All the new bits for everyone...
So, let’s look at the differences to kick off with, as long time players will be keen to know what’s up. First off, and the biggest addition, is the new race, the Kamael. This will have more of an impact on the long term Lineage player than a new boy. The reason being, as Zak33 has pointed out, if you’re high level, there’s been an ever dwindling amount to do for seriously hard characters.The addition of the Kamael gives a whole new challenge as long-term players now have a completely new race to play as and yes, it means starting from scratch, but the differences from previous races make it worthwhile and give players something to get their teeth into. There’s a whole new bunch of skills for the Kamael and new traits, such as the fact they can absorb souls from early on (which is central to their attack skills) but, being a Dark race, healing spells don’t work so well on them.
Click for larger imageOnce a Kamael character reaches level 75 on their sub-classes, a new, previously hidden sub-class pops up, giving even more room for advancement. And in the skills department, the Kamael fighter/mage skill tree splits quite early on… but there is a halfway house class available later if you fancy it. And to further underline that the Kamael aren’t just a ‘tacked on’ race to satisfy long-time players, they can also convert normal weapons to race specific Kamael weapons, which gives said weapon extra qualities… So once again, if you’re in it for the long term you’ll see the benefits.
So, having tried every combination our juvenile minds could think of for 'Kamael Toe' as a character name, we had to settle for 'Kamael Haired Coat' as NCsoft must’ve blocked the rest… which saddened the school-boy in both of us. But once we were up and running, we were given Lineage's usual visually impressive treat of the the Kamael city. This is a superb bit of world design and clearly shows that plenty of time and effort has gone into developing the world.
Click for larger imageYes, it all looks a bit dark and brooding, but this is a Dark race after all. If you’re looking for something lighter and more ‘Rivendale’ then try the Elves for a chosen race. Or of course there’s the snowbound Dwarven villages, the human populated island villages or the, more similar to the Kamael, Underdark Dark Elf villages. But whichever you choose, it all very nicely fits in with what you’d expect from a fantasy Middle-Earth based world. And yes, I know Middle-Earth is a Tolkien thing but come on, he is the Daddy of all this.
Click for larger image