5 Reasons Why you must Play Lineage 2 Revolution on Bluestacks
The recent release of Lineage 2 Revolution, the latest in the MMORPG genre by Netmarble, feels like a fabulous early holiday present for all of us gamers out there. What better way to kick off the holiday season?
While you get your hands on the game and prepare for the “Revolution”, here’s a short guide to help you make an informed choice about the Best Way to play this game, to make the most out of it.
As some of you may already know, Bluestacks is an emulator designed for running Android apps/games on your PC/laptop.
Why use something like that when you’re already playing Lineage 2: Revolution on your mobile device, you ask.
Because playing Lineage 2 Revolution on PC with Bluestacks offers several advantages that you simply won’t have elsewhere. It delivers a truly unmatched game-play experience giving Bluestacks players an edge over competitors in combat with increased combat speed and game-play performance.
Read on to find out 5 ways in which Bluestacks makes game-play better.
It’s all in how you’re configured depending on your hardware. Better hardware of course provides better results. But gamers of all types want their games running as smooth as possible at all times even with their current hardware. Lineage 2: Revolution is a large game by mobile standards. Even though it can run smoothly on a mobile device, gamers would want more available to them at the same time. Bluestacks is built to provide far more than your mobile device ever could. Bluestacks is rigged to take advantage of your PC hardware as much as it can in two ways:
1. Virtualization
Virtualization (VT) was created as a booster for those running virtual environments, which are software setups that allow you to run software on your existing hardware regardless of the operating system you’re using. That’s exactly what Bluestacks is, a virtual environment. So, with an emulator such as Bluestacks, there’s already a built-in boost intended specifically for it. The funny part is, there are many gamers out there currently running VT on their PC/laptop without even realizing it!!
The bad news is, not everyone’s PC hardware supports VT. So, you have to FIRST find out IF your hardware supports it.
To find out, you can either check the Bluestacks Support site for the VT setup guide. Either method would let you know quickly!! If your hardware supports VT, simply enable it in your BIOS. Unfortunately for mobile devices, there isn’t such a feature in the hardware.
If your hardware does not support VT, do not worry, you’re NOT entirely lost, you’ll see other nice boosting options below.
2. Bluestacks Settings
When you start Bluestacks, there’s a Down Arrow button in the upper right corner of the Bluestacks screen (NOT the game screens). You’ll find the Bluestacks Settings you can adjust in there and very possibly get some nice performance boosts. Again, much of this WILL depend on your hardware.
The good news is that it really doesn’t take THAT much hardware. Even a computer using a built-in video card can easily get Lineage 2: Revolution running smoothly and pretty!!
The above screenshot is showing the Bluestacks Display settings. You can adjust the resolution and DPI pretty much all you like. Then restart Lineage 2: Revolution to see if the setting adjustment helped you. The Custom size screen setting can help with performance, screenshots, and video recordings. It just depends on what all you needed at the time. Keep in mind that the higher resolutions make for much bigger file sizes when it comes to screenshots. You’re simply not going to be easily changing screen resolutions on a mobile device!!
In the Engine settings, you can adjust the graphics mode. The mode is mostly determined by any and all screen recording and/or streaming needs. You’d want DirectX for recording and/or streaming purposes. Mobile devices won’t offer you the same options. You can adjust the number of cores Bluestacks will use during each session. Compared to a mobile device, the games will use up everything they can get their hands on!! Good luck trying to adjust the amount of memory anything uses on a mobile device as shown in the above screenshot. Of course, RESTART THE ENGINE after you made changes.
It’s the combination of VT and the Bluestacks Settings that’ll offer up game boosts before you even start Lineage 2: Revolution.
3. Bluestacks Key Mapping: Default and Option for Customization
When you’re playing Lineage 2: Revolution, you’ll quickly notice there’re lots of controls to deal with. The cool part is, Bluestacks already has a default keymap setup for the game right out of the installation. A key map is a setup that simulates taps on the screen within the emulator. For example, if you set the “J” key directly over a spell button, when you press the “J” key on your keyboard, Bluestacks will simulate a tap on that screenshot and you’ll activate the spell. You’re clearly not going to tap your monitor is why!!
Looks a bit confusing, doesn’t it?!!
Truth is that it’s all too easy to setup and use. Click the keyboard icon in the bottom middle + right area of the Bluestacks screen. You’ll see that the default keymap is already in place.
