Metin2

Metin2 is a fantasy MMORPG developed by Ymir Entertainment and originally released in Korea in 2004. The world is joined as one continent where three factions war for supremacy. Choose from one of five classes and swear your alliegence to one of the three nations, fighting other players for control of the sprawling landscape. Each class, minus the Lycan, can specialize in one of two subclasses, further refining your play style. Engage enemy player in open world PvP, challenge friends to a duel, or choose to display your willingness to fight to anyone in the world. A dynamic combat system lets players choose between a traditional mouse configuration or actively take part in combat by moving around enemies, actively controlling attacks.

Before making your character the game prompts you to ally with one of three empires: Chunjo Kingdom, Shinsoo Kingdom, or Jinno Kingdom. Each one relates to the game’s internal lore, but as a player I had no idea what “Metin Stones” were, so how was I supposed to determine which kingdom is the most dastardly. It’s a poor introduction to a lore, not that many MMO’s emphasize narrative as a way of drawing audiences—see 9Dragons. So, I used Plan B and chose the coolest sounding kingdom, Chunjo Kingdom; it rolls off the tongue.

You’re then prompted to choose between five classes: Warrior, Ninja, Sura, Shaman, or Lycan. I can’t help but find the Wolf-man selection, Lycan, amusing. It doesn't seem to fit. Even if it is an expansion character the animal seems like a developers last-minute addition. Of course, I chose Lycan, determined to roleplay as the fearless hybrid. There is no character customization beyond choosing between gender and one of two body types. And body types really refer to clothing options, not physical attributes. Mentin2 did release in 2004 but even EverQuest had more customization in 1999. But, I’ll accept my inability to immerse myself through my avatar. Perhaps resources were dedicated elsewhere. I named my Lycan “Burt,” eager to grind .

You’re dumped into the game world with little to no direction, beyond having amnesia and the only thing you can remember is to find Myonghorang the Wise. Feeling welcome into the Lycan community I was tasked with slaughtering wildlife—they’ve been acting strange. Movement is traditional with WASD to navigate and right-click to swing the camera. Or, you can left-click a coordinate to move, similar to Ragnarok Online. Running feels excruciatingly slow, as if my avatar is determined to prove Zeno’s syllogism. The tortoise-speed locomotion makes it painful to travel from one NPC to the next. I was tempted to “X” out of the game when instructed to run halfway across the map.

Leveling

Metin2’s grind is brutal. Even leveling from levels two to three is reminiscent of the Poring massacre needed to advance in vanilla Ragnarok Online. And it’s not easy. There’s an implicit expectation that you’re willing to cut down lackadaisical creatures for hours on end, even to advance the quest chain. An early quest asks you to collect a meteorite sample.  Upon attacking the meteorite a legion of rabid animals spawned and surrounded me. With two dozen teeth and claws gashing my character I stood no chance and quickly succumbed to their rage. How am I supposed to handle that many mobs without grinding and only my basic skill? You can’t. You must grind, and love the grind. I recommend throwing on a movie while mindlessly clicking away.

Instead of an experience bar your UI has four orbs in the bottom left-hand corner. When they fill with experience sand you level. An interesting concept is hat every time one orb fills you gain a stat point. So rather than be allotting stats once leveled, they’re awarded periodically. It’s a nice change up that you don’t see too often in MMOs.  But it’s difficult to determine how much experience you’ve accumulated, particularly because the interface is excessively minuscule.

PvP

In its day Metin2 was known for PvP mechanics, but I did not have the opportunity due to the official server’s small population. Before you can test your might you’ll have to grind to level 15. Then you’ll have access to duels that can be requested by challenging another player. Or you can fight for your fellow countrymen and take on players from another kingdom. But losing such a noble cause can result in experience loss if a monster is tagged in combat—seemingly easy to do considering their prevalence. Players can elect to flag themselves for combat in the PvP mode section of options, opening them up to attack by anybody regardless of allegiance. If you’re looking to PvP, I suggest searching for a private server instead of joining the official.

Final Verdict - Fair

Metin2 is far passed its prime, and without a large influence on the market or lasting legacy it's difficult to find much  of the game engaging. While I can appreciate the emphasis on active combat and PvP, the bland environments and lazy mob designs become repetitive and slice through any immersive quality. Metin2 is not unplayable but that doesn't stop it from feeling more like a prototype for another game. As I played I just couldn't wait for it to be over. I don’t recommend Metin2 unless you’ve played before or are looking to join a private server.  I can’t not recommend this game enough.

Minimum system requirements:

Recommended system requirements:

CPU:

Pentium3 1000 MHz

CPU:

Pentium4 1800 MHz

RAM:

512 Mb

RAM:

1024 Mb

GPU:

32MB RAM

GPU:

64MB RAM

DX:

DirectX 9.0

DX:

DirectX 9.0

OS:

Win XP, Win 2000, Win Vista, Win 7

OS:

Win XP, Win 2000, Win Vista, Win 7

Store:

1000 Mb