Slashdot Mirror
Lord of the Rings Online Review
The circle is now complete. With Turbine's release of Lord of the Rings Online: The Shadows of Angmar (LOTRO), the Massively Mutliplayer game figuratively eats the tail of its originator in ouroboros-like fashion. Tolkien's work begat Dungeons and Dragons, the PC gaming market, CRPGs, and finally Massive games, and last month's release of LOTRO beautifully reconnects the future with the past. Replacing dice-wielding friends around a table has even, wonder of wonders, been done well. Polished gameplay and cutting-edge graphics abound; In direct contrast to the lackluster response to Turbine's other MMOG, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online has had an overwhelmingly positive reaction from fans. Read on for my notes from the experience of trying on Hobbit feet for a month, and a few words about why LOTRO's quality is notable and highly encouraging.
It's telling, and more than a little disconcerting, to note that every Massively Multiplayer game launched since WoW has had a very hard time garnering attention from traditional Massive gamers. Some expansions have worked out well, of course, and Guild Wars has succeeded by dodging the barrier of a monthly fee completely. New AAA MMOGs, though, have been grimly received. Some of the biggest games launched since WoW include: The Matrix Online, ArchLord, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Auto Assault, and Vanguard. Though each of these titles offers some interesting gameplay elements, none of them have managed to capture even a noticeable percentage of the WoW-playing audience.
The simple fact, then, that Lord of the Rings Online is a polished, competently executed, and genuinely fun Massively Multiplayer experience is not to be taken lightly. Adequacy should not be confused with disappointment. LOTRO is, literally, the first brand-new MMOG worth playing since World of Warcraft. As depressing as that is to contemplate, LOTRO's success is great news for fans of the books and movies; no one is turning in their grave as a result of this game's launch.
In the broadest sense, LOTRO compares favorably to World of Warcraft because it borrowed many components from the current king of the genre. LOTRO has adapted the general 'feel' of WoW's gameplay to a wholly new setting and experience. The result is a MMOG that will be extremely intuitive to anyone who has played other Massive games. Characters are chosen from a selection of classes and races, spend most of their time completing quests, fight opponents by selecting class abilities from a hotbar, and can band together with other players to take on challenges too dangerous to solo. The game can primarily be played by yourself, but common chat channels called Fellowships ensure that players looking for more long-term social commitments can achieve their goals. It's a sign of the times that WoW's success almost seems to demand some level of imitation from other products to be competitive. It should be stressed, though, that LOTRO is not just a poor man's WoW. This is no cheap knock-off, and the game is categorically not trying to be World of Warcraft. It would be more accurate to say that Turbine has recognized quality, and attempted to ensure that their own product lives up to expectations.
What separates LOTRO from the crowd, the thing that Turbine has sharpened and honed to cut players (at least temporarily) away from other games, is the Middle Earth license. The extraordinary care that the designers have taken to place players into Middle Earth is apparent in every aspect of the game. As in other titles set during the Rings trilogy, Turbine has wisely kept you fairly well removed from the main plot of the books. By following quests scattered throughout the world, your character dances around and through the journey of the One Ring. Though you can speak with every member of the Fellowship at some point in your travels, you are not asked to shoulder Frodo's burden. Instead, your character is woven deeply efforts of the free peoples to aid the ring-bearer and repel the forces of Mordor. The usual kill-it and fed-ex quests dot the land, and wouldn't look out of place in any other game. The sharp difference is that Turbine has leveraged Tolkien's amazing world-building efforts to make you actually care about what you're doing. Ranging from the practical (slaying goblins to keep the townspeople safe) to the ridiculous (running pies across the shire to spoil the Sackville-Baggins' party), quest text is remarkably well written. If you read and enjoyed the books, you're going to quickly find yourself pausing to read the tales these quests tell.
This pause, the interest in the lives of the NPCs, results in a different pace than you might be used to in other Massive games. It's, of course, an intrinsic part of the gameplay that you can set your own pace in a Massively Multiplayer game. That said many games compel you to rush everywhere, getting as much done as quickly as possible, playing for long stretches at a time to grind to the higher levels. LOTRO just doesn't have that vibe. Certainly, you can churn through the content as fast or slow as you'd like. There were max-level characters on the game servers within a week or two of the game's launch. For those with more appetite for story, or those grown tired of that pace in other online games, the breathtaking graphics and well-told tales encourage stopping to smell the roses. There's also just no compelling reason to grind your way to max-level in this game. Right now a big chunk of highest-level content is still in development, and for a Massively Multiplayer game LOTRO is quite reasonably priced. Anecdotal evidence from my own experiences and the experiences of other players indicates that Lord of the Rings Online is the kind of game that is most fun to play in fits and spurts. A few hours one day, a few hours the next ... it's so much fun running around the Shire, it's easy to see why a player would be in no rush to leave the lower levels.
Another element that encourages lingering rather that rushing, and can help assuage the hardcore players that might otherwise grumble, are the deeds. Deeds are a unique element to Lord of the Rings Online, a kind of achievement system somewhat reminiscent of those earned on the Xbox 360. They're discovered by doing the act the deed requires for the first time; for example, many require a certain number of monsters to be slain. The first time you kill a wolf in the Shire, your UI notes that you've begun work on the 'Wolf Slayer' deed. This can just be a blind grind-fest, if you're so inclined, but players have found that most deeds can be accomplished simply by going about their normal business of questing and traveling. Killing wolves as you encounter them in your travels eventually results in the completion of that deed, without needing to ruin your play experience with senseless repetition. Instead of Xbox Live gamerpoints, deeds earn your character two things: titles and virtues. Titles are simply that, strings that can be added on to your name. Completing the Wolf Slayer deed, for example, nets you the 'Fur Cutter' title. It's a simple customization, but the large number of deeds in the game allows for players to represent themselves in a myriad of different ways.
Virtues are much more important. Each completed deed gives you access to a virtue, an insubstantial descriptor that modifies your character's game statistics. As an example, completion of the Wolf Slayer deed earns the 'Discipline' virtue. Discipline increases melee damage and your character's resistance to injury. Each virtue modifies different character abilities and statistics, and are useful in different situations. A character's functionality can be changed dramatically just by swapping out what virtues they have slotted. It encourages differentiation between members of the same class, and a few wisely-chosen virtues can make the difference between victory and defeat.
Deeds aren't the only unique element LOTRO offers. The game's character classes are a nice tweak on the normal 'tank/mage/cleric' trinity that have been the standard in fantasy MMOs since EverQuest. While the basic party roles are all there, their Middle Earth wrapping pleasantly muddies the waters. The main Damage Per Second (DPS) class in the game, for example, is the Burglar, a rogue-type character. The character you'd expect to be most like the blaster/mage is the Loremaster, but he fulfills more of a crowd control role. He also has some healing skills, as do several other classes. The Minstrel is the primary healing class, but with multiple classes having the ability to heal it's not critical to ensure a Minstrel is in every party. This 'spreading the load' approach also allows Minstrels themselves to be a more front-line combatant than any priest or healer is in other games Their songs do damage to enemies, as well as providing short-term buffs for team-mates. Though for the most part these are all familiar roles in new packages, they 'feel' differently enough to provide a sense of novelty for veterans and new players alike.
Crafting within the game is well done, but simply doesn't feel as though it was made huge priority. You're forced to choose from one of three crafting classes, separate from your combat class. Each class has three vocations it covers, allowing for slightly more variety than in other games. While most of these crafts are par for the course, there are a few vocations that tweak things a bit. Farming, for example, is an actual crafting element in the game. You plant seeds, harvest crops, and sell them to other players; in Beta it was the best way to make money, and resulted in more than a few obvious jokes. There is also a Scholar vocation that has players collecting pieces of ancient wisdom together to make scrolls and potions. For the most part, though, crafting in Lord of the Rings Online is 'merely' competently executed. New players aren't introduced to the fundamentals of crafting explicitly enough before they're forced to make a choice, and after a choice is made quest support for crafting-friendly players can be a bit slack at low levels.
Merely 'okay' crafting, aside, the game world really does have an overall very high level of quality. Just the same, Lord of the Rings Online is not perfect. At launch, there are a number of complaints that users have grappled with. The single most disappointing game element has to be the game's UI. Though it is functional, that's about the only thing that can be said in its favour. LOTRO's UI features dull, uninformative icons and a general lack of polish. It may seem like a minor quibble but set against the general high level of quality throughout the rest of the game, and compared (as always) to WoW, it's quite a glaring oversight.
Early in the launch window as we are, there have been numerous complaints by players about the balance of the game's economy. While items seem well powered for their levels, and obtaining gear is a fairly well-tuned process, the costs associated with purchasing new abilities is astronomical. It's not out of the ordinary for a single new ability (obtainable from a trainer at a newly-achieved level) to cost half or more of the coin you have on-hand. Mileage will vary from player to player, of course, as some people place a higher emphasis on crafting and selling than others. The general consensus, just the same, seems to be that ability costs could use a revisit.
Given the respect for the setting it's another minor quibble, but the lack of any sort of tie-in to the Peter Jackson helmed movies is, in my mind, a lapse. Obviously, the license for that content is separate from the license that Turbine is working off of, and as such there's no reason to expect Elijah Woods or Hugo Weaving to make an appearance in the gameworld. Just the same, it's hard to listen to the kinda-generic fantasy music that greets you at login and not yearn for Howard Shore's stirring theme. Perhaps this might be a possibility in the future; that's one of the many beautiful things about the Massive genre - things are always changing.
