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Lord of the Rings Online Impressions
Posted by
Zonk
on Tue Feb 13, 2007 11:27 AM
from the get-your-ring-on dept.
from the get-your-ring-on dept.
The Non-Disclosure Agreement for the Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) beta test has been lifted, and with the game set for release soon it may be useful to you to peruse some hands-on previews of the title. Hexus.net offers A Day in the Life of a Hobbit, and Tobold's MMORPG blog has similar hobbit-related impressions. Tobold also has a comparison between LORTRO and World of Warcraft for those who might be thinking about making the jump. More hands-on info is available from Warcry, Kill Ten Rats, and Gamers With Jobs. Van Hemlock offers up a high level overview of the title, mentioning recent releases and pointing out the realities of Massive gaming: "How the Great Fantasy Epic Saga will stand the ravages thousands of petty powerlevelling smacktalkers all loitering about Rivendell bank, level one hobbit girls - dancing as naked as the game will allow, shouting ridiculous three-letter-acronyms and generally not getting into the spirit of the thing, remains to be seen. I expect Our People can crush even The Lord of the Rings beneath our metagaming heel without feeling too guilty."
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The Call On Lord of the Rings Online 64 comments
The Beta has been going on for some time now, and for all intents and purposes Lord of the Rings Online has launched. Pre-order players will be able to move their characters to the live game when the title officially lights up on April 24th, and commentators on Massively Multiplayer games have weighed in. Their opinion, generally, is unanimous: buy it. Tobold contributes a full-on review, as does CVG. AFK Gamer doesn't go in for such long-form opinions, but he still has a lot to say. Specifically, Foton comments on the good, the okay, and the bad, as well as a few words on the game's (somewhat out of the ordinary) classes. "[The game is] deep and broad. An MMOG, any MMOG, with its premium box price and its premium subscription prices, needs to offer more activities than: you can kill stuff, and, umm, you can kill other players, and umm, you could check the auctions/trade channel. There's many ways to screw around in this MMOG: Deeds, accomplishments, exploration (easy to outrun higher level mobs), titles, player-made music, engaging quest text, a solid start to the crafting system, MONSTER PLAY!!! There's probably more, but that's all I've tried so far."
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I totally know what to name my character (Score:5, Funny)
Sorry, that name is taken.
Enter your character's name: Leggolas
Sorry, that name is taken.
Enter your character's name: Legolass
Sorry, that name is taken.
Enter your character's name: Llegolus
Sorry, that name is taken.
Enter your character's name: Legggollass
Sorry, that name is taken.
Enter your character's name: Legoooooolas
Sorry, that name is taken.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I totally know what to name my character (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Every 13 yr old's first attempt (Score:3, Funny)
Sorry, that name is not allowed.
Heh heh heh heh!
I beta tested, so I have a few things to say (Score:5, Informative)
The quest vs grind ratio is vastly in favor of questing opposed to WOW where grinding was generally better.
It has excellent graphics.
It's run by Turbine, so that means frequent updates to keep the content fresh.
Player vs Monster is fun. I played as a Warg and got over 100 kills and only finally died when lag froze me in place for 30 s
Bad:
Money is more worthless in this game than any other MMORPG. Somehow no newer MMORPGS seem to care to make an economy.
If you get the best lewt in the game, your character will only be about 5-10% better than a storebought character even though you have lots of flashy stats.
Attributes mean about nothing. I won't even post an example of this. Lets just say your stat sheet is a total joke.
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You may have misunderstood monster play though. Some people play as monsters. Some people play as characters. Then they try and take over castles, quest, or fight each other.
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Interesting. I rarely 'grind' in WoW, I'm pretty much doing a quest 99% of the time when I'm killing monsters, more so now the X-pac is out. I would be interested to know how you're defining the term 'grind' in this case in the context of quests.
My definition of 'grind' vs 'questing' would be... quest: "Kill 30 specific mobs and return to quest giver to get a large XP bonus and some loot until you
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Just wait till someone (Score:3, Funny)
Different from WoW? (Score:3, Informative)
The blogger's argument simply seemed to consist of noting how everything in LotRO was new, while players of WoW would already be tiring of the Burning Crusade and seeking something new. Exactly what makes LotR different from WoW outside of the setting, the slightly different races and the classes?
