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.

• 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 may seem derogatory to open a review by comparison to another game, but in this case the comparison is a positive one; it's worth saying up front: Lord of the Rings Online stacks up very well compared to the king of the genre, World of Warcraft (WoW). When WoW dropped on an unsuspecting PC market a little over two years ago, it changed the Massively Multiplayer industry forever. As a result, WoW has been an incredibly hard act to follow.

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.

The circle is now complete?

The circle is now complete.

Is there a reason you'd use a line from Star Wars (and probably older works like Stephen King's The Stand) to describe LoTRO? I mean, it's not like this game is the end of the LoTR cycle, is it?

That sounds like a cliche that should have been included in this week's poll ... used far too often at inappropriate times--unless for humor.

Need more abbreviations.

I'm all like OMG, WTF?

Sucks

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!

Re: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.

Just like World of Warcraft. Just open the combat panel to see all of the hits & affects.

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.

Just like World of Warcraft. Often times, I'll be fighting something, and it will walk right through me, and I'll get the retarded "You're facing the wrong way" message.

Despite all of these problems, I'm still pretty partial to WoW, so I'll be sticking with it instead of LOTRO. Plus the fact that WoW has a Mac OS X client is pretty important for us G4/G5 owning Mac users :-)

Re:Sucks

Maybe you were playing on Vista and it was just asking for confirmation?

Do you REALLY want to shoot that cute fuzzy animal? -- Yes/No/Cancel

Re:Sucks

I agree with pretty much all of your assessment. I tried playing this game a few times over the course of a week. 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. In LOTRO you get to see a message every time a player kills a monster, regardless if they are in your party. I never stuck around long enough to see if this was a feature you could disable, but why in the name of Mandos would you enable such an annoying thing by default??

More DAOC comparisons:
- There's no Fishing Skill
- You can't swim under the water
+ Combat system allows you to click ahead to follow up your last spell/move

If you've never played World of Warcraft, you may like LOTRO. If you are looking for an alternative to WoW, this may or may not be the game for you. Personally, I've canceled both :)

Re:Sucks

I've been playing MMO's since 2001

n00b

Re:Sucks

While I think sucks is a bit harsh, "polished" is the last word I'd use to describe this game. Where's the UI scaling option (its way too small on my monitor)? Hell, how do I get a clock on screen? Why do I have to change tools every time I switch between mining copper and chopping wood? I mean really, can't the game figure out that obviously I want to use the axe in my bag to chop wood?

Why does somebody with a really long name and title make it harder to right click on anything around them? Why does right clicking on them by accident (while trying to reach the mailbox their enormous name is in front of) cause a "General Error"? Why do quests tell me to go in the exact opposite direction of where I need to go, to fight Boars 12 levels below the quest level and thus not give XP?

Hell, why does a base stat (Fate) not work? Hello reviewer, a BASE STAT doesn't work! Thats not polished!

Why do I have a deed to kill 60 things in a swamp in the Lone Lands (followed by another deed to kill 120 of them if the pattern holds) when there are only seven spawns in the entire zone? The numbers worked fine for bandits (which there are lots of), but 180 kills with seven spawns? Even if there was no competition (and said mobs are a quest target too, so there is a lot of competition) that'd still take hours. Why does fast travel between zones have a level requirement, and normal horse travel take so bloody long?

Seriously folks. There is a lot of things to like in this game, but its certainly not "polished" yet. It could be a decent diversion if you're bored from WoW, but I think the reviewer was too busy drooling over the graphics to notice some major problems. (God forbid if he tries to level up Scholar, he'll have to spend days at a time camping low level ruins fighting bandits to search old pots, because you can't find the items you need anywhere else.)

Re:Sucks

There is a very good reason for turning off collision detection: griefing. If you have a guild of sufficiently large size they can wall of the entrance of some dungeon or plot point with their members. If it was a cave or a house, it wouldn't even take very many people. With collision detection on, sorry, you don't get to go in and do that part of the game/get the loot within/turn in your quest items/etc.

So then you'll probably say that's no problem, you can just go hostile, kill the offenders, and get on with your game. Since they're likely in the same faction as you, they should have to agree to go hostile with you. Of course they won't, since they have nothing to gain, so it would just be best to be able to turn hostile to anyone you want on a whim, right?

Nice try, no banana.