One thing that doesn't need changing, though, are Lord of the Rings Online's simply stunning graphics. Years from now the choice to go photo-realistic will make the game look horribly dated, all while World of Warcraft's stylized vision remains fresh and crisp. In the meantime, LOTRO offers a simply jaw-droppingly beautiful online experience. EverQuest 2's attempt at realistic graphics in an online game have resulted in goofily appealing characters, but they don't quite capture what I think the game was going for. Middle Earth, on the other hand, is insanely beautiful. The first time you reach a high point in the Shire it is completely worth it to stop, turn your settings all the way up, and just stare across the fields. While the story wraps you into the gameworld intellectually, LOTRO's graphical presentation brings that world to life on a visceral level; New Zealand has nothing on that place.
For the Massive gamer tired of endlessly played options, or the Tolkien fan disappointed with the lore content in Battle For Middle Earth II, Lord of the Rings Online is the perfect balm. While it doesn't try to move the genre forward in any readily appreciable ways, LOTRO is such a well-crafted experience that it's hard not to enjoy yourself. For some, their time in Middle Earth will be just a vacation from other online worlds. For others, though, this may just be the game you've been waiting for. A slower pace, a beautiful presentation, and a gripping story are all readied and waiting just a bit down the road.
- Title: Lord of the Rings Online: The Shadows of Angmar
- Publisher: Midway
- Developer: Turbine Inc.
- System: PC
- Genre: Massively Multiplayer Online Game
- Score: 4/5 - This game is above average, and excels in the genre it supports. A classic for the genre, likely to be a part of a genre fan's collection, and well worth a look for every gamer.
It's telling, and more than a little disconcerting, to note that every Massively Multiplayer game launched since WoW has had a very hard time garnering attention from traditional Massive gamers. Some expansions have worked out well, of course, and Guild Wars has succeeded by dodging the barrier of a monthly fee completely. New AAA MMOGs, though, have been grimly received. Some of the biggest games launched since WoW include: The Matrix Online, ArchLord, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Auto Assault, and Vanguard. Though each of these titles offers some interesting gameplay elements, none of them have managed to capture even a noticeable percentage of the WoW-playing audience.
The simple fact, then, that Lord of the Rings Online is a polished, competently executed, and genuinely fun Massively Multiplayer experience is not to be taken lightly. Adequacy should not be confused with disappointment. LOTRO is, literally, the first brand-new MMOG worth playing since World of Warcraft. As depressing as that is to contemplate, LOTRO's success is great news for fans of the books and movies; no one is turning in their grave as a result of this game's launch.
In the broadest sense, LOTRO compares favorably to World of Warcraft because it borrowed many components from the current king of the genre. LOTRO has adapted the general 'feel' of WoW's gameplay to a wholly new setting and experience. The result is a MMOG that will be extremely intuitive to anyone who has played other Massive games. Characters are chosen from a selection of classes and races, spend most of their time completing quests, fight opponents by selecting class abilities from a hotbar, and can band together with other players to take on challenges too dangerous to solo. The game can primarily be played by yourself, but common chat channels called Fellowships ensure that players looking for more long-term social commitments can achieve their goals. It's a sign of the times that WoW's success almost seems to demand some level of imitation from other products to be competitive. It should be stressed, though, that LOTRO is not just a poor man's WoW. This is no cheap knock-off, and the game is categorically not trying to be World of Warcraft. It would be more accurate to say that Turbine has recognized quality, and attempted to ensure that their own product lives up to expectations.
What separates LOTRO from the crowd, the thing that Turbine has sharpened and honed to cut players (at least temporarily) away from other games, is the Middle Earth license. The extraordinary care that the designers have taken to place players into Middle Earth is apparent in every aspect of the game. As in other titles set during the Rings trilogy, Turbine has wisely kept you fairly well removed from the main plot of the books. By following quests scattered throughout the world, your character dances around and through the journey of the One Ring. Though you can speak with every member of the Fellowship at some point in your travels, you are not asked to shoulder Frodo's burden. Instead, your character is woven deeply efforts of the free peoples to aid the ring-bearer and repel the forces of Mordor. The usual kill-it and fed-ex quests dot the land, and wouldn't look out of place in any other game. The sharp difference is that Turbine has leveraged Tolkien's amazing world-building efforts to make you actually care about what you're doing. Ranging from the practical (slaying goblins to keep the townspeople safe) to the ridiculous (running pies across the shire to spoil the Sackville-Baggins' party), quest text is remarkably well written. If you read and enjoyed the books, you're going to quickly find yourself pausing to read the tales these quests tell.
This pause, the interest in the lives of the NPCs, results in a different pace than you might be used to in other Massive games. It's, of course, an intrinsic part of the gameplay that you can set your own pace in a Massively Multiplayer game. That said many games compel you to rush everywhere, getting as much done as quickly as possible, playing for long stretches at a time to grind to the higher levels. LOTRO just doesn't have that vibe. Certainly, you can churn through the content as fast or slow as you'd like. There were max-level characters on the game servers within a week or two of the game's launch. For those with more appetite for story, or those grown tired of that pace in other online games, the breathtaking graphics and well-told tales encourage stopping to smell the roses. There's also just no compelling reason to grind your way to max-level in this game. Right now a big chunk of highest-level content is still in development, and for a Massively Multiplayer game LOTRO is quite reasonably priced. Anecdotal evidence from my own experiences and the experiences of other players indicates that Lord of the Rings Online is the kind of game that is most fun to play in fits and spurts. A few hours one day, a few hours the next ... it's so much fun running around the Shire, it's easy to see why a player would be in no rush to leave the lower levels.
Another element that encourages lingering rather that rushing, and can help assuage the hardcore players that might otherwise grumble, are the deeds. Deeds are a unique element to Lord of the Rings Online, a kind of achievement system somewhat reminiscent of those earned on the Xbox 360. They're discovered by doing the act the deed requires for the first time; for example, many require a certain number of monsters to be slain. The first time you kill a wolf in the Shire, your UI notes that you've begun work on the 'Wolf Slayer' deed. This can just be a blind grind-fest, if you're so inclined, but players have found that most deeds can be accomplished simply by going about their normal business of questing and traveling. Killing wolves as you encounter them in your travels eventually results in the completion of that deed, without needing to ruin your play experience with senseless repetition. Instead of Xbox Live gamerpoints, deeds earn your character two things: titles and virtues. Titles are simply that, strings that can be added on to your name. Completing the Wolf Slayer deed, for example, nets you the 'Fur Cutter' title. It's a simple customization, but the large number of deeds in the game allows for players to represent themselves in a myriad of different ways.
Virtues are much more important. Each completed deed gives you access to a virtue, an insubstantial descriptor that modifies your character's game statistics. As an example, completion of the Wolf Slayer deed earns the 'Discipline' virtue. Discipline increases melee damage and your character's resistance to injury. Each virtue modifies different character abilities and statistics, and are useful in different situations. A character's functionality can be changed dramatically just by swapping out what virtues they have slotted. It encourages differentiation between members of the same class, and a few wisely-chosen virtues can make the difference between victory and defeat.
Deeds aren't the only unique element LOTRO offers. The game's character classes are a nice tweak on the normal 'tank/mage/cleric' trinity that have been the standard in fantasy MMOs since EverQuest. While the basic party roles are all there, their Middle Earth wrapping pleasantly muddies the waters. The main Damage Per Second (DPS) class in the game, for example, is the Burglar, a rogue-type character. The character you'd expect to be most like the blaster/mage is the Loremaster, but he fulfills more of a crowd control role. He also has some healing skills, as do several other classes. The Minstrel is the primary healing class, but with multiple classes having the ability to heal it's not critical to ensure a Minstrel is in every party. This 'spreading the load' approach also allows Minstrels themselves to be a more front-line combatant than any priest or healer is in other games Their songs do damage to enemies, as well as providing short-term buffs for team-mates. Though for the most part these are all familiar roles in new packages, they 'feel' differently enough to provide a sense of novelty for veterans and new players alike.
Crafting within the game is well done, but simply doesn't feel as though it was made huge priority. You're forced to choose from one of three crafting classes, separate from your combat class. Each class has three vocations it covers, allowing for slightly more variety than in other games. While most of these crafts are par for the course, there are a few vocations that tweak things a bit. Farming, for example, is an actual crafting element in the game. You plant seeds, harvest crops, and sell them to other players; in Beta it was the best way to make money, and resulted in more than a few obvious jokes. There is also a Scholar vocation that has players collecting pieces of ancient wisdom together to make scrolls and potions. For the most part, though, crafting in Lord of the Rings Online is 'merely' competently executed. New players aren't introduced to the fundamentals of crafting explicitly enough before they're forced to make a choice, and after a choice is made quest support for crafting-friendly players can be a bit slack at low levels.
Merely 'okay' crafting, aside, the game world really does have an overall very high level of quality. Just the same, Lord of the Rings Online is not perfect. At launch, there are a number of complaints that users have grappled with. The single most disappointing game element has to be the game's UI. Though it is functional, that's about the only thing that can be said in its favour. LOTRO's UI features dull, uninformative icons and a general lack of polish. It may seem like a minor quibble but set against the general high level of quality throughout the rest of the game, and compared (as always) to WoW, it's quite a glaring oversight.