The screenshots certainly didn't help. The user interface looked as though it was lifted straight out of WoW in almost every regard. I looked at some EQ screenshots just to be sure WoW hadn't done the same thing. Aside from possibly preferring Middle Earth to Azeroth, I'm having difficulty finding a good reason for someone to pick LotRO over WoW.
Is there something I'm missing?
You're only considering the setting! (Score:3, Interesting)
World of Warcraft UI [hld.ca] Lord of the Rings Online UI [hexus.net]
It's not just the UI. The quest-heavy gameplay (as opposed to the Everquest/FFXI grind), the way the classes are balanced, etc. All that stuff is lifted from WoW, and certainly
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I sure hope they didn't use WOWs balancing! (Score:3, Interesting)
Balance was the one big thing WoW didn't understand.
Listen! (Score:2)
Skip if not a die-hard, skip it if you are. (Score:5, Informative)
Highs:
Landscapes and landscape features are nicely done.
Water reflectivity encompasses all drawn items
Quest system. The idea is to flood you with them. Some are new variations of FED-EX others are same old stuff, but its an alternative
No Mages... uh
Traits. The idea was good..
Lows:
ALL, and I mean ALL, indoor areas are INSTANCED. This means if you want to enter a building you instance to do so. Even if this means just going in to complete a quest with no more than a click of a dialog.
NPCs use a different animation engine from PCs, hence they are lifeless and dull. Eyes that don't blink, no facial movement, etc. Some do some animated scripts, but only with other NPCs.
Quest system. The idea is to flood you with them. Yet its really the same old stuff repackaged.
Traits, think Talents from WOW but more random. This is where the grind is. Some examples, trying to gain one trait required me to kill literally hundereds of slugs, yes slugs. It seemed all traits were gained this way.
Magic. They simply renamed it. Don't for a minute believe there are not mages and priests in this game. Loremasters are mages pure and simple. They throw fireballs.
Animation system, combat system is boring. Animations don't even take into account parries and dodges so even though the game said you parried its not drawn. Combats can also take place with a sizable distance between combatants making it look silly.
User Interface. Still Turbine's worst suit. They can't code a UI to save their lives. It looks like each part was done by a different team. Some look very "period" - meaning belonging to a fantasy game, while others look like a PDA from Half Life.
Remember first and foremost that this is Turbine. They love to make promises, they just take forever to deliver them or they don't. They also are on record as being the first game company to permit Automated Combat Macros, they also released a major expansion to a game only to announce shutdown 3 months later, and they still haven't delivered half of what they promised for DDO.
Oh, to top it off, those who pre-order get into beta. Nothing unusual there, except this time they can take their beta characters from that beta into release to get a jump on the rest of the people.
Pass. Its LOTR in name only, more like AC2 with hobbits
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
This will be like SWG? (Score:2, Insightful)
Wouldn't KOTOR style have been much better, giving the developers free rein over what happens, while being able to use the vast story materials.
We already know what happens here, and we aren't going to change it. Too much like real life
I don't see it working. (Score:2)
It may be a great game, but I'm not sure how it will work as "Lord of the Rings" material.
Turbine Games ... ugh (Score:2)
Asheron's Call was an awesome game, very inovative in a lot of ways
AC2 was a dog.
Online AD&D. See: AC2.
Hopefully
- Roach
Re:Wait a minute... (Score:4, Insightful)
I normally refer to them as MMOG because apart from a few really great people in CoV I have seen remarkably little in the way of RP in games these days (and yes, I do make a point that if someone is RPing, I will attempt to RP back).
Parent
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As to the criticism of the diversity of the mobs, well they are somewhat constrained by the lore. They cannot invent a bunch of monster types to inhabit the lands. On the other hand, I have yet o play a game until this that has such sumorous and thought provoking quests. Yes, there's lots of kill x quests, but there is at least as many that are part of longish chains involving various NPC's and situa
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$9.99 if you sign up early.
From the first article. [kotaku.com]