Once that happens, the griefers will run around killing low-level players and anyone else they like just for fun, and just to make them mad. Then they're likely to stop playing before making any kind of real progress.

It's just easier to leave collision off or almost off.

Re:Sucks

You realize that most MMOGs including WoW, the most successful MMOG ever, has every single thing that you mentioned? Have you ever played a MMOG before?

it actually has a window that says things like "You hit the wolf for two points of damage"

While it may not pop up, combat text windows and/or scrolling combat text is pretty much standard. Most MMORPGs are based around rules and random chance (rolls) that deal in numbers. Most MMOG players want to see those numbers.

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.

This is something that is (pun intended), hit or miss. Collision detection in a MMOG can be annoying as hell in high population areas when you want to get somewhere and can't (AC & CoH/CoV). The flip side is that not having it is unrealistic... and then you realize that what you're running through is a 1/2 imp dragon rogue with a purple hat. Realism is relative.

And the tasks suck. Spending half an hour searching for wild flowers is not my idea of fun.

Sweet Jesus! Their MMOG has grinding! Just like every other one!

And although the world is big, you can't really explore it - you can't open doors unless they are part of the plot

Sounds like trying to enter an instance/dungeon that you aren't attuned to/have the key for in... you guessed it... every other MMOG and well, practically ever other RPG ever made.

you can't smash crates or barrels or whatever to see what is inside them

You want every container you see to be breakable? First off, I get it now. You've only ever played Zelda games. Second, do you know how ridiculous that is? Do you want to be able to look behind every single painting? Read every single book? I'm sure they'll hire 1000 more developers and get right on that for you.

you even can't fight the NPCs or animals unless it is part of the plot.

and

if you try, for instance, trying to do something like shoot a sheep with your crossbow only to receive an error message

This is essentially the same as above. WoW has more of this than most MMOGs I've seen. You can kill rats in the cities, opposing faction NPCs (even quest NPCs). Even they don't have it so that you can attack every single living thing in the game. "I can't attack that" is what my Tauren says.

If you're going to bash a game for not living up to expectations, at least make sure they're realistic expectations first.

Re:Sucks

shoot a furry animal and the system does not let me, then make the arrow pass straight through it

Ok, let me get this straight... a message telling you the bunny isn't a valid target is unacceptable, and show lack of polish. While having arrows sail right through it, (which looks like a BUG) is ok? Seems pretty arbitrary to me. Personally I'd rather be told why my arrows are continuously missing.

You should be able to attack NPC but be aware that there are consequences. The system should handle situations like that gracefully. For example if an important merchant NPC in a city gets attacked, let the city guards show up to arrest the character. And if the merchant dies anyway, let it re-spawn. Make the stupid action that the character want to do available but make it not worthwhile.

"worthwhile" is an useless word. If people *can* do something, people will do something, even if its not 'worthwhile'. In EQ for example, for a long time you could kill the merchants and other NPCs. Its pretty annoying if you head to the bank or baker or quest giver and find he's not there because someones killing him / killed him.

Consequences? Let the city gaurds show up? Well, then we'll just kill them TOO. If we can raid a dragon-god-lava-monster with legendary artifact weapons I'm pretty sure a few gaurds who haven't stepped out of their village shouldn't be an obstacle.

EQ1 had a social aggro system... if you attacked an NPC nearby gaurds would attempt to kill you in response. So players just banded together and killed the gaurds too. The merchants didn't drop anything, gave practically no experience. Bored players killed them. Jerks who wanted to interfere with other players killed them. Eventually players complained because they couldn't finish quests and what not, and a lot of npcs couldn't be attacked, and even some entire areas became combat-free.

That would be my expectations and I think that they are both reasonable and realistic since even Ultima 6 had smart solutions for situations like that (I think it was released 1990 - that's 17 years ago).

ultima 6 was single player. quite frankly, yes, a lot of things had to take a gaint step BACKWARDS in order to accomodate keeping a few thousand players in any sort of reasonable sync.

Re:Sucks

Have you played a mmorpg before?

I can't tell if your just being sarcastic or not. People aren't modding you funny though, so I'm not the only one who thinks you at least *might* be serious.

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.

Par for the course:

World of Warcraft:
http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/wow/wow3.jpg [rpgfan.com]

"Your Shoot Bow hits Onyxia for 92."
"Onyxia suffers 99 Nature damage from Bryna's Serpent Sting." ...

