I wish I could read this review, but paragraphs keep disappearing. There are still plenty of glitches on this site since the makeover . . .
Anyway, about the game, I think it's excellent. I appreciate the attention to detail and the way Turbine made a huge effort to bring Middle Earth alive.
I could go on with my own comments, but I think everything has been said already about this game, now if you're reading this and you haven't yet tried it, get into Middle Earth and see for yourself!
The review can still be modified. The text has the base for a vote that's more than 8. So, he should at least change the community vote and give it at least 8.
A living creature that has stopped evolving is not worth existing.
For me the review read like dribbling hype falling straight from lips of Turbine. Did you actualy sit down and put in 40 hours worth of actual play? Not using a company given super character?
I wanted to get a first hand taste for the game so I got in on the free trial. I understood the level 15 cap but did not understand why there was no cap on the skills(?) as I was simply able to travel to the top area (Angmar) and mine away. Level 15 was easy. I did that in 2 days all solo as a Hobbit Burgular. Most of the quests were mind numbinginly boring. As you explore the area you find this and that palce. Run from X to X as a postman and run from X to X carrying pies were possibly the very worst!
Character customization was almost completely forgotten in this game. As you ran around, no matter what race and class you were playing at the time, all you seen was copies of yourself. May as well stick to the oriental games and have 1 character look.
As for the fighting? Well that was so ho hum to me. Every class gets the exact same skill at the exact same levels as exactly like everyone else in that class. Can we all say "Cookie Cutter"?? Can we all say "Boring"??
Crafting was very droll and mundane. When will programmers get the sense to see that if an item calls for Dye let the dye that is used be players choice? Have quality be determined my many variables not just because you are a blacksmith you can create "this" exactly the same as anyopne else who chose to take that craft and is at the same level as you. I'd say blacksmithing should at least have intelligence, over all experience in doing it, strength, and some dexterity considerations. Not just that you have made XX amount of knives you are now skilled in making bastartd swords of the finest quality right from your first try. Where was the failures? Where is the challenge? Where is the need to actually work it??
Lastly in my rant:Death!What use is there to having death that has almost no penalty to it at all? Opps I died. Now I have 10 minutes of dread. Oh NO!! What am I going to do??? Oh i'll go take a Bio break grab a drink and when I come back it will be gone. Repair costs? Almost nil. Come on people out there give me a game where if I am in battle and I am barely winning , in danger of losing, I want my pulse to quicken and my hands to sweat!! I want death to hurt me. I want death to mean something. I dont want to lose a months worth of work, but I want to lose a decent amount so that it makes it worth my while to know how to fight in the first place. As games stand now it is just tackle something see if you win or lose. if you lose wait a level if you win grind it if it is now too cheap in the XP.
Sorry Turbine you have produced another dud that I will not buy and play. But don't feel bad. it is not your company I dislike, it is just your game.
My personal views. Not expecting anyone to agree with me. Take the time to form your own oppinions.
sorry but you have to play the game after lvl 15 and do the epic quests. the game was capped on open beta because turbine didn't wanted to show everything, remember there is more then 2000 quests, alot of deeds to raise your traits, game is full of content, and more coming on first update, il say there is enough content for six months at least. i have hardcore players in my guild that didn't had time to complete all deeds that they could at lvl 15. Craft is much better then what people thinks, there is unique recipes, and if you use mastery for critical, you can double that item status. i could go on and on, but really people need's to play the game now to judge it, not while in beta with evrything capped.
Just bought and loaded LOTRO and I guess the jury is still out. It feels like a cross between AC2 and WoW. Graphics are ok but can't call them outstanding. There are a load of mini-quests like WoW (I call them "jobs"), relatively fast game play, decent crafting system but I can't say as I feel as if I'm in Middle Earth. I've played many MMORPG's and I honestly don't see how this one is all that different. I'll leave it on my computer for a while longer to see how things flush out. Based on my very limited time playing I'd give it a 6.5 but that could go up or down in time.
if you want a costly death, go play EVE Online. Losing your 120,000,000 isk BS to a gate ganker is about as costly as it gets. However the death in this game at least has SOME penalty, however small. Games such as WoW and EQ2 have pretty much no penalty. So I really don't understand your rant on that particular aspect of the game. Although you have made some other points I agree with.
This review was about as good as the lotr game. Bland, no depth, generic, uninspired. Lots of games are going to be clones, watch for tons of these types of games in the future as the bandwagon loads up. Here's an article about how much more of the fodder like this game is to come...
