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I played Lineage: The Blood Pledge for about a year and a half on and off. I played on PK and non-PK servers and on test and non-test servers. Lineage is a very different game, it’s very Korean.

The graphics are obviously rather dated. This means that you don’t get really nice 3D graphics, but you still get some nice looking sieges, with spells and potions being blown off right and left. However, because the graphics are so dated, there is no lag whatsoever - even on slower computers. If nothing else the graphics are quite functional, because things are so simple you can focus on the game.

The game play interface is quite Diablo-esq, it’s a 2d point-and-click, with items and spells having no cool down besides the animation of casting the spell. This means that the game play is much more fluid and active then other MMOs – you enter and exit combat very quickly. There is really no party play. When I left the game they were trying to encourage more partying, but I don’t know if they have had any success. However, there is a fantastic economy and a fantastic PvP system, both of which I’ll go into.

First, I should say something about the classes. There are 5 of them: Knight, the basic “fighter” character; Mage, the magic user; Elf, a fighter/magic user; Prince, the only class that can create a blood pledge and Dark Elf, a high damage fighter. In a number of ways, all the classes are very similar, and much of the game is chess-like as it’s based on squares and this limited number of classes. The game play is an acquired taste.

The economy is a good persistent economy – instead of having a number of “special” drops, like magic weapons/armor/whatever a’la EverQuest – they have a large number of basic items. These items can be made stronger by using scrolls of enchant armor/weapon on them up to a +4 (or +6 depending on the item) enchantment bonus. After +4/+6, the item has a chance to explode. This means that items can always get better and that there’s no “maximum” that you can hit. However, despite the appearance this might create a lot of over-powered players, it doesn’t.

All the other systems in lineage feed into its PvP system. I said before that it was a lot like chess; well this is where that comes into play. You cannot tell anyone else’s level aside from reputation, and a good deal of the game is sizing up others. Nothing like getting jumped by someone who thinks they can kill you only to beat them down – or being jumped b someone who can kill you. Certainly adds excitement. The siege system is, when the Koreans siege, very strategic. When Americans run the show it’s less so, but still strategic and a huge amount of fun. I can’t compare the sieges to any other game very effectively, but my friend has played nearly all the siege games out there (DaoC, ShadowBane come to mind) and he likes this system best. Even if you aren’t involved with one side of the siege or the other, it’s a blast.

A few Caveats however.
First, as AxByC alluded to, there is a lot of Korean-American tension. Dispite repeated attempts by NCAustin (The American company that runs Lineage over here); there are a ton of Koreans on the server. I personally really liked it; it added another dimension to the game. There are, however, a lot of people who didn’t like that they often don’t speak English and don’t like Americans. This leads to a lot of Korean v.s. American wars for castles. Those are probably the best sieges when the American alliances hold together, very intense and well-fought.
Also, when you die (outside of sieges) you have a chance to drop items if you’re low level or if you’ve recently PK’ed someone. This can be very frustrating to new players.

If I needed to point out one really unique feature of Lineage, it would be that the world is zone-less and you can travel anywhere instantly. This instant travel means that the world is very fluid, and if you’re a rich player (or playing on the test server), you can have fantastic and sporadic fights between blood pledges (guilds). If you are interested in trying out the game, I do believe that they have a 15 day or month free deal. I would take that deal and play on the Test server. The Test server wipes periodically, but has much higher drops, so you get a bigger taste of the game in a smaller amount of time.

As a final note, I quit Lineage because I felt it had really passed its peak. Mages got nerfed rather heavily and Dark Elves were introduced, and it felt a lot like the game had been changed too much. I still think it’s fun, it’s just not the same game anymore.