EQ2
http://www.jeffmaloneshirtlesspvp.com/images/EQ2_0 04330.jpg [jeffmalone...esspvp.com]

"Tynsil's Mark of Nobility heals Doobers for 43 hit points."
"Udaho's Ghastly Shroud regenerates 133 points of absorption." ...

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".

So you aren't allowed to shoot the sheep, big deal. They aren't 'opponents' or 'killable creatures', they're just animated background, like a torch, or tree.

And calling that an "error message"? What is it supposed to say when you perform a disallowed action?
Did you also complain when you tried to lockpick a goblin?

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.

Go play everquest one. It lets you really explore. Of course, the moment you step into the side room the YOU-hating level 65 shadowknight leader was sitting in he executes you on the spot. Or when you get sent to see so-and-so, you can spend 3 hours checking nearly every room in the city, only to find out after much frustration that so-and-so only comes out at night, and he walks around too, and if you don't catch up to him in time his path takes him right to the level 65 shadowknight -- who kills him. (And you too if you happen to be nearby.)

Modern MMORPGs got rid of all that stuff because a lot of players complained bitterly about how it wasn't fair. All that open 'Exploration' was wasting time when looking for things, perpetually getting them lost, and often getting them killed. They wanted maps, and waypoints so they couldn't get lost. They wanted higher level aggressive mobs to be well marked, and far away. They didn't want to open doors and find BIG THINGS that could and would kill them.

So they got what they wanted.

Its sad really.

Re:Sucks

As I said elsewhere, its not that his criticims aren't valid observations of the genre in general, its that singling out LOTR and criticising it based on those 'expectations' is what is ridiculous.

For what its worth, I agree, the MMORPG genre can and should evolve, and his criticisms are valid of the genre.

But, if you buy a MMORPG today, and you see the damage scroll by in the text window, and you find this 'archaic and disappointing', then your expectations are WAY out of whack for the genre.

Its like climbing into a Volvo and then writing a scathing review about how they don't float, can't fly, can't dodge accidents, don't steer themselves, and require you keep pouring some sort of foul smelling liquid into them.

Those are valid observations, and I'm sure ALL of us would like like to see carsevolve to the point we have flying self navigating safe cars that run on dew drops. Nobody thinks cars shouldn't evolve.

But if you are going to review a modern car and the lack of these is 'disappointing' you deserve to be ridiculed.

Beware: Middle Earth license

The Middle Earth License is written in Elvish so you have no idea what you are agreeing to in the EULA.

No support for me

No OSX support, no Linux support. Guess I'm sticking with Warcraft for the time being.

Except Tolkien....

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....

Re:Except Tolkien....

Forget Bombadil, I want Wormtongue slitting Saruman's throat. At least Bombadil was left out completely. Saruman was brought in, developed, made an interesting part of the story, then dropped like a red hot palantir.

Re:Except Tolkien....

Just FYI the extended edition DVDs have Wormtongue killing Saruman. Not at the Scouring, but nonetheless.

Re:Except Tolkien....

The Extended Editions are, all around, vastly superior to the theatrical versions. There's still things missing / re-arranged (obviously, otherwise the movies would clock in at around 50 hours and watch similarly to how the Simarillion reads), but a fair amount of things that boil down to background/lore references (i.e a scene where Aragorn is on watch at night and singing a ballad of beren and luthien to himself, explaining the story to one of the hobbits) are included that would frankly have been lost on the theatrical mainstream viewer.

Re:Except Tolkien....

Good point. You've convinced me to join Disney in their fight to prevent any derivative works from every being created. Of course if we did that JRRT couldn't have written in the first place, as his works are derivative of several works of older lore, but hey, we'll have to take the good with the bad.

Seriously, what are you hoping to accomplish here? JRRT's work was great, I agree. The game is nothing like his work, I also agree. But I can't figure out how the game is diminishing the original work, or if it were, why you feel entitled to stop it -- one could just as easily argue that JJRT's work diminishes the game and that his books should be suppressed.

Re:Except Tolkien....

You seem very sure that Tolkien would have objected, but I can see no evidence. The man wasn't averse to an animated film after all. He may well have been intrigued by the idea of a multiplayer computer games based upon his work. He may well have embraced the whole idea with enthusiasm as a way to build a detailed world in the way that he loved, and making available to people in a way that they could interact with. Who knows.

