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App Army Assemble: Lineage 2: Revolution - The best mobile MMORPG yet?

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App Army Assemble: Lineage 2: Revolution - The best mobile MMORPG yet?

Lineage 2: Revolution is a brand new mobile MMO based on the PC game of the same name. It also might be the most impressive effort to date.

Take one glance at the gorgeous visuals and you'll see exactly what you mean. You might even be forgiven for mistaking it for the PC game.

But is it any good? Well, that's exactly what we asked the App Army. Here are their thoughts.

Dave van Gorkum

I played for a couple of hours in the loosest sense of the word, as the game is almost completely automated. You can automatically run to your objectives, kill enemies, and loot gear. The only thing you have to do is click the quest objective every few minutes and your character does everything else.

Even PVP battles can be totally automated. Of course, you can play manually, but it takes a lot longer to complete objectives because you have to look for them constantly. Kill quests are followed by fetch quests with no creativity whatsoever.

It was built in Unreal Engine 4 so it's extremely pretty, and it runs well on my iPhone 6s. The amount of menus, achievements, skills, objectives, runes, and equipment is so overwhelming that it's hard to keep track of it all though.

I will keep playing to see if it strikes my interest, but right now it's a big disappointment.

Mark Ehlke

This is a clicker in the guise of an MMO. The auto play makes the game trivially easy. I didn’t make any real decisions in the entirety of the two hours I played outside of the initial character creation, which was very limited.

The amount of alternate currencies in the game is staggering, and yet most of them don’t really matter. The 2% stat bonus I was getting for using the rune trees didn’t have much of an effect either.

Thematically, the game isn’t much better. It somehow manages to combine the worst sexualization of eastern MMOs with the generic fantasy orcs of western ones.

It’s possible that this becomes a compelling game at some point, but at this point I’m not interested in continuing. Overall I don’t think I can recommend this to anyone.

Chanandler

This game needs to remove the option to automatically play so you actually have to do it yourself. It looks great, has a ton of content, the controls work, there's a story, and after three hours I haven't been badgered once to spend any real money.

If that auto play option was removed and you had to run around and actually do the quests properly, this could be a great mobile MMO. As it stands though, it’s a deep and slick mobile RPG that is slightly spoilt by mechanics that play the game for you.

Steve Clarke

I’ve never experienced a game that plays itself. Yet as I type, my Dark Elf mystic is fighting off a band of rampaging orcs who’ve attacked a village. It’s a novel experience but I’m not sure it meets the dictionary definition of the word game, being more akin to watching a Youtube video.

Call me old fashioned but I like to, y’know, play games?

I’m being harsh though. You can take control of your character, and actually have to do so in dungeons. This feature is a godsend for those who don’t want to grind for multiple characters. I’m not a fan of being actively encouraged to use it when starting the game for the first time though.

It's visually impressive with hit and miss voice acting. Aside from that, Lineage 2 is a pretty standard MMORPG. If you’re interested, you can’t go wrong checking it out. It’s free after all.

Ed Davis

Lineage 2 is an interesting game. The automated quests mean that you can play it in the background while doing other things.

The UI looks cluttered on the iPhone, and can appear daunting at first. But once you get into the game, you start to fully understand how addictive it can be.

You do find yourself stuck at the typical premium play barriers, so beware if you don't have a bottomless wallet.

What's the App Army? The App Army is Pocket Gamer's very own community of mobile game experts. Each week, we provide them with a bunch of free codes and early access to the hottest upcoming games so they can provide their thoughts in features like this. We also host regular community-driven events with them in mind like tournaments, giveaways, and multiplayer evenings. To join, simply follow this link to the page on Facebook and request access. We'll get you in right away!
Chris James
Chris James
A footy game fanatic and experienced editor of numerous computing and game titles, lively Chris is up for anything - including running Steel Media! (Madman!)