Lord of the Rings Online Review 351
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'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.
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.
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.
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.
Sucks (Score:2, Interesting)
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!
Except Tolkien.... (Score:2, Interesting)
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....
WoW vs Other (Score:3, Interesting)
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 (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Forgive the AC... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Sucks (Score:4, Interesting)
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 (Score:3, Interesting)
I was playing a hobbit. And shouldn't it be my choice about what I do in the game? At the very least, it could display a message saying "A hobbit would never do that!" rather than "forbidden action".
Re:Accurate Review (Score:3, Interesting)
I disagree. If you like games like World of Warcraft, then take a look, you might like it. But I love the books and really thought the game sucked completely. It's a game for fricks sake - above all it should be fun to play. Having a crappy combat system does not make for a good game, however faithful the game is to the books or pretty the graphics are.
Fantasy MMOs have run their course (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Except Tolkien.... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.... (Score:3, Interesting)
That's like saying your parents never had any rights to you as a child because, after all, you're made of the same stuff all other humans have been for eons. No, your parents uniquely made you, and therefore, had a right to raise and make decisions on your upbringing.
Yes, Tolkien 'borrowed' the stuffs of lore, but he so uniquely put it into a world, and such a unique world, that no one else has come close. As one friend told me, "when reading fantasy, never start with Tolkien." Why? Because you realize that all the rest is a rip off of him.
Tolkien's work is not even just another Dune or Star Wars or anything of the sort. Tolkien, as they say, wrote a good story, everyone else makes a stab at it.
Consider: how many authors create a language -- a full language -- for their work? Tolkien made five. How many develope an entire chronological cosmology -- from beginning to ending. How many create an entire mythos for this world? How many write an extremely detailed history from first created of a race until its end? How many do this for multiple races: dwarfs, elves, humans. Mind you, after all of this, almost as an after thought, he wrote LoTR -- as a filler for his world.
Now, tell me, wtf does this have to do with a game by the same name? Absolutely positively nothing.
The danger is this: every person or child who is introduced to probably the greatest story ever conceived and delivered will come into it
Yes, I am a biased fanboy....
Re:Sucks (Score:5, Interesting)
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:Fantasy MMOs have run their course (Score:3, Interesting)
The hard part is implementing this without impacting cash flow. That usually means appealing to the mob. Make some changes, and gaming public cries for bloody murder. Of course if it continues in one direction, then they vote with their wallets - by going to another game, where they get to be uber in that 'other' game.
Balancing the game to have the right mix of feeling uber and creating that 'magical, other world immersion' does not mix. Everybody wants to be Gandalf, not the wheat farmer that was responsible for feeding the 21st regiment which resulted in a major tactical victory for the Good Guy Kingdom.
Early games experimented with players having an impact with world-changing events. The net result is that players will do whatever it takes to 'complete the event' in the shortest amount of time. If there was an event that would cause a server wipe forcing everybody to start over on a clean slate, it would be extremely unpopular to casual players, although massively popular to the hardcore players. Businesses know that casual players are where the money is at. As long as companies know there is a golden goose at the end of the game development path when taking the path to appeal to the lowest common denominator, capitalism will dictate the quality of gaming and direction of MMORPGs. We're not going to see anything change, untill the market is completely saturated - and we thought it has been for several years, even before WoW came about.
It's gonna be a while.
Re:Sucks (Score:2, Interesting)
I agree with you that the hit messages most people would want to see (a lot easier to know if a weapon is effective or not).
I don't care about opening every single door that I see but if I would like to shoot a furry animal and the system does not let me, then make the arrow pass straight through it. Error messages I do not want to see. Error messages does not belong in a RPG (or similar) game. The system should be transparent so that you can focus on "role play", the scenery, the mission and most of all have some serious fun.
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.
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).
PS. Mod this AC insightful. No, I meant, "I bet this will be modded Troll"
That was my problem with it too, sorta (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Oh come on people! (Score:3, Interesting)
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