Faithful to the books?

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.

The deeds system

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.

Accurate Review

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.

Bizarre to review it so early...

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?

WoW vs Other

It's not even a question that WoW wins. I didn't RTFA, but I don't know why it's on /. now considering this game came out back in April. Given that WoW has been out for 2+ years now, there are a large number of both casual and "hard-core" gamers that are getting tired with the game and looking for something new. The present MMORPG competition is starting to get better, but there haven't been any alternatives to WoW that have the power to convert a large number of WoW players to a completely different game.

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.

Uniqueness of LOTRO

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.

It looks terrible.

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.

Forgive the AC...

(Too lazy to dig up what my password is, as I haven't posted here in years...)

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 /music, they can begin playing. Number 1-8 play the appropriate note, while ctrl-# plays a flat version, and shift-# goes up an octave.

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 the Movie Comparison

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.

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.

Game isn't that Great

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.

Meh.

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.

Just Could Not Get Into It

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.

Fantasy MMOs have run their course

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.

No Howard Shore Soundtrack?

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.

But how is it as a timesink?

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!"

The Unholy Union of LOTR and D&D

I would be remiss if I did not point out that LOTR as D&D campaign has already been done [shamusyoung.com].

Fuck comparisons to WoW

Seriously. Fuck them.

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 ... ? whats next?) instead of trying to be the 10,000lb gorrilla.

That is all.

No mention of PvP...

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

What's up with those screenshots

Seriously. Elrond has a normal-sized forehead? Narsil is a coffee-table centerpiece? And what's up with that kung-fu grip?

Deeds are *not* unique!

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.

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. :-)

A generally very well-done review

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.

As always let me say...

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.

It's a decent game

I played LOTRO during beta and currently hold accounts.

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."

Inaccuracies in review

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.

The Grand Illusion

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!

Demo

I would like to try before I buy or invest money into LOTR online.

How about a mini multiplayer online game?

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.

Lord of the Pies

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...

Camera Control & Visuals

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.

What do you want?

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?

How to reposition the UI

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.

I own it

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?

As a WoW player AND Tolkien fan...

I beta tested LotRO and bought it when it was released despite the shortcomings I saw.

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.

One Ring to... Bah, forget this.

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)

Darkfall

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.

You missed it

lol I love reading reviews and then comments by people who just plain miss things or have it wrong.

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 ..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"

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.
 

Oh come on people!

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.

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! /punts a hobbit"

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

bbilbobb odorf afrodo billybo williambo

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).

Confusing review

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.

please update review in a month

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.

Fun Game!

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!! :-)

It's a shame...

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.

Middlin' Earth

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.

Nerf the Hobbit!

(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

Re:One thing is sure

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.

Re:Graphics

I couldn't agree more. I do have to say, though, that Guild Wars IMO has way better character graphics than either. I can't wait for GW2.

Re:You don't play much other than WoW, do you?

"Deeds = Badges in CoH, Virtues = Accolades"

Only superficially. Deeds completed earn either titles (badges) or virtues and virtue upgrades. Accolades in COH are typically very difficult to acquire and give you some unique bonus (ala the crey pistol or other powers). Virtues in LOTR are closer to enhancements in COH. Slotting them buffs your abilities or attacks - although some types of deeds can add totally new powers. Virtues have levels that increase as you do the appropriate deeds. So they become more powerful.
I think virtues can be considered somewhere between enhancements in COH and talents in WoW although you gain them in a manner similar to badges in COH.

Re:Mac user

I agree 100%. I also think that since Blizzard put some a popular game on the Mac, more people are willing to give it a shot. After all, I am one of those people. When I heard that WoW played really well on the Intel Macs, I dove in and bought one. I am very happy with my choice.

I have heard that LOTR was gonna be a cool game, but I am not going to get it. For 2 reasons:

1) Obviously, no Mac support ... I don't have Windows, nor do I need it. Not going to install it for a game ....
2) I think WoW is gonna be my last MMO, I played EQ for like 4 years, and played WoW since Beta ... it sucks too much time out of your life.

I have found that console games are much more fun. Generally, you can stop playing when you want .. your not locked in. You don't have issues with drivers or it not running on your slightly older rig.

Re:Another MMORPG which is commercially drained ou

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.

Re:Graphics

I couldn't agree less. The art design is one of the things I like most about this game. I still ENJOY taking long flight paths.