Lineage 2: Revolution (iOS) Preview

Lineage II: Revolution opens up with a pretty epic battle to serve as its tutorial. You will be overpowered; just accept it now. As more is learned about movement and how to cast spells, the damage output will seem downright shocking. Enemies will buckle, even ones that seem to be the king of the beasts. Don't worry, though, because as soon as the tutorial is over, you lose all of this. Enter the character creation screen.

Okay, all sarcasm aside, the character creation menu isn't going to blow anyone's minds. This isn't Fallout 4; there's no "bridge depth" or choosing how far apart the character's eyes are. Who cares - this is a mobile RPG! Pick one of the four races (each with an animated introduction) and three classes, a hairstyle (of which there are currently three options), and preview their animations. Currently, each race seems gender locked, with humans and dark elves always being men, and elves and dwarves always being female. This might disappoint those who like to really craft their heroes, but if getting a specific gender isn't a big deal, this really shouldn't matter.

Now, for the purposes of this preview, there was no one online to play with, at least not on the available server, so it remains to be seen if the finished online modes will be worth exploring (a review will be available later this week to cover them). However, there's still plenty of game to talk about. Considering how much space there is, this is hardly surprising. As soon as you land, you will be given a quest. This seems to function like a single-player or solo-player mode, though the game requires a constant internet connection, so it's likely other players can do these quests with you.

There are two control options available: a joystick and auto-complete. The joystick allows for more control, and as this incorporates digital buttons for each move, it's probably the preferred method for players used to controllers. The auto-complete function has the hero (or heroine) complete the tasks with the assistance of built-in AI for the character. This is actually a super slick idea, as it allows the player to perform quests automatically. Both modes come with their drawbacks, as the joystick can be "slippery," and the auto-complete makes the whole thing feel more like a "clicker" game with prettier and more thorough animation.

Loot is awarded at what seems to be random intervals, based on killing enemies and completing quests. Equipment can be levelled up with materials found, while completing certain missions unlocks additional things that can be done to the equipment, like combining and upgrading. Quests largely fall into fetch and slaughter type quests early on, requiring the player to go find something or kill enemies. This is another drawback to the auto-complete method, as it removes a lot of the exploration that the player might otherwise have.

With things like daily and weekly quests, optional dungeons, a menu to manage to your online friends, as well as clans and online rankings, there's a lot of online content that will no doubt have players going crazy for hours. Even for the more solitary out there, there are things like Titles to be concerned about. Titles are kind of like optional objectives, or milestones that are awarded when certain objectives are completed. Okay, so they're kind of like achievements, but after acquiring them, they add to the character's combat power.