Early in the launch window as we are, there have been numerous complaints by players about the balance of the game's economy. While items seem well powered for their levels, and obtaining gear is a fairly well-tuned process, the costs associated with purchasing new abilities is astronomical. It's not out of the ordinary for a single new ability (obtainable from a trainer at a newly-achieved level) to cost half or more of the coin you have on-hand. Mileage will vary from player to player, of course, as some people place a higher emphasis on crafting and selling than others. The general consensus, just the same, seems to be that ability costs could use a revisit.
Given the respect for the setting it's another minor quibble, but the lack of any sort of tie-in to the Peter Jackson helmed movies is, in my mind, a lapse. Obviously, the license for that content is separate from the license that Turbine is working off of, and as such there's no reason to expect Elijah Woods or Hugo Weaving to make an appearance in the gameworld. Just the same, it's hard to listen to the kinda-generic fantasy music that greets you at login and not yearn for Howard Shore's stirring theme. Perhaps this might be a possibility in the future; that's one of the many beautiful things about the Massive genre - things are always changing.
One thing that doesn't need changing, though, are Lord of the Rings Online's simply stunning graphics. Years from now the choice to go photo-realistic will make the game look horribly dated, all while World of Warcraft's stylized vision remains fresh and crisp. In the meantime, LOTRO offers a simply jaw-droppingly beautiful online experience. EverQuest 2's attempt at realistic graphics in an online game have resulted in goofily appealing characters, but they don't quite capture what I think the game was going for. Middle Earth, on the other hand, is insanely beautiful. The first time you reach a high point in the Shire it is completely worth it to stop, turn your settings all the way up, and just stare across the fields. While the story wraps you into the gameworld intellectually, LOTRO's graphical presentation brings that world to life on a visceral level; New Zealand has nothing on that place.
For the Massive gamer tired of endlessly played options, or the Tolkien fan disappointed with the lore content in Battle For Middle Earth II, Lord of the Rings Online is the perfect balm. While it doesn't try to move the genre forward in any readily appreciable ways, LOTRO is such a well-crafted experience that it's hard not to enjoy yourself. For some, their time in Middle Earth will be just a vacation from other online worlds. For others, though, this may just be the game you've been waiting for. A slower pace, a beautiful presentation, and a gripping story are all readied and waiting just a bit down the road.
That sounds like a cliche that should have been included in this week's poll
I'm all like OMG, WTF?
I purchased it, and spent a weekend trying to get into it.
Frankly, I was really disappointed. The combat system sucks - it actually has a window that says things like "You hit the wolf for two points of damage". It felt like going back in time to the 80's.
And then the graphics might be pretty, but there is not physics system, or, believe it or not, collision detection. You can actually walk through people, even when you are fighting them.
And the tasks suck. Spending half an hour searching for wild flowers is not my idea of fun.
And although the world is big, you can't really explore it - you can't open doors unless they are part of the plot, you can't smash crates or barrels or whatever to see what is inside them, you even can't fight the NPCs or animals unless it is part of the plot.
Personally I don't think it is "polished gameplay" if you try, for instance, trying to do something like shoot a sheep with your crossbow only to receive an error message - yes, really! an error message saying something like "disallowed action".
Sorry but personally I expected much more. It is very pretty though!
...you are not carrying that item."
These stories are free but worth money.
The Middle Earth License is written in Elvish so you have no idea what you are agreeing to in the EULA.
No OSX support, no Linux support. Guess I'm sticking with Warcraft for the time being.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
no one is turning in their grave as a result of this game's launch.
Except for JRRT you mean.
I can't wait to be duel-spammed at Tom Bombadil's house....
As a purist who first ventured on to news groups nearly 20 years ago for the simple fact of discussing with other fans the work of Tolkien, I find an official game in the MMOG genre appauling.
I am sure this will get labeled flamebait or troll, but it was one thing when everyone was ripping on the professor and giving no credit. This is kicking in the front door. Whereas some art can be separated from the creator, this simply isn't so with the work of JRRT. The two are one IMO, and homage should be paid. Whereas the movies did work, there was damage done by leaving out such things as Bombadil, and if you don't understand that, then you are not a true fan.
Thus the continued cheapening of Arda continues, but, it can't be any worse than the Frodo in the happy meal my daughter got during the movie releases. Ah, thick irony....
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
If so, then I (a mac guy) am going to buy a windows PC just so I can play this game... and start a guild whose sole purpose is to hunt down and destroy Tom Bombadil, as often as is necessary.
More music, fewer hits
"New AAA MMOGs, though, have been grimly received. Some of the biggest games launched since WoW include: The Matrix Online, ArchLord, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Auto Assault, and Vanguard."
Note: if you consider that list to represent "AAA" MMOGs, your review holds considerably less weight than, say, an article by JonKatz.
Sounds pretty much like a slightly more developed version of the badge system in Co(H/V) (Also seen in a few other MMO's as well, I believe), so I'd hardly call it unique.
There will be lots of hate posts from people that haven't tried the game. Or that just don't like or "get" Tolkein. But, if you love the books, the game is definately worth picking up and giving a spin. It is as if Middle Earth has been brought to life by people that really cared to get it right. You'll actually find yourself reading the quests. Yes the user interface is cluncky, but not that bad. The game isn't perfect, but it was a huge surprise to me how good it is. My one concern is that it wont have sticking power. It may end up being a lovely flash in the pan. It all depends upon how, what, and when content is added.
I realize people want to know "should I shell out my hard earned cash for this?" However, reviewing a game that can change every other month and coming to one conclusion (yes/no) is ridiculous at best.
While it might be pretty (or as others have pointed out, have a very limited combat system), all of these things can change very quickly.
So, let us take for example, that it has a really strong story line: what is to say this continues next month when thousands of 13-15 yr olds coming charging in and act like asses (much like what happened with WoW)? Suddenly the story begins to slide tremendously.
Or Asheron's Call is another example. I remember signing up to Asheron's Call's beta test and enjoying it immensely (the Otholoi story was quite interesting). However, as time went on, the story was down right pathetic, and monthly updates were mostly patches and nerfs. Story went by the wayside.
I would say, whatever you read in reviews (or hell, even if you aren't going to read any reviews) don't charge into this game until it matures a little. Since, much like Apple's early adopters, you usually get a nerfed product in the end. Wait until you can see whether the devs will continue the strong and fix up the weak stuff.
By the way, last I head, this game was being published by EA, don't we hate them? Or were we always at peace with Eurasia?
"Deeds are a unique element to Lord of the Rings Online, a kind of achievement system somewhat reminiscent of those earned on the Xbox 360."
I can only assume that the reviewer has never heard of City of Heroes (it's been three years, better catch up). Deeds = Badges in CoH, Virtues = Accolades, although they seem to be putting more emphasis on character progress with these latter ones in LOTRO, it's still a pretty similar system. On a similar note, the combat being "borrowed from WoW" is, according to the description, pretty similar to what we've been seeing for the last half a decade or so. The Healer/Tank/DPS not being strict, or being spread out isn't unique to LOTR either.
Not that I'm specially saying that CoH is 'teh bestest evur!1' or anything like that, it's just what I'm more familiar with, but I'd like of people who do these reviews in a sort of professional manner stopped thinking that WoW is the only thing out there. In number of players, yeah, it dwarfs much of the competition, but in terms of gameplay and design there's a wide world out there, look into it before giving 'expert opinions'.
With the brand name power of LOTR, you would think this would be able to strongly compete, but I think WoW just has too large of a player base and too much power in the MMORPG genre to really need to deal with losing a LARGE number of players. I mean, there are a ton of WoW players who are becoming weary after 2 years and looking for something new and might move on to a different game, but LOTR Online isn't going to be the WoW killer.
With more and more MMORPG games coming into the market, and the quality of these games getting better and better, it's just a matter of time until a game comes along that will have enough appeal to give WoW some trouble. Chances are players will start leaving slowly for other games (most likely after a major patch release), rejoining the real world, etc, but Blizzard's time will come soon enough and chances are they will be their own downfall.
File Deletion is Murder.
Deeds are a unique element to Lord of the Rings Online, a kind of achievement system somewhat reminiscent of those earned on the Xbox 360. They're discovered by doing the act the deed requires for the first time; for example, many require a certain number of monsters to be slain. The first time you kill a wolf in the Shire, your UI notes that you've begun work on the 'Wolf Slayer' deed.
Deeds are interesting but hardly unique. The MMORPG that captured the spirit of deeds best was "City of Heroes". Even before Xbox 360, CoH allowed your hero to have cool titles. By defeating enough specific mobs or visiting a string of significant locations, even your lowliest characters could have cool titles such as "Dark Mystic" and such. If you were a lowly level ten superhero, you can pass by a unique location and collect a cool badge to tack on to your name. I think the badge/deed system is particularly good for retaining low level characters and for bored high level players.
I would love to see it. But I gave up MS a few years ago and mac it. So, I am stuck with mac only games since I am not going back to bootcamp.