You can change that AND add to it all you like!! Simply click the “X” to remove any key or specific control at any time. Click anywhere on the screen to place another keymap icon on that spot. You’ll see it as an empty box. You can move the keymap to any location on the screen. Press the key you want to be mapped to that location. When you’re done, click the Save button. Click the “X” button to cancel changes. There’s also a built-in “D-Pad” control you can simply place. It does work with multiple key pressing on your keyboard. This helps the diagonal directional game movement of Lineage 2: Revolution.
That’s nice!! How exactly does that help me??
The key mapper built into Bluestacks offers help in 2 ways. The first being that you can place key maps anywhere and assign your keyboard keys all you like. In short, you now have fully customizable controls. To add to the effect, your mouse is the main controller for mobile games, in general, played in Bluestacks. This combination of mouse and keyboard usage alone offers a more “true blue” MMORPG experience compared to a mobile device.
The second help it offers is in terms of play accuracy and speed. Many players are simply much more comfortable playing on a keyboard and mouse combination compared to playing on a mobile device. There’s no denying the fact that a comfy player is usually a quick one. Give him a gaming keyboard and/or gaming mouse and he becomes invincible. Those things were built to be fast and incredibly responsive. They were also built to “take the beatings” (extra wear and tear from usage) you wouldn’t want on your mobile device!!
4. Multi-instance to run multiple accounts: How does that help in an MMORPG?
Bluestacks has a nifty feature which allows running multiple instances of the same game at the same time. The trick to doing this is to make sure you’re doing so with multiple accounts. In an MMORPG like this, one has so many different choices in terms of the characters that one can play with, the Bluestacks Multi-instance feature comes in handy here.
How does it work?
There’s a Multi-instance button in the bottom right corner in the My Apps section of Bluestacks. You can configure a few aspects and even set a desktop icon from the Multi-instance Settings. Each “copy” of Lineage 2: Revolution will run in each Bluestacks instance as you can see in the above screenshot. Once you have the game running in each instance, you simply use one for your main account and the other with another account. Place the login details for each account in the Bluestacks Android Settings as you would have the first time you installed Bluestacks. Then you can simply switch instances to control each character.
How does that help?
Most MMORPG players would know that easily running multiple instances of their favorite game(s) is an absolutely awesome ability. You’d gain benefits towards boosting/leveling other characters (yours mostly), hunting (more inventory space), party dungeons and parties in general, trying out other characters, and your very own guild loaded with members you can always rely on!! Since they’re all the same person, you, you only have yourself to thank for successes and/or failures!!
If any of the Multi instance benefits mentioned above have to be explained to you, you clearly have a lot more learning to do concerning MMORPGs!! The exceptional part of all this is that Bluestacks did mobile MMORPG players a massive favor when they added that feature. Yes, it comes in very handy for Lineage 2: Revolution. However, it wasn’t just for that game alone!! The list of mobile MMORPGs is huge. The potential of that feature “went nuclear” vastly more than what most would give it credit for. It was never just “single benefit minded” even from the start!!
5. Graphics Quality
The cold hard truth is that your mobile device can’t compare graphically to what a PC/laptop can do. Look at 2 of the strongest mobile GPUs currently available; the PowerVR GT7XT Series (iOS) and the Nvidia Tegra X1 (Android). In comparisons, either one is only a start. It’s because your PC/laptop could very well already have a built-in video card and a much stronger extra video card. There are many situations where gamers are using both at the same time. When working in conjunction, this seriously boosts the performance of games. As highlighted above, Bluestacks lets you choose display settings to suit your particular PC hardware and hence optimizes game display appropriately.
That’s nice!! But I only have a built-in video card. What now?!!
Other than the level at the time, does the above screenshot look ugly?!! This screenshot is from Lineage 2: Revolution played on a PC with a built-in video card. The game is 100% no slouch in the graphics department. But yet, with just 2 settings in game lowered to “HIGH” rather than “BEST”, the game runs smoothly.
So, What’s the final word?
Lineage 2 Revolution being an MMORPG, has a massive set of controls and options that make it difficult for the serious gamer to get the most out of the game on a mobile screen. Bluestacks offers a bunch of amazing features currently not available elsewhere, making it the undisputed best choice for playing Lineage Revolution 2 on PC. Don’t believe our word, experience it on your own!
