Lord of the Rings Online

Well, initially disappointed in it, I've started to warm to it again. Second beta client in.

Graphically, they've gone a bit too astray from the Peter Jackson vision we all know and love. The world is a bit too cartoony. A bit too colourful and 'feathered cap' for my liking. Where is the gritty mud soaked realism Wingnut films threw at us in 3 hour chunks? With Dungeons and Dragons Online login/update mechanism reskinned, the entrance to the LOTRO client is a bit too familiar. When you're in there, waves of deja vu wash over you, whispering Guild Wars and Asherons Call in your shell like. The world is well crafted, with some areas showing off sights to be dumb struck at, but mostly, you get the feeling, that this isn't the MMO of the film of the book.

The initial quests you are thrust into are simplistic, but flavoured enough in LOTR lore, for LOTR fans to be swept up in joining Elrond in battle, or seeing Gandalf and Gimli. As tutorial quests they do give you basics in a nicely presented way, although they get a bit tedious if you're on them for the 5th time (rolling different characters). Then you have a mini-area to play in and get your feet. Similar to Guild Wars, you get a tight knit area to run some quests and cut your teeth, with the skill progression, and the beginnings of your character tweaking. Once you've eeked out all quests and you've camped one or two bosses, with plenty of others, you get to run through another storied instance into the bigger world of Middle Earth.

You're more or less plonked into this without explanation. And the subtleties of the game are gleaned by plenty of chit and chat on the /ooc channel, or a brief search on the web for info-packed fan sites. The player achievements are very welcome, and you gain traits and skills and increases in your damage as you level up.

The combat is good in that many of the special skills you posses act in chains, so that you are always planning a chain to lay down on the enemy. Keeping you interested, and not just mindlessly mashing buttons. However, some of the melee combat is a bit weak willed. Doesn't feel satisfying. And the combat animations (as well as most of the player animations) feel awkward, mistimed and gangly. Since I played an archer (Elven, from Mirkwood, obviously!), there is satisfaction in coupling a double shot, with a barbed shot, which them adds a damage multiplier to a melee hit when they come up close and personal. Plus you have traps (which lay invisibly), with which to hold your pray and get another shot off at them. It may sound like the combat is rubbish, but its not, its just animated a bit rubbish. The combat actually works well, and the combinations you can lay down do always keep you in the action, especially with the variability of misses, evades and blocks coming into play. If only I could duel wield earlier than level 20, I'd have my Legolas clone with big daggers from the films. I do however have an attack that jabs the enemy in the face with an arrow. A personal favourite of mine.

I must say, I've found the LOTRO community to be about as hostile as you can get. Not Neocron hostile, but Guild Wars hostile. Theres a lot of trouble with having a multi-laguage server, being inundated with reams of french or german doesn't help sift the info. Also, asking questions rarely gets an answer, and forming fellowships (teams, parties) seems to be against most players religion. Being in a ravine full of players as well as menacing orcs, and then being jumped by three of orcs instead of the planned one, you'd expect the player populace to help out a bit. After all, you've spent some time plinking your mirkwood arrows into their beasts to help them out with adds. But no. They'll happily let you die. Some, will exploit the aggro of a helper, so that you help them with the damage, and attract the beasts attention, then they'll happily wander off to let you deal with it, and they'll take the experience reward and come back for the loot too.

I do like the idea that you kill animals in the field for their skins and bones to craft stuff from, rather than just because we needed something to kill. All your quarry seems fairly natural for the area. And a hunter, does indeed feel like they're hunting for their wellbeing, and not just because we need to kill x of y.

Lets try and summarise everything, I like the setting, that goes without saying. I'm not massively keen on the overly colourful rendering of it, but some areas I've seen are really well built (The Shire for instance), the characters are semi-realistic, but with a cartoon bent that Asherons Call suffered from, long before the WoW machine with its "art direction" come on the scene. The combat system seems satisfying enough, if only it was animated better to provide a bit more feedback. The crafting system seems to follow current convention, but its heirarchy and hopefully accessibility will remain to all, and not just the dedicated few. At least the client runs fairly well on lower end machines, we're not talking the juddering monster that Vanguard is here. However it doesn't come across as having the class or style that the DDO engine has.

I can see myself spending a while in the Shadows of Angmar. I enjoy the lore behind it. I enjoy the classes (especially the archer, where archery counts as the main attack skill and not just for pulling - something Asherons Call 2 did well) and the races - although I'd like to have seen a female dwarf option - sexists! I'd like to see how organised grouping works out, because at the moment, theres very little fellowshipping going on at the lower levels. If you prefer your MMO'ing with a bit more grind and substance, you'll probably want to tackle Vanguard. If you want the cartoon art direction and immediacy of WoW, perhaps WoW is where you should be, or Warhammer Online when its released. If you want something that leans between Guild Wars and WoW, with a lot of established Lore behind it (that could be trashed and ruined), and follows the likes of Asherons Call 2 then LOTRO might just be for you. If you can't decide, why not pick up the client and the beta key they're offering and join in the world now?


I think I'd like to be involved with a Legends LOTRO guild, so please show your interest in these forums and we can sort out a start up on the 14th April (when the pre-orders get access to the servers)