Thank you MMORPG.com for recognizing the discrepancy in the initial publish of this article. Bravo I look forward to a comprehensive review of the game in the future.
if you want a costly death, go play EVE Online. Losing your 120,000,000 isk BS to a gate ganker is about as costly as it gets. However the death in this game at least has SOME penalty, however small. Games such as WoW and EQ2 have pretty much no penalty. So I really don't understand your rant on that particular aspect of the game. Although you have made some other points I agree with.
I have played it. Matter of fact if it is on the market it is probably sitting on our shelves. My kids are the envy of the schools as they have had access to everything. Some days I can't play because concentration is distracted by a dozen kids in the puter room.
My Death rant was about all games in general with a quip about this one. I use to play a MUD with permadeath. You did have safeties with favors but the cost in favors was random and you might wind up permadead if the random # was more than the favors you had if you chose to depart and rez in a temple. There was also a Cleric class that could rez you for a set price in favors but it cost the Clerics too so that service was offered at a cost by them. But when I played that I actually was deeply immersed into the fight to the death battles. Asheron's Call death where you had to run naked and find your corpse gave a battle more flavor. WoW's run to the body is also a penalty but then rezing on the spot with all your gear back on with such low damage to it .... makes it become --- blah.
What would I personally like added to the fighting to make it make me squirm in my seat with sweaty palms and an elevated heart rate? That is hard to answer. Reduced stats if the game is based on Health, Stamina, Strength and the like. A cumulative death penalty that lasts at least 1 hour online timer, Subsequent deaths within that timer adds additional penalties. Equipment damages. Say equipment has a durability of 100. Each death reduces that durability by 1 point forever. And by 25 % until the item is taken to a shop for repairs. I like the idea of having to go back to where you fell or have the option to grant a player the ability to drag your corpse to another location so that you can meet, retrieve your items from the corpse, pick them up and wear them again.
But to sell to todays kids who are handed everything on a platter - - - they would cry about having to actually play smart.
I liken this to playing racing games where you have the option of Arcade mode or simulation. I'm tired of Arcade mode. Oh well. Every once in a while I feel the need to open my mouth and speak out. Today is one of them.
this game aint rated 8.5 lol.i cant beleive it.if you are tried of guildwars or wow .might be nice but if you can be patient wait for another game too expensive to be worth it monthly fee are way higher then wow.i regret to have shelled all that money .i has some cool stuff.but if you overplayed everquest2 and your tired of it dont go here cause you will fall in memory lane. 20 a month canadian .you are way beter off with guild wars graffic on older system will be way nicer on guild wars then on this game.espacially since summer is coming .sorry if i tho it was worth it i would say so i got cought by the lotr online thing and i should have sticked with the tried and true wow gw and all the others that have million players playing .
willgar if you ever tried guild wars with like me lets say a centrino duo 1.67 ghz proc .with X1400 ati graphic.you would understand that it should be working fairly good.but some game like eq2 or lotr online are so resource hungry it will take massive amount of everything to be able to see just part of the eye candy .guild wars is nice .thats one fact ,game is fun pvp is crazy fun at lvl as low as i would venture to say 8 or 9.ton of quest if your inclined .and gw2 coming out in sometime in the future.i think even without gw or wow in the picture there are beter games then this out there.
you know do something people take the latest version of everquest2 and compare it to lotr online and it runs the same way both .only one problem with this picture how old is everquest2..lot of rating didnt compare those 2 ,but they should cause it gives a beter ballpark.
someone posted that and 8 + meant the game was worth playing .and that person is right if you dont mind the cost of the game AND the 20 dollars canadian a month no problem go play .but if you like your 15 dollars ca for wow a month dont change just yet .wait in september and see what happens.
Hi Donna and thank you for a simple but down to earth appraisal of LOTRo. Too many articles we read are simply market ploys to make the consumer buy a shoddy product. your article avoids this by simply stating the facts and not going overboard with your scoring. I play a captain on max graphics on a 200" screen and I think it edges Guildwars - for example the corn moving on the fields and trees swaying in the wind - only seen this level of plantation movement before in Project Entropia - I score the graphics/artwork/animations about 9.0 when comparing to what else is available on the market now. The combat has only one merit =NOT hitpoints but morale - plays like WoW or Everquest (both very poor for combat when compared with D&D online - but I have yet to try out the Fellowship combos - I think this is where the nuances will become important in combat situations especially player versus player in the Ettinmoors. (The option of playing in the Army of Sauron is very well executed - cannot fault this except that the evil players don't stand a chance!) The customisation of your character is intricate and rewards those who complete the various non-Ring bearer quests (for traits that is - seen this system before but here it is done brilliantly). Even like the fact food is integral to the game. I COULD GO ON AND ON but I won't. simply Lord Of The Rings Angmar takes all the best OR popular elements of fantasy mmorpg and beautifully executes them into one game. Thus it is now the best of its ilk.