... I love Tolkien, would love to have tried it. I just wish more ports to mac happened. Some companies make the effort. Some dont. :( I wonder just how many mac users are needed to see games on macs nearly as often as they are on pc's.
Luckily, Blizzard takes mac gamers seriously. And others do port here and there. And my mac experience has been very positive overall so I am done with MS. Period.
What is my point? Not sure
I guess I will have to suck it up like with Oblivion and others. Not the worst loss for sure, but meh anyway.
Like World of Warcraft, only brown. With a franchise that has had so much material created for it, there's no excuse for art direction this abysmal.
(Too lazy to dig up what my password is, as I haven't posted here in years...)
/music, they can begin playing. Number 1-8 play the appropriate note, while ctrl-# plays a flat version, and shift-# goes up an octave.
Zonk mentions that he misses Howard Shore's sweeping stirring score. He did not, however, mention the in-game music system, which is admittedly limited now but will be expanded with the June update. Starting at level 5, players can purchase the ability to use a lute or clarinet, and by equipping an instrument and typing
If you want to play the Shire theme, equip a lute, and plunk out 123 5 3 2 1, 356 8543 432.
One of the highlights of the game for me, so far, was after four of us defeated a Mountain Troll, I started a campfire, we all pulled out our instruments, and played a resounding round of Row, Row, Row Your Boat. (1, 1, 123, 32345, 888 555 333 111 54321)
You tell me that the Fellowship didn't really do that on Weathertop. Go on, try to convince me.
Why? LoTR predates the movie by quite a bit, and I'm guessing that the market for this game is more the geeky market, than people who first think of Elija Woods when they think of Frodo. I'm rather glad that it isn't a movie tie in, to be honest, since I still don't feel that the movies were the best representation of Tolkein's works, since they were completely (and grudgingly unnecessarily) lacking in nuance. People coming to the game, with mostly experience from the movie, would be disappointed, and wonder what all that wretched "back story" is.
It is an interesting commentary on something or another, though, that its setting mentioned primarily as parity with with movie, and not with the books, or the rest of the canon. I would care more about little glimpses of events from the Similarian, and little snippets from Lost Tales, etc... It would add more context for me, than having Vigo Mortenson voice Strider.
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
I completely disagree with this review. To me, LOTRO is a poor man's WoW. I find the graphics to be underwhelming, the questing to be more dull than WoW, and the UI, combat and gameplay to be poor in comparison to WoW. The thing this review stresses over and over and over is that the license is what makes the game great. How can you review a game like this and primarily talk about how you love the license? That's like reviewing a crappy movie license game and saying it's a great game because you loved the movie.
As a person who has only a passing knowledge of LOTR, a license doesn't make this game any more enjoyable than any other MMOG. It ends up being just another cookie cutter MMORPG. Every minute I spent playing it felt like a chore and I have no intention of playing it again. Granted I hate WoW almost as much, but I recognize that it's a bit more polished in many ways.
Dear diary: Today I stuffed some dolls full of dead rats I put in the blender.
So, on the recomendation of two people, including one who I had played WoW with a few times, I went out and just bought a copy expecting to love it. My reaction is much more "meh" than anything else. It's fun, but between the low framerate for the buttons and the ever persistant lag (I've yet to have smooth gameplay for more than half a minute) I'd rather not play any MMORPG right now.
The mmorpg world is a commecial drained out world. It barely has any orginality left.
Developers are almost forced to switch from rpgs to mmorpgs to atleast pay the bills, real rpgs aren't made anymore they pretty much died by the world of mmorpgs and yes maybe by the force of using 3d too. mmorpgs are nothing more but a product of fame and money. It just doesn't contain anything original it doesn't contain a deep story and it certainly doesn't contain any fun elements other then playing with your friends it doesn't really contain gameplay if you compare it to games like mmorpgs.
It will never and ever be the same and as fun as mmorpgs. mmorpgs are just a misconception of rpgs.
If you create a mmorpg on the world of tolkien like lotr online then I think the developers haven't understood the world at all. I mean how can you even experience the world like tolkiens world in a mmorpgs which you can do nothing but level, fight, questing where everybody has the same quest? The mmmorpg world has totally never understood the concept of originality, rpgs, fun, dynamic and gameplay. It has failed upon all fronts. So my conclusion is that the mmorpg world which is a hot topic even in the mass and mainstream media is that if you make alot of commercials for it and if you hype a genre hot enuff' then people will eventually buy it and somehow unconsciencely adapt at something so awful and somehow will be able to have some fun with it even though they know it doesn't really contain alot other then some traveling, questing and killing which is also very basic. The only fun part is that you can play and talk with your friends in some pixelated world. And if you think it can be improved? No, it can't unless you bring in real life farmers, real life architecs etc whom will presume their proffesion online...
nuff said.
(to the tune of "Kill the wabbit")
In the dead of night
A shimmewin' wight
Gweem of a bwade
And dah devew was paid
When dah axe comes down
A chiwin' sound
Steew against dah head
Anothaw Hobbit's dead
I'm a Hobbit swayer
A guitaw pwayaw
With a nasty habbit
Nerf the Hobbit!!! (hah hah hah)
AhhhaahooOhhh
Be vewy vewy qwiet!
I'm wookin' fo Hobbits...
I'm a mean mistweetah
A Hobbbit feastah
And I pwedict
A bwoody Eastaw
A scuwowing shadow
And dah shadow was dis Hobbit
And dah night aiwah echoes
Nerf dah Hobbit!!!
Nerf dah Hobbit!!!
Nerf dah Hobbit!!!
Nerf dah Hobbit!!!
Nerf dah Hobbit!!!
Nerf dah Hobbit!!!
Nerf dah Hobbit!!!
Nerf dah Hobbit!!!
Ohhhh...and dayah won't be any mow Hobbits awound
No mow Frodo Hobbit
No mow Bilbo Hobbit
And no mow gay sidekick Hobbits!
Ah ha ha ha ha
Be vewy vewy cawhafo
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I bought the game and had high hopes. Played a hobbit minstrel for about 3 weeks and just could not get into the game. The scenery looked nice but the characters just didn't do it for me. The fighting and fight animation didn't excite me at all. To do damage to a monster or beast I was playing a guitar at it. A mother fucking guitar. To do damage. Call me strange but that was just odd to me.
My personal opinion is that if this game didn't have the "Lord of the Rings" title attached to it, it would be a miserable failure. The only people that will probably be interested in this game are hardcore LOTR fans that just get off on being in the shire and being able to finally talk to Frodo.
Eight years ago a game called Everquest was launched that was to define the fantasy MMO. Since then all we have seen is at best a refinement of the genre, at worst merely a rehash. LOTRO falls between them, bringing a beautifully crafted (though rather small) world with the same old gear-driven, level treadmill style of gameplay that for me is becoming increasingly tiresome. Another point worth mentioning is that there is a glaring lack of content, at this moment even a casual player will end up hitting the level cap in a matter of weeks and it seems that there is precious little end-game content, which is precisely what drove me from WoW.
What MMORPGs need right now is a title that is revolutionary, a real sandbox game whose direction the players get to influence. Star Wars Galaxies was heading that way until Sony killed it with the gameplay changes. Age of Conan and Warhammer look promising but as it stands I expect disappointment.
For all intensive porpoises your a bunch of rediculous loosers
I think the lack of the instantly-recognizable soundtrack from the Peter Jackson films will be a turn-off for many. Its presence would add greatly to the sense of familiarity and belonging that helps beginners get used to the game and coax players of other games to try it.
Of course, I realize that for a game, the Shore soundtrack alone would be insufficient to cover all situations and nuances of gameplay, but its complete absence is, I must say, rather astonishing.
The word is "no." I am therefore going anyway.
Fredo, Slim, Maury, Poppin, and of course... Gandorf.
The problems with MMO's is they never end. I picked up some games from STEAM a few weeks back, going through some of the classics I never had time for. I'm halfway through one of the games and it will remain for me when I get back to it. To "get anywhere" with the game you play it to completion. Then if you really enjoyed it you can play through it again or just go on to the next game. You can play civilization and get a damn long game out of the scenario you setup. Once you beat it you can start another game or leave it sit for a few weeks before coming back to it. But this online stuff requires too much commitment. Hell, even something like CounterStrike can become a time sink if you become part of a clan and have tournies and the like.
It seems like the problem with MMO's is that there's only so much canned content they can stick in the game, it'd take you 20 hours to play through it if it were single player so they put a grind in to pad things out. Then when you finally beat all the scripted content, the endgame you're left with is raiding to get cool gear so you can raid bigger dungeons to get better gear to (loop).
I'm starting to think of MMO's as "retirement games" because I'll have to be retired before I have time to play 'em. Yeah, I remember hating visiting my grandparents because all they did was sit around and watch daytime game shows. I can see the future. "Grandpa and grandma suck! We come over and visit and they just keep playing those stupid MMO's. And the cats! So many cats!"
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
EQ2 has the same sysetm, you get titles for slaying a certain number of gnolls/orcs/undead/etc. And this predates WoW, though not CoH.
I would be remiss if I did not point out that LOTR as D&D campaign has already been done.
--This sig is in beta. Please let us know abut any errors you find.
Seriously. Fuck them.
... ? whats next?) instead of trying to be the 10,000lb gorrilla.
