In the span of a human life, four years doesn’t seem like such a long time. With the average life expectancy for technologically adept cultures hovering in the mid-70s, four years seems like just a blink in the overall scheme of things. But that doesn’t mean things don’t change in that time; in four years you can have several children, elect a new president, or earn a degree.

Massively multiplayer games also change in drastic ways in the span of four years. When I first ventured into Lineage II way back in March of 2004, I was a mere beta tester, loading up my Orc Fighter for the first time to see what this crazy, hectic, PvP-centric title was all about. It was a world chock full of immaturity, gold-sellers, and random players killers (PKers) who got their jollies by killing as many low-level newbies as they could. Let’s just say my initial thoughts on the Lineage II experience weren’t favorable.

However, when NCsoft invited me down to their Austin studio to preview the upcoming expansion to Lineage II, dubbed The First Throne, I put my trials and tribulations aside and sat down to seriously reconsider the game. Even though they had several GMs in the room with us guiding the party through various encounters, I was still impressed with the amount of content that was obviously brand new to the experienced L2 Adena players in the room. The additional dungeons and PvP scenarios were enough to attract my attention and lead me back into L2 for an in-depth, fully realized review of Lineage II: The First Throne.

Upon my initial journey into the Kamael expansion back in December, I was surprised and pleased with the number of additions that the developers have made to the foundation of the Lineage 2 Adena experience. Beyond simply creating a solid tutorial for players to enjoy, the developers added a number of additional “newbie friendly” mechanics and features to help players begin their journeys in the land of the First Throne. After pounding my way through the first few levels of the game, I opted to take a short break, gain a few more levels, and come back to whip up the in-depth review of Lineage II.