If You Need More RPGs Or MMOs In Your Life, Lineage 2 Is Hitting Steam

Given that it’s free-to-play, doesn’t have a level cap and has more than 30 classes, this probably isn’t the worst time sink to help distract you from your family and friends over the Christmas holidays.

It’s the Steam release of Lineage 2, which will unlock at some point within the next 24 hours. It doesn’t say it directly on the description page, but the game will be free-to-play which is more or less a base requirement for MMOs these days.

Importantly, the F2P model hasn’t gated away any of the story or quest content. “All game content, including character slots, quests, and zones are free for everyone … future expansions and content updates are also totally free … multiple content updates per year,” NCSOFT advertises.

It also helps that the game looks way better than anything released in 2003 has any right to. The floor and wall textures look pretty muddy, but the models and attack animations aren’t half bad given the game is running on a really outdated version of the Unreal Engine. Here’s the latest story trailer that was pushed out 4 weeks ago, to give you an idea.

Whether or not Lineage 2 will have any legs just because it’s launching on Steam is another matter entirely, but if you’re sick of getting suckered into spending money every time Lord Gaben throws up a holiday sale it might be worth trawling through the free-to-play games instead.

For those with a long background in the Lineage games: tell us what it’s like in the comments! Would you recommend someone invest deeply into the games, or has the industry and community moved too far forward now?