Wow is a lowest common denominator game. Why should we all want to aspire towards WoW? That's like saying, gee, 51% of the world is men, so all women should aspire to get sex changes so they should be part of the majority. Ridiculous, isn't it?
Personally, I played it for three months and sold my account (for a tidy profit, no less). I'm a huge Blizzard fan - wasted way too much of my college life on Starcraft and Diablo II. But don't aspire for the common denominator. Games should be held to their own standards of uniqueness, etc. For example, I prefer EQ, because of the complexity of the game over WoW. It has aspects that just haven't been replicated in the current crop of 'carebear' MMO's. I'm not trying to rant, my point is, MMO's should strive for specific crowds (like the hardcores, or the sci-fi buffs, or
That is all.
Wow, a comprehensive review of the game and there's no mention of PvP. 'Nuff said, I suppose! Warhammer Online, here I come! /punts a hobbit
Seriously. Elrond has a normal-sized forehead? Narsil is a coffee-table centerpiece? And what's up with that kung-fu grip?
Ummm....no. The Deed/Title stuff is pretty much a direct copy of what City of Heroes has been doing for years with its "Badges" and Titles. There's nothing wrong with that. Its a neat game mechanic, that allows you to further personalize your character, and I'm damn glad to see other games picking up on it. Just don't go spreading myths that LotRO thought this up themselves.
I'd like to stress again what a nice feature this is, particularly for a game like LotRO, where you don't have nearly enough character creation options to differentiate yourself. A really obscure or difficult to achieve title can be a significant source of pride. I had one in CoH for working off a massive amount of death debt. You basicly have to die an impressive amount of times in a row to achieve this; sort of a perverse badge of incompetence. I wore it proudly.
I haven't played the game, or even knew it was coming out. I've never actually played a graphical ORPG (Valhalla or Discworld MUDs, anyone?), so I'm not entirely sure what has to be mentioned and compared to other MMORPGs. This having been said, the review seemed well-written, _spellchecked_, and even had commas in the right place. Pretty much a pleasure to read. Well-done, Zonk! I'll let others bitch about the favorable comments.
The look and feel that the review states to have been stolen from WoW.. is actually a revamp of the Asherons Call 2 interface Turbine developed years before WoW hit the streets... if anything WoW stole it shamelessly from Turbine... same with the expanding side panels and quick bar slots.
People need to remember that although WoW is wildly popular, there is nothing 'new' in the game that hasnt been done before.. Blizzard is known as the king of copy, polish and publish for a reason.. they havent had an original thought on their staff in years.
Please Zonk give up on your so called "game reviews." I had the pleasure to work as a reviewer for a number of years, and with some truly talented folks... and you, sir, ain't got it.
These "reviews" are just sad. I say it every time, and know it is always an instant ticket to -1's-ville but I've got Karma to burn. No one enjoys them and certainly no one is compelled to buy a game based on your words. They are like a self ego booster or something I guess for you, but what they show is how difficult it really is to write a solid review. They take lots of intelligence, time, attention to detail, and personal investment... and it is clear that you fail on every one of them.
Give it up already.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Did anyone ever play Asheron's Call on the all PK Darktide server? The main story didn't even matter, because you could PK anyone anywhere. Users created their own story. This was extremely fasinating as politics and economics emerged and it evolved as a lifelike system. To hunt in a dungeon, you would have to earn the right by taking it over with friends or solo. To control a town with the best prices, your guild would have to constantly defend it. Everyone is too scared to try these things and consequently all new MMORPGs suck! At least have one server that truely gives people freedom so the real players can play it. Everyone else can be content with simply fighting NPC's or some controled PK system that is just as redundant as doing the same quests over and over if you want to start a new char. Nothing has since compared to AC1 Darktide in terms of gameplay. The only reason I quit playing to try other things was graphics. Not a single MMO has held my interest anywhere near as long as AC did.
I'm a troll now, am I? Was it the "gay sidekick Hobbits" line? Hobbits get mod points now?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
This is a fun game, not addictive at all IMHO, but a good diversion. Yes, I've read the books, seen the movies yadda yadda.
Yes, it does look good, but if you have played most other MMO's out there you will I think you will suffer from the same feeling as I have. The feeling of "I've played this game before."Your television will not tell you when to start the revolution.
I'm a big nasty troll, and I eats Hobbitses! I've been here since before the karma cap, you can't touch my karma you filthy little Hobbitses. Mod me down and I shall... oops, wrong movie.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
The most amusing thing to me was that Turbine apparently forgot how to do physics. Their first MMO, Asheron's Call had real collision detection and physics. Sure it was simplified, but it worked. Players could and did form walls to keep monsters from reaching the squishies (non-melees). Or sometimes it was an archer/mage wall, because they didn't suffer from sticky melee, so couldn't be shoved around by their target trying (and failing) to move through them.
On non-PvP servers, players could pass through players -- no griefing by blocking the door. On PvP servers however, players could pass through each other. Of course that problem leads to all sorts of exploits to bypass doors where one guy gets smashed against the door, then logs off. Other toons fill his spot, then he logs back in and gets pushed to the first available space... on the far side of said locked door.
Slashdot Patriotism: We Support our Dupes!
This is hardly a replacement for WoW. I can't believe you would even SUGGEST it.
"...while World of Warcraft's stylized vision remains fresh and crisp."
You mean cartoonish and repelling. Game's okay- I'd never play more than the trial because I can't stand the graphical style.
P.S. LOTRO is awesome. I'm waiting for the "Hobbit Hurdler" deed- I jump over every hobbit I pass.
The developers used the books as reference material, not the movies. You can look up characters in the books that you interact with in the game. Not just Aragorn and Gandalf either, but hobbits that you never remembered. Tom Bombadil and his Lady are also in this with Tom even helping you out at one point. I think JRRT would be pleasantly surprised with the attention to detail that was put into this game.
"I am no Tolkien scholar, but I thought a big motivation for him to write was the lack of an English mythology"
I guess the humourous retort would be "you're a troll, right?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolkein
Tolkein was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University. He knew his way round the myths. But you don't need to be a professor at Oxford to have come across Beowulf.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf
There's vast tracts of English myths and legends and Tolkein clearly draws on them in his work, as well as drawing on mythologies from other areas as well.
Several inaccuracies in the review. Off the top of my head:
* Chat channels are not called Fellowships, your team/group is
* Burglars are not main the DSP class, hunters and champions are
* As others have pointed out, deeds/virtues are not unique to LotRO
* The explanation of the crafting system was all wrong
But otherwise I agree with his assessment of the game.
That is what you get With LOTRO. It is actually what you get with any game nowadays. EQ started the formula and every game since has just used the same formula with a different packaging. Some games do a great job disguising the formula, others not so much. LOTRO starts off disguising it well. The early levels you are still wow'd by actually being in middle earth, seeing the prancing pony, growing longbottom weed and visiting weathertop, the shire etc. However that is where the Grand Illusion needs to step it up and instead it fizzles out. It becomes very quickly apparent that you are just on a hamster wheel doing the same thing over and over for no particular pupose. Now, there IS a ton of content. That is true, but there is not a lot of good content. What you have is a lot of rehashed content. How many people are going to make you kill pigs? A lot, you will kill a LOT of pigs, sometimes with good reason, othertimes because it appears to have just been the thing to do. Deeds seem like a nice unique thing, but as others have said they have been done before. Also, while deeds seem like a nice auxillery content path to follow, it is just killing stuff over and over and over and over yaawwwwn. OH, you can craft! You cannot craft anything of any real value (much like most games). The loot that drops in the world is more often than not better than anything being crafted. not to mention more plentiful, loot falls like rain! Instant gratification bonanza! If you don't like your sword - just fight for a little longer finish another quest or two you will get a better one. DONT RACE TO 50! well, you don't have to race to 50. Leveling is SO easy it is pathetic, you can level without even trying half the time. That is okay becuase they planned for that right? wrong. Some day, someone out there will realize that you have to now a days have content at the level cap from the get go, right out of the box! Storyline - Read the stories, they are all very similar to each other. The names change, the targets change but the stories don't change much. Lets put it this wasy, this game is like WOW. It is MMORPG 101. It is PERFECT for the true casual gamer. It really is, and congrats to the casual gamers for having a game you can call home. For Veteran gamers, whatever you want to call them - hardcore, obsessed, whatever, this is another speed bump on the way to the next game - UNLESS turbine puts out new content QUICKLY that is... For the casual gamer I would give this game high marks For a game that will attract players of all kinds I would give this game high marks For a long lasting game that will HOLD players for a long time - sadly, it doesn't look like it. I surely do hope they prove me wrong. I am, however, incredibly glad I didn't shell out 200 bucks for a lifetime membership!
I would like to try before I buy or invest money into LOTR online.
http://saveie6.com/
LOTRO is what Turbine was doing while it should have been focusing on making DDO a better game. With a DDO license and a very solid game beneath it Turbine could have printed money for years to come with all of the geeks that will never give Dungeons and Dragons up.
The best part of DDO was the combat system and it kept me entertained even while running the same instances for the 50th time. LOTRO is an "enhanced" DDO engine minus the interesting combat.
Do not waste your time or money on LOTRO - I would, however, recommend at least trying the combat system in DDO as it truly is unique to the MMO genre and blends a bit of FPS action into the boring tedium of killing the same monsters ad nauseum.
