Unfortunately, PC games are being lost in the shuffle of their console brothers, but if you decide to get one online RPG this year, make it Lineage, and you will make yourself very happy.

Lineage is the new online RPG from Korean game company NCSoft. The game is finally making it to America after three years of dominance in the Korean gaming sphere. Boasting more than 2.5 million subscribers and around 255,000 concurrent users at one time, the game is the biggest in the world when compared to sheer numbers of users subscribed.

The game comes to the States facing some tough competition from genre veterans Everquest, Asheron’s Call and Ultima Online. The game also faces new competition from the already impressive Mimesis Online and the newly re-launched Anarchy Online (which was supposed to be the next big thing).

The story of Lineage closely resembles that of Oedipus Rex. A child is sent off by his mother because her husband, the king, wishes not to have his throne opposed. The child reaches the age of 18 and his stepfather’s sends knights to destroy him; after their failure, he begins his pledge to take over for the evil king and inherit the throne that is rightfully his. So begins his story and your story in the kingdom of Aden.

The first thing that you notice about Lineage is the fact that you are working towards something, instead of the mindless killing of beasts and the power-leveling that is experienced in so many RPGs of this sort, online and off. With Lineage you have the choice of different character classes. You can choose the powerful Mage, whose spells can lie on both sides of the good-evil line; a powerful Elf with a high intelligence and graceful fighting style that anyone familiar with Dungeons and Dragons would recognize; or the gung-ho Knight who don’t take any crap from anyone with his superior strength and fighting skills. It is standard fare for most of the classes, nothing overly dramatic or different from the RPGs of the past. What really puts a new spin on the genre is the addition of the Prince/Princess nobility class that gives the game its name.

While the Prince/Princess character lacks any superior skills in any area, they are the ones who initiate the blood pledge (hence the name). Closely resembling the guilds and clans of current RPGs in the organization sense, the blood pledge is a group of players who will follow their leader to the death as long as their lord keeps the promised wares. The blood pledge is the primary story telling device in Lineage. From inside the pledge, all of the fun begins; you have the opportunity to commandeer and rule a castle, and wage an all-out war against another pledge (which is a lot of fun).

The ability to commandeer a castle is the point of Lineage that was sought to be the most fun when I started to play. Although I was never involved in a siege, I have read many player reports that indicate it is a hearty old time. When one Prince and his pledge would like to take over an existing castle, they form up and declare war on the currently residing pledge. Then the attackers have until sundown to attack and attempt to gain entrance to the main hall, where they must slay the inhabiting Prince/Princess or allow the attacking Prince/Princess to enter the main hall. It won’t be all cream cakes and cookies, though. The residing pledge has the ability to hire mercenaries to help defend the castle, as well as other pledges (for a fee, of course). The castles also come equipped with NPCs (non-player characters) who act as guards and are loyal to whomever controls the building.

The residing pledge has the ability to collect taxes from the people in the towns the castle controls. Raising taxes up to 50 percent of purchasing prices will discourage people from buying items in your town, and could lead to a siege against you to cure the town of your tyranny.

The biggest piece of an online RPG that draws the most attention is the treatment of player killers (PKs). A player killer is an interesting line to walk down in any online persistent world, but if the situations are not handled properly, it can lead to a very imbalanced game and could almost be impossible for new players to even have a chance to level up. While most games discourage player killing, the best way to regulate it was to have a separate server where it couldn’t be done. As of right now Lineage is divided into two servers: Depardieu for the PKing and Ken Rahuel. As always, new players should try the non-PK server first to get a feel for the game, and then move onto the PK server to have some real fun.

Aside from separating the online world into two servers to inhibit unlawful player-killing, NCSoft set in place a scale to detail how lawful or chaotic your character is, and depending on your rating, how the other characters in the world respond to you.

The line of the law is divided into three parts. You begin the game a neutral character, on the side of neither good nor bad. Depending on what actions you take from there, it will determine the way your character progresses in your alignment. Kill lots of monsters and do general good deeds, you will be branded lawful, and should have full range to roam. Kill other players, chickens, dogs, ducks, basically anything you can, you will be branded chaotic, and will have other players and guards biting at your ass to get a piece of you. Every little thing counts and it will either aid or hurt you when it comes down to it. If you are branded chaotic and need to buy supplies, you may not be able to get what you need, because you may not even be able to enter a town with your alignment.

One of the biggest draws to Lineage is the addition of a new executive producer to the project: He goes by the name Richard Garriott (a.k.a. Lord British from the Ultima games). Garriott is helping to develop the game for the American audience and starting in late November he has been leading weekly castle sieges and just having an all-around good time. It was very nice to hear that the Ultima creator’s online persona has found a new place to roam.

The sound to the game was adequate. No online RPGs have been known for dramatic sound, but what they have usually lets them get by. Unfortunately for me, as you will read below, the amount of lag I experienced really played tricks with my sound.

Lineage’s interface doesn’t seem as refined as the rest of the game. I found myself getting lost with it a few times in what exactly I was doing. Akin to Asheron’s Call, you can hot-key equipment and spells for easier access. Your experience is shown in the upper left-hand corner with a percent meter and your level number. Still, the interface, although giving a brash amount of information, seems clunky.

The only major problem I could find with Lineage is the amount of lag I experienced with the game; at some times it was almost unplayable to me. The game moved so slowly, I was very frustrated with what was going on. Half of the time there would be two- to five-second delay from click to motion and would later lead to death if going up against an enemy when the lag set in. I never experienced a problem playing Asheron’s Call in the year that I did play upon that game’s release, so I don’t think it is a problem with the speed of my connection.

Aside from the lag issues and the uninspired interface, Lineage proved to be a very refreshing jolt to a genre that is quickly becoming filled with me-too and copy-cat games. While it remains to be seen if the game can even come close to it’s popularity in Korea, it does prove to be a worthy addition that is able to stand up to the big three of Everquest, Asheron’s Call and Ultima Online and even triumph over them in some aspects with its alignment and castle siege features. While not winning any awards for graphics or severe ingenuity, you can’t really lose by downloading the game for free and paying 15 bucks for a month’s worth of play. Who knows, you might actually get hooked.