers, especially veterans of the genre, this is a welcome throwback to first edition D&D games and early RPGs. For younger players accustomed to high-resolution graphics and innovative character development systems, however, Lineage is an unwelcome dinosaur.

Knight, elf, mage, and prince character classes are available, each with a male and female variation (though gender only affects appearance). Each class has a distinct specialty, and most players choose to accentuate this during the creation process. Knights, for instance, need points devoted to strength or their melee attacks are diminished in power. However, some of the most interesting characters encountered online, such as a strength mage, defy the conventional wisdom.

The prince class is responsible for creating a Blood Pledge, probably Lineage's most interesting feature. Elves, mages, and knights can join any blood pledge they want, but the prince of each pledge has to agree to let them join (the maximum number allowed is based on the prince's charisma). Blood Pledges can declare war on each other, and siege castles belonging to others. The effort and expense of a successful siege is well worth it because castles collect taxes from the game economy. Interestingly enough, online politics are surprisingly complex, with an assortment of alliances, back stabbing, and scandals.

As characters gain experience, items, and level up, points are accrued based on behavior. Killing monsters grants lawful points to players, while killing other players results in chaotic points (unless the player is chaotic). Chaotic players are much more likely to drop expensive items after dying, while lawful players, after a certain point, never drop equipped items. However, no chaotic point penalties are assessed during declared sieges or wars between pledges. For players who detest the possibility of player killing, there is a server where attacking other players is only possible during wars and in dueling zones.

The ultimate challenge in Lineage is dragon hunting, and four elemental dragons are being introduced. Antharas, the earth dragon, appeared shortly after the game went commercial. Dragons are immensely powerful and require the coordination of over 50 people to kill, but they drop incredibly rare items. If you join a dragon-hunting group, be ready to die often and lose lots of experience, but expect to have a blast!

The world of Lineage is expanded every few months with a new episode, and is big enough to support 3000 people at a time (though this only happens in Korea, where the game is a national pastime). Each class starts in a particular area, like the Elven Forest, and each area has a unique selection of monsters and topography. The entire world, the monsters, and the characters are all sprite-based graphics. While not bad, they pale in comparison to contemporary massive multiplayer online games such as Dark Age of Camelot. The audio consists of a tinny, endlessly repeating score and canned effects for most monsters.

For players who fondly remember old pen-and-paper RPGs, Lineage: The Blood Pledge will be a trip down memory lane. Dedicated RPG gamers whose computers don't support newer games may also be happy with the low requirements. Unfortunately, and despite a host of interesting and innovative features, Lineage will not appeal to most gamers after about a month of play. The vast majority of gameplay consists of killing a weak monster, then killing the same weak monster, and so on, ad nauseam. To be fair, this type of repetition is a problem for many RPGs, but Lineage is particularly uninventive.

Participating in sieges requires a high-level character, and a high-level character requires months of tedious point-and-click hunting. Not many players will survive to the game's more interesting aspects, and most of those who do will tire of sieges and dragon hunts quickly. However, Lineage: The Blood Pledge offers a month of free use, and since the game is free to download (you can also have a free CD sent to you), it's worth playing for the trial period.