Back in the day I was really impressed with the door games available. Because of the realities of the BBS world, your time in the game had to be limited because other people needed to call in to the board. If you were on a multinode BBS you could have interaction with one or two other players in real time but it was otherwise a shared world you were playing in without partymates. There were a few D&D clones that really had promise with the ability to explore, kill goblins, take noses, and build a reputation for yourself. But most of these games only let you play at most an hour a day. Also, because you were limited to playing against whoever was on the board, you never had more than a large handful of close friends in the game.
Instead of going for the ultramassive shared world like EVE or shards like WOW, what if the games were smaller than that, more on the scale of a D&D module run by a GM? You have a sense of that with a game like Defcon, a WWIII simulation. You can run it in accelerated tiem and blow up the world in 20 minutes or play it out in realtime over the course of a day at the office. There's only a handful of commands you can issue at any one time so it's like a chess match where the the decision to move a piece takes a moment but the resolution of the action takes time to occur.
The basic idea I'm getting at is that you don't need to spend ten hours a day to get anywhere in the game but still have the cool factor of a world shared with friends. Self-selecting the group you play with would also preclude the presence of griefers and others who would ruin the fun.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
One place where the game became surreal to me was the shire quests involving delivering pies. I mean, cmon . Pies? Avoiding nosy hobbits?
You get experience you can use to level up your character for delivering pies?
This lead to the following line of thinking:
As we know, the one ring's power easily swayed the minds of men and elves and dwarves. Hobbits, however, were resistant to its effects, which is why one of them made an ideal ringbearer.
The Dark Lord Sauron knew he would need something of a different nature to tempt the hobbits. And thus the dark lord learned the craft of pie-making. There in the ovens of mount doom, he baked the master pie, the one pie to tempt them all.
Soon the aroma of this pie wafted over the free lands, and an army of hobbits went to mordor to take it. Sauron, holding the pie aloft in one hand out of their reach, and his mace grond in the other, fended them off until one of the river hobbits climbed up his back and took it from his hand. Sauron went down beneath a wave of hungry halflings while Isilgol snuck off into a cave with the pie. There he ate some of it and it transformed him into a creature unable to eat more pie, yet eternally taunted by its pleasant aroma... Fleeing the hobbits he hid beneatht he misty mountains, whose frequent fog and pine trees and wolves would mask the smell He lived in a state of torture with the pie for thousands of years...
Until one day Bilbo in the company of some dwarves (who were going to get back some beer a dragon had stolen from them) crossed those mountains and smelled the pie...
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
Camera control isn't as available as it is with WoW. Can't control both camera and where you walk with just the mouse.
As for the visuals, I think they're trying too hard to be realistic looking, which in turn makes it feel all the more awkward. Think the Final Fantasy movie. They looked human, but certain movements and facial features looked just wrong and it made things a bit uncomfortable. Same here. This is one area where Blizzard got things right. Don't try to be too realistic. Be a bit cartoony. Players have an easier time adjusting and identifying with their character.
The original, was perhaps the first 3d MMORPG, and in my opinion was the best 3d MMORPG until World of Warcraft came along.
The problem is, Turbine completely screwed up with the sequel, they had a perfect formula and screwed it up by trying to make it mainstream and popish instead of honing in on the hardcore gamers and improving game mechanics. Also they put all their money and focus into the graphics of AC2, which were the best at the time, and not enough on improving the gameplay. The result is AC1 was more fun than AC2.
Turbine in my opinion, would have a hit if they made AC3, with similar elements to AC1, with vastly improved graphics, and perhaps some new gameplay elements.
A lot of games suck because they focus too much on graphics, or too much on the mainstream audience, and not enough on actually making the game fun.
I find many of the gripes people seem to be having here of little merit. Not that there aren't valid complaints, but many of them are either commonalities to the MMO genre, or stuff like "the orange is bad because it's not an apple." Someone mentioned a quest sending them to kill boars "12 levels under them" for example. That quest was either well under their level, or there were boars his level in the area he just wasn't aware of. Nearly all of the kill quests allow you to kill any boar in the zone for them. Things like Deeds and a lot of the kill quests aren't even meant to be "grinded out." They can/will be completed just by killing things while traveling around doing the talk or delivery quests. I have to agree with the OP that LOTR Online is the most promising MMO to come out since WoW. There are some issues, but by and large the presentation is polished, and you can tell that effort was put in to learn from the good and the bad of previous games. The graphics maxed out are extremely good, and if someone is saying they aren't, then I honestly don't know what game does have good graphics. Graphics aren't good until the game becomes unplayable in framerate?
Check your facts, please. Through combinations of certain badges, you can receive "Accolades" which give a variety of bonuses from increased health or regeneration to special powers. It's an interesting mechanic, and it's unfortunate that the original poster seems to be convinced that it's a new one. I'd chalk your post up to simple trolling if you didn't seem so ignorant about your subject.
How am I a troll when Turbine's track record proves my statement correct. Every subsequent patch to Asheron's Call almost always was a detriment when gameplay mechanics where changed or new items were added, especially on the PVP side of things, which they proved beyond a doubt they have no idea what they are doing on when half of Darktide unsubbed their accounts over a stupid mechanic they added in (debuffing opponents armor to make melee/missile damage 1hit kills) resulting in an instant hot fix, among other splendid displays of their prowess.
My favorite still is when Throne of Destiny shipped and they left most of the bitmaps uncompressed for textures, ballooning the client from 40-60MB of memory normally to 300+MB of memory.
because, apparently, everyone-else-and-their-dog just won't understand unless you compare to it :/ sad, really.
I think you mean 123 5 3 2 1 356 8 7 5 3 432
Finally, nine years of music school prove their worth on Slashdot! I just hope the RIAA don't come for me now . . .
Journey onward.
Translation: designed to sell video cards. Quality gameplay be damned, there's no money in that.
http://turbine.fuzeqna.com/lotro.support/consumer
Someday people will clue in that they are being had, With respect to both artificial video card requirements and the incredible laziness of P2P MMORPG developers. Whats the easiest way to get people to pay a monthly fee for years and years? Require thousands of hours of "grinding" skills to progress in the game, that is far easier for the developer than actual engaging and challenging gameplay content.
Gee I wonder why I read the following image on their website as "The War Of The BoRing Has Begun!": http://lorimages.turbine.com/admin_files/05/85/15
Sounds like you must be using something pre-PCIExpress graphically :)
Get an Nvidia 8800 and experience Middle Earth as intended!
Since most negative comments I read on LOTRO is about adjusting the UI, I'd like to inform everyone to try this.
hold the CONTROL key down
now press the \ key.
In other words, CTRL + \ brings up the UI adjustment screen.
This is documented in the manual.
It is also documented on the little cheat sheet card you get with the beta discs and the regular box.
For the hour i played this game i found it absolutely riddled with bugs and incredible amounts of lag. Unless some serious patching has taken place i really dont see how this could even get a 2/5 score let alone 4/5
I own it. I love it. It's your typical MMORPG set in the Lord of the Rings universe. If that sounds enticing enough, it should be sufficient to hold your attention. Honestly, there's nothing too new and/or exciting to take your breathe away, but overall a very solid game. Oh, and did I mention you can rock out on Lutes?
I will bend like a reed in the wind.
I the artwork (not to be confused with graphics) is a bit drab. The artwork in the manual (unsure if it's the same artist/team) is even worse. There's one elf that looks like a middle-aged, overweight geek wearing cheap Renaissance Faire garb and Spock ears. I'd have much preferred to see artwork from the Hildebrant brothers.
The crafting system and gathering resources are tedious. The sad part is, to my knowledge (only lvl 14 so far), there isn't really a benefit. According to the manual, there's a chance at high levels of crafting to create an epic weapon, armor or what have you.
The UI could use some improvement. I like the ability to move any and every component of the interface, but even then it's difficult to arrange the "desktop" neatly so that some items do not overlap. The main improvement needed is the icons. They are small with intricate patterns that are difficult to see (playing on a 19" LCD at 1024x768x32bit).
Running with the mouse takes some adjusting. You must press the right button first, then press the left button and hold them down. (basically reverse of WoW). Being unable to move the camera around while running limits visibility. I often get attacked from the side even though I'm zoomed out quite a ways.
The music is simple and ordinary. The sounds are pretty good, and the directional sound is very good (hearing things come at you from sides - but I still get jumped. :-) It's interesting to note that if you zoom out, the sound "disappears" or stays near your character.
WoW still holds my interest more, but I purchased LotRO as a fall back game, for those few times when I don't feel like playing WoW.
I will say that from what I've seen so far, Turbine is much more adherent to Tolkien's work than Jackson was. I'm looking forward to meeting Bombadil.
Well, that's sorta my problem with it, too. Although I'd summarize it in a more damning phrase: they copied all they could from WoW, without even understanding what they copy, what details made it work on WoW, and generally how to do it well.
