A gorgeous, immersive experience marred by apathetic GMs.
First, let's get the bad news out of the way: Lineage II is dominated by hacks and cheats. NCSoft claims they are continuously working to develop better methods of detecting illegal programs. It's just like when you were in high school, and you told your parents that your homework was done so you could play games all night without further interruptions, but really, you hadn't done jack.
As I discovered for myself, any newbie can take a stroll around town and discover a flock of bot controlled players, disguised with clever names such as, "ffggfh" and "hdfghja". With such advanced measures being taken to conceal these illegal botting activities, it is no wonder that NCSoft is unable to crack down on such a serious problem.
The presence of the bots is so obvious to the legit players that it isn't uncommon for players to player-kill the bots for fun. After all, no one is actually playing the bot to care whether it gets killed. On my first day, I tested this out by killing no less than six bot controlled players. However, player-killing is not recommended as you will end up with a steep death penalty the next time you die, which is where the "hardcore" comes in; the death penalty quickly knocks your stats down right next to 0, making your character fairly useless and unable to earn the ridiculous amount of money necessary to have the otherwise permanent death penalty removed.
Now for the good news: Lineage II is so pleasant of an experience that you might keep playing it anyway. My computer is years old and still runs on a 2.4 gig processor with an Nvidia 7800GS graphics card, but the visuals are nothing less than gorgeous and the game runs smoothly. WIth HDR, shadows and reflections enabled, the visuals sometimes appear hauntingly realistic. The world is subject to change from day to night, producing beautiful sunsets and night skies. The musical score sounds fully orchestrated and also features soft vocals (think LOTR movies). All this, combined with fantastic environmental sounds, will succeed in taking your mind somewhere far from reality.
The controls and gameplay are straightforward and typical, with a point-and-click movement system (or arrow keys), right mouse button to rotate the camera, and number hotkeys for all of your actions. Lineage II is extremely newbie friendly, featuring tutorials with voice recordings and extra benefits for newbies, such as free buffs from town guides and plenty of simple quests to get you on your way.
Grinding (the main part of the game) is slightly different than grinding in similar MMORPGs. Instant use healing and mana potions tend to drop from kills, as well as temporary buffs such as improved casting speed and critical damage. The monsters you'll fight are depicted quite well and make suitable sounds, keeping the immersion intact. Rare drops were just rare enough to make them exciting and yet not impossible.
I found myself not caring about the fact that I was grinding because I enjoyed simply being immersed in the Lineage II world. Levelling progress came at a good pace, and the grind was easily soloable.
Some of the spell effects could have been more dazzling, although some of the spells are impressive.
As for the overall value of the game, Lineage II is nice departure from reality, but fails to deliver a fair gaming experience to legit players. Perhaps if the game was sold as retail without a subscription fee, this would even things out. For the time being, NCSoft is making easy cash off of illegal and legit players alike, and seems to have no problem with it.