The examples you gave are accurate, and probably more important on their own, but just to illustrate why I'd summarize it like that:
Take for example the content pack. It boasts (at least the announcement did) an epic raid for level 30's. Excuse me? Raids in WoW are at the max level for several reasons, two of which being (A) because there actually are that many characters of that level around, and (B) because it's a final time sink for all those. Even leaving aside the aspect that _very_ few people would describe the WoW massive raids as fun, there's the aspect of where the heck will you find that many members at mid-level? In most games (COH being the notable difference) it's a problem finding even 4 more people for a normal team, and WoW itself largely turned into a Massively Single-Player Online RPG lately at any level but the max. And it's telling that Blizzard itself reduced the size of raids in the expansion pack, because gathering and coordinating a whole company is just non-fun for most people.
But it's that kind of thing that tells me that they're just copying blindly, without even making any effort (or being able) to understand what they're copying. You can almost picture a dysfunctional "WoW is popular, WoW has raids, therefore people love raids. I know, we'll be more popular if we have more raids and earlier raids!" train of thought.
The same applies to almost everything else, including the things you've mentioned. They copied the titles from other games (e.g., EQ2), but couldn't even be arsed to figure out how to display them well. They copied the crafts from earlier EQ2 again, too bad none of them understood why EQ2 changed that, or how to balance the resources. Etc.
Just so noone gets me wrong, I'm not against ripping off other games per se. Most games copy from each other and WoW itself didn't invent much new, it just polished existing elements. But that's just the rub. Blizzard took the time to understand what they're doing, and try to get it right. These guys are just doing some minimal-effort copying, without even trying to get it right, without understanding what they're doing, and without any obvious plan.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
As someone who partook in LOTRO's Open Beta, all I have to say is it was (And still is) a dissapointing game.
It's just like every other generico MMO out there, and what's worse (probably the most condeming factor) is that fact that it has an unfriendly UI, compared to other games. The camera while walking thing (How it bounces up and down) was rather frustrating (during the two brief 5 hour periods I played it for).
To summize, Lord of the Rings Online is like every other generic MMORPG on the market today that tries to immitate World of Warcraft -- and we all know we could do with less World fo Warcraft clones.
To be honest, this just marks another failure for American-born MMORPGs, and pushes me to be more inclined to watch the Korean MMORPG market. (Yes, you heard me, Korean)
It doesn't really have much to do with the books, except milking the license, sadly. And even then I'm not even sure if they were aiming at milking the books or milking the movies.
Basically it's "Generic Fantasy MMO #1027" with a middle earth theme. And with the signature characters used as little more than merchandising exercises. Same as printing them on a t-shirt, really. It just hopefully allows some fans to think "OMG, I met Gandalf personally and he saved me in the tutorial dungeon", and makes the rest of us think, "wtf, why is he here in the first place? Doesn't he have more important things to do?"
Also, you can't kill any signature characters anyway, so don't get your hopes too high.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
http://www.darkfallonline.com/
If Darkfall doesn't deliver, I don't think I'll be playing another MMO. Nothing out right now is worth my time and money.
If you like boring, tedious and pointless timesinks, but find WoW too be too fast paced and entertaining, then LotRO is a great game for you. If you enjoyed the books, this game is like someone take a cheese grater to your junk. It absolutely destroys the world, as any massively multiplayer game will inevitably do.
lol I love reading reviews and then comments by people who just plain miss things or have it wrong.
..wow. Smart. Never mind you get floaty damage and the combat tab is an OPTION so you can go back to see exactly what happened. Who actually keeps their combat tab open during a fight and is reading it while the damage is being shown right over their heads. I guess that one went "over his head"
Like how the reviewer said you had to choose from 3 craft classes. No mention of how theres actually 7 different unique combinations of those 3 and how they are interdependant.
And no mention of Monster Play. Which from the early fighting back and forth, I have been told by ex-WoW players that it is much better than WoW's PvP. And Personally had a whole lot of fun.
And the first comment that says it has damage in a chat box
And I love it when people complain about graphics/exploring. They played a guy to level 10 and complain they can't explore... They obviously had not visited Trollshaw hills and follage, or the Misty Mountain's towering cliffs and peaks, or Angmar's barren wasteland and stinking marshes which are in such sharp contrast any other zone in the game.
And the people who complain that there is nothing from the movies? That just hurts. Kudo's to Turbine for basing the game off of the books, the real LotR and not Peter Jackson's crap.
Saw a guy complain about the music score too. When I first entered Rivendell I had to listen very closely because I that song sounds just like the Rivendell song in the movies, its not, but it could have fooled me at first. The music is well done, it's not over the top but still there, a very good background.
Already a whole new zone is up for being released in few weeks (in June, just over 2 months after initial launch)
And fishing is planned to be added for the future.
You all have to understand that WoW and especially EQ have been around for a very long time now and they were nothing like they are now in their first 2 months. LotRO will grow and expand just like them. But for an initial release (and I was in open beta too) the game is amazingly well done and complete AND stable, not like the many early WoW bugs.
Oh, and by the way, I CAN shoot animals with my bow. Or you could take off your weapon and one hit kill punch them.
This is just a less-polished version of WoW with different character names.
You don't know what you're talking about. This game is very different. The method of PvP alone is a huge departure. Once you hit level 10 you are able to enter "Monster Play" which allows you to enter the battle ground as a bad guy. You can pop in and out of monster play at will, and resume leveling your "good guy" player character. Once your good guy hits 40 he can enter the battleground. That means that all of the 10-50's can play monsters and 40-50's can play good guys in the BG's resulting in a better balance. That alone is a huge change from WoW.
A secondary change is the LOTR chapters which you play as instances. This means you get REAL story telling in your instance playing.
The deed system is fun and a nice innovation to make grinding more fun when you have to do it to level.
Even the "fed ex" quests are really well done. I can't tell you how much fun I was having running around between hobbits and reading the quest dialog of two idiot hobbits that were trying to court each other. I suppose you actually have to take the time to READ the quests though. This game isn't about getting the latest +10 whatever equipment. It's about providing a good game and story experience. Something that is new to me as a veteran of WoW.
The Generation
I'd say something witty here, but I'm not that bright.
People these days amaze me with their "please give me my 50th lvl char 5 mins into the game without me actually having to LEARN the game" mentality. Damn near nothing and I mean nothing negative said so far on this list and I actually read through it, is in anyway accurate or informed. Everyone on here that has something negative to say has a) not actually tried to LEARN the game and/or b) has the attention span of a 5 year old.
/punts a hobbit"
Example:
"trying to do something like shoot a sheep with your crossbow only to receive an error message"
If you had actually tried for more the 5 minutes and more than just an elf you would have discovered that ELVES can't kill small furry creatures. Everyone else can and does, sometimes to an annoying degree. Why can't elves kill furry creatures? If you have to ask that then just go play Wow because you know nothing about the Tolkien world.
"I got 2 characters to level 5 before losing interest. I've been playing MMO's since 2001, and not since Dark Age of Camelot has there been a more annoying world chat channel."
First off, do you know how little time it takes to get to 5th lvl? Maybe 30-60 mins? My god if you can't stick with a character for that long you don't deserve to be playing ANY game. What you need is a game that starts up and once you've created you character it just has a big message that scrolls across the screen that says "YOU WIN!!"
As for the chat channels, RTFM! The chat channels are HIGHLY customizable if you would just take the time to LEARN it. Oh WOW new concept, learn the game!! Every complaint mentioned regarding the chat channels is addressed in the game. Is it to much to ask you to simply take the time to learn how to PLAY?
"Why does somebody with a really long name and title make it harder to right click on anything around them?"
Once again, learn the game, if you took the time to look at your customization options you would see that ALL of those things are set-able, don't' want the floaty names? Hit the "N" key. OH MY GOD THE NAMES WENT AWAY! Don't' want to see you helmet or the other player's names? How about your cloak or shoes? Turn them off. All set-able.
"Played a hobbit minstrel for about 3 weeks. To do damage to a monster or beast I was playing a guitar at it. A mother fucking guitar. To do damage."
Um... then don't play a minstrel dumbass. Nobody is forcing you to.
Look, I've played both games from stress beta on. LOTRO is by FAR a better product at launch than WoW ever was and believe me that surprised the hell out of me. People keep talking about polish and your right LOTRO had plenty of bugs to work out but if you compare it to WoW when it first came out it smokes it hands down. People keep trying to compare a NEW game to one that's been out for over 2 years. Duh, the older one is going to be more polished.
"Wow, a comprehensive review of the game and there's no mention of PvP. 'Nuff said, I suppose! Warhammer Online, here I come!
And that is exactly why you won't find PvP in LOTRO. Doesn't fit the genre. Please, oh please go play another game!
"...Until one day Bilbo in the company of some dwarves (who were going to get back some beer a dragon had stolen from them) crossed those mountains and smelled the pie..."
Ok, now that was just damn funny! LOL But actually I like the idea of having quests that AREN"T all about just going to kill this thing or that. I actually tried seeing how far I could get without having to kill something. Granted it was after I had taken a character through the intro area (once you have taken a character though it the rest of you new chars on that server can skip the into area) so I was able to skip the intro area. But once in the new area I was able to get to almost 15th level without having to swing my sword, just crafting quests, delivering pies or the mail, find the hiding hobbit etc. Things like that. It was a nice change from the regula
Developers are almost forced to switch from rpgs to mmorpgs to atleast pay the bills, real rpgs aren't made anymore they pretty much died by the world of mmorpgs and yes maybe by the force of using 3d too.
*Watches as his copies of Oblivion and Final Fantasy XII pop out of existence after reading the AC's comment*
A further note: this is Mr Period ".". He is your friend. He often brings Mr Capitalization along with him. Together you can enjoy many hours writing readable sentences.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
I just have to ask- how's the Drizzt-to-Bilbo/Frodo ratio looking so far? In WOW, EQ2, and DAOC, the scale's are tipped pretty heavily on the side of Drizzt. But I've seen every intentially misspelling of all three names conceivable. My favorite was Afrodo (a black skinned hobbit).
Accolades are different from the virtues you get in LOTR. There aren't a lot of accolades, they are generally muti-step requirements to get one and they don't need to be slotted.
A better way to think of virtues is that they are closer to WoW's talents but you gain them via a mechanism similar to COH's badges. Also you have a limited number of slots to put the virtues in which is closer to COH's enhancements than badges.
So yes the mechanism of killing X to get a badge or discovering location or whatever is the same as COH what you get isn't quite.
I agree with you on the deeds that grant titles being pretty much identical to normal badges but virtues don't work like accolades.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
This is one of the most confusing reviews I've ever read - and it can be neatly summarized as follows; LOTRO is just like WoW, except where it's not. LOTRO is just like most MMO's, except it's not. But it does have pretty graphics. And it is pretty much like WoW and other MMOs.
Another point - 'deeds' aren't unique to LOTRO, they are called 'badges' in CoH/V and have been around a couple of years. Ditto for the 'virtues' - 'accolades' in CoH/V. Ditto for 'titles' - both games use the same name.
In other words, you already knew why people compare other MMOs to WoW and just made your original post to be a fucktard.
Did I mention I hate hypocrites?
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
Because of this: "What you need is a game that starts up and once you've created you character it just has a big message that scrolls across the screen that says "YOU WIN!!"
Those weren't real RPGs last time I checked.
Possibly offtopic, since I haven't played LOTRO or even WoW (though I've seen enough of it) but I do play EVE...
The only downside to EVE's combat log is that it scrolls too fast when firing all weapons to be really readable, especially if you're fighting multiple enemies (their hits also show up). Like virtually all elements of the UI, it can be closed, minimized, made transparent, moved, resized, or possibly even merged with other windows (never tried this; I never have it on). Normally log info appears in fairly small text near the top middle of the screen. Still hard to read everything (usually impossible in fact) but enough to know that your target has heavy Kinetic defense, so you should switch to a different damage type.
Collision detection is slightly limited in EVE, most notably when undocking from a station (often I've undocked a small ship at the same time as somebody in a freighter, and I appear to be physically inside their ship). It usually sorts itself out the moment either ship maneuvers though. In combat, you can actually ram other ships to knock them off course (no damage, but it makes it hell to align for warping out) though the fact that interceptors (extra-small frigates) can "bump" freighters (literally thousands times the size of inties) is a bit weird; the small ships would presumably just bounce, even taking the vastly higher speed of inties into account.
It'd be a lie to say EVE has no grinding, but it's not a very essential part of the game by comparison. PVP is where it's at in EVE, unless you actually like mining. A couple hours can fund days of combat operations if your losses aren't too high and/or you don't fly terribly expensive stuff.
In EVE, there's no limiting on what you can or can't enter except that some large ships can't enter some complexes. Of course, you could go jump in a smaller one... The limitations on EVE are the size of space; without a warp bookmark (such as you get from an agent) you'll never find things like mission warp gates (which disappear after the mission is completed anyhow). All systems and all areas in those systems are accessible to every player, though.
You can target and destroy anything you want in EVE. Of course, if it's in secure space, you might get the police corps massively powerful drone ships pounding you into dust... but anything that exists in space can be targeted, anything that can be targeted can be shot and destroyed, and while most things won't leave anything valuable, sometimes fairly random targets will yield intersting spoils. It's not really worth going and shhoting all of them though... there are far faster ways to make money. Anyhow, note that this also applies to players. The only time you can't shoot at somebody is if they're behind a station shield or docked.
After playing EVE, I have different expectations.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
Everything you mention is true. Absolutly and 100%. And still LOTRO is the MOST polished MMORPG game out there. The trick is in the word MOST.
It is just in comparison with the turds that are its competition that LOTRO looks so shining. You mention manually having to switch between tools (wich for harvesting only affects explorers), try vanguard, you have to switch blind between bags that might or might not contain the tool you need.
You mention quest of the kill X type, ever played WoW and its infernal kill X to drop Y and Y just doesn't fucking drop? Oh LOTRO gets that too especially in later quests (early on everything just drops as expected, all wolfs got wolf pelts) but it still isn't anywhere as bad as in the other two big ones Everquest and WoW.
Just one stat does not work properly. Read the patch list of any other MMO and be dazzled by all the things that didn't work. Yes fate is a pity (most important effect is that it controls regeneration and at the moment it is simply to weak to make a difference) but by MMO standards LOTRO has few bugs.
It is not that LOTRO is perfect, it just is the most finished MMORPG ever launched. If we do a 100 meter sprint and I finish in 3 hours I am still the winner if everyone else takes several days.
Funny. Everyone else seems to think so. You just keep playing your classic gold boxes, and telling yourself you're the only true RPGer left.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
As a player I'd recommend http://www.wurmonline.com/ to you guys
huge explorable maps, terraforming, deed placement, PvP, 2 maps 16km x 16km each, weapon/tool crafting and plenty more
all for 5 a month or play for free indefinately with just a skill cap
beats wow and all the rest
would be interesting to see how the review changes after a month or two of playing.
I found it utterly uninspired and boring, much the same as Vanguard.
There is absolutely nothing new there if youve played any mmo before, new players might find it fun for awhile tho Ill grant.
The graphics are good, sure, if you like the style, it only matters for a short while tho, without gameplay underneath its wasted.
Since JRR Tolkien was a devout and pious Catholic, the fantasy universe of LOTR is THE place to be for we Christians.
Now there will finally be a place where we can live our online lives as true Christians: swords and bows at the ready, against evil multitudes, holding up the values of Charity and Goodwill while hot-blooded shieldmaidens slay the miscreant for our merriment.
Amen.
not a hypocrite. Just had to speak down to my audience's level.
There is a lot of negative in all these comments!!! I am not a super experienced MMORPG player, though I do play WoW and have for about 1 1/2 yrs. I am not very knowledgeable of the Lord Of The Rings lore either and I do represent a smaller portion of the market being female... But I am really enjoying LOTRO and think they did a great job with it. Yes I see some bugs but as someone wrote earlier, WoW has come a long way since launch as far as bugs go. If you are thinking of purchasing and not sure after reading all these comments my advice is to check it out! I was weary at first cause I thought nothing could compare to WoW but I agree LOTRO does and in the ways it is different I really enjoy. Great work Turbine! And No I don't work for them!! :-)
Yeah, I love this guy saying "real" RPGs aren't made anymore. Yet we are just a day away from the trailer for Fallout 3 from Bethesda the makers of Morrowind and Oblivion. FF12 and so on may be considered crap by Western RPG players but they are still multi-million selling RPGs. MMOs are only a viable market for companies that can sell them. If it's Cryptic or Funcom that focus on this type of game or Sony that knows how to market this type of game. No developer has yet been "forced" to focus on an MMO. That's just silly.
How about Eve? It's been around for ages, it has no levels at all, you can do what you like, and the political landscape is entirely determined by players. (And apparently some devs that are helping some players, but that's another slashdot story.)
It's entirely a shame that LotRO is doing well, in my opinion. What I saw of the game was shallow, unoriginal and downright lame. Not even to mention how much a disgrace to Tolkien it is (because we all know that epic battles involve targeting random mobs, pressing your ranged attack then the hotbar keys). Turbine goes and makes a GOOD game, and everyone ignores it for the trite WoW/Everquest clone garbage.
Many of you on this forum seem concerned with the strategic longevity of this MMORG. Considering this game may very well have only 3 players online at any one time a year from now is a valid concern to anybody who wants to invest in it. From experience, I'd say that this may be a likely fate due to the fact that the game falls too deeply into some Uncanny Valleys here. Someone mentioned the photorealism of the ingame graphics being akin to the unsettling Final Fantasy flick. I have to agree. WoW succeeds in that the design team actually DESIGNED the feel and look of the world rather than assuming that the lowest common denominator wants a workman-effort at photorealism. Its cartoonish veneer is half the addiction. Remember, you're going to be playing this for hours...gotta like what you're looking at. Turbine needs to lay off this design assumption because that is exactly why I couldn't stand DDO. Considering many of you on this forum boast Macs, I can infer there are lots of designers/artists here who would agree (kudos to you!). Another line the game straddles is the backstory and gamelore. I don't mind it. I've read the books many times since high school and I appreciate the shots it takes at fidelity to Tolkien's lore as opposed to Jackson's potboilers. However, the Great Unwashed won't dig the fact that elves can't nuke rabbits (OOPS!). Oh well, Arda didn't have a Manhattan Project. Point is, I think the game's lasting power will fail due to the fact that John or Jenny Q. Xbox expects the Jackson vision over Tolkien's, hence, it will alienate the Bazooka Joes who are the majority of players. They will be frustrated with the venue of a grinder with a more intellectual approach only to ask "what's it going to be, eh?". Will the expansion developers ever make it to Mordor? I don't think so.