I'm with you Donna the rating for LOTRO is just fine - there is nothing new in LOTRO just fine tuning of features from other MMO's that have gone before and as for the graphics/sound ratings they deserve no more than you gave them
I think the monsterplay deserves kudos, there at least they've stuck their neck out and done something innovative and IMO it presents a practical solution to the PvP problem.
Have to agree on the innovation on Monster Play. I fonly in the way that they have decided to keep the feel of the worlds Good vs. Evil approach.
With Monster play you ARE playing the evil that Saurons minion's represent. Rather than the usual well I want to play a Hobbit but he must be more disgusting and irrevocably malevolent than even Melkor himsself. That (and the usual L3g0l4s irrelavancy) is the sort of thing that pulls you straight out of the character environment in this sort of game (my opinion only).
sorry but you have to play the game after lvl 15 and do the epic quests. the game was capped on open beta because turbine didn't wanted to show everything, remember there is more then 2000 quests, alot of deeds to raise your traits, game is full of content, and more coming on first update, il say there is enough content for six months at least. i have hardcore players in my guild that didn't had time to complete all deeds that they could at lvl 15. Craft is much better then what people thinks, there is unique recipes, and if you use mastery for critical, you can double that item status. i could go on and on, but really people need's to play the game now to judge it, not while in beta with evrything capped.
Now first I need to say this isn't a criticism just a clarification as I appear to agree with your general opinion of the game, if not your criticism of the review
The Open Beta only ocurred on the US server and was IIRC from beginning of April. The Euro servers didn't have there own equivalent Open Beta till the 14th April and had no such cap.
The reviewer may well have (and I am not saying she did) gone well beyond the 15th level limit that the US servers had to endure. I know I got past that in the 10 days I had to play during "Early Access" and I know of others who got to 30th in the time allowed (madness in my opinion).
Epic quests = wonderfully personal storyline, Crafting = Good but still has some major issues (Farming anyone!)
Its actually a comment I have seen from many people that they dislike the game and only upon querying them you find that they played it for a couple of hours max. If anything is the games weakness its that the wonder comes with a little more time investment than a lot of MMOG window shoppers are happy to give.
Dont get that impression from the reviewer though.
endemonia your prob right .people if you do get this game do upgrade your computer to at least 2gb of ram if you got xp.vista beats me.and the other post about the monster system your absolutelly right its nice to be able to be the bad guy in the same server i think its the coolest thing.
i love the fact that you pass other player and oups they begin to play music lol and its some kind of defence too.LOL
i might as well try it for a while ,we have been waiting for a while for a new mmorpg.and to this fact this is i think a true mmorpg .
someone reminded me that i compared apple with orange last night.
and that person is right cause guild-wars is not in their own term a mmorpg ,its a corpg .
sorry to all.in this i got to correct my grain of salt and say that its a great MMORPG
ok now game programmer where is my next CORPG game
hmm... you lost me drbaltazar, i have no problem with guild wars or scoring systems. You like GW - that is great. My issue is with the quality and depth of the the LoTR review.
Comments
I wish I could read this review, but paragraphs keep disappearing. There are still plenty of glitches on this site since the makeover . . .
Anyway, about the game, I think it's excellent. I appreciate the attention to detail and the way Turbine made a huge effort to bring Middle Earth alive.
I could go on with my own comments, but I think everything has been said already about this game, now if you're reading this and you haven't yet tried it, get into Middle Earth and see for yourself!
A living creature that has stopped evolving is not worth existing.
For me the review read like dribbling hype falling straight from lips of Turbine. Did you actualy sit down and put in 40 hours worth of actual play? Not using a company given super character?
I wanted to get a first hand taste for the game so I got in on the free trial. I understood the level 15 cap but did not understand why there was no cap on the skills(?) as I was simply able to travel to the top area (Angmar) and mine away. Level 15 was easy. I did that in 2 days all solo as a Hobbit Burgular. Most of the quests were mind numbinginly boring. As you explore the area you find this and that palce. Run from X to X as a postman and run from X to X carrying pies were possibly the very worst!
Character customization was almost completely forgotten in this game. As you ran around, no matter what race and class you were playing at the time, all you seen was copies of yourself. May as well stick to the oriental games and have 1 character look.
As for the fighting? Well that was so ho hum to me. Every class gets the exact same skill at the exact same levels as exactly like everyone else in that class. Can we all say "Cookie Cutter"?? Can we all say "Boring"??
Crafting was very droll and mundane. When will programmers get the sense to see that if an item calls for Dye let the dye that is used be players choice? Have quality be determined my many variables not just because you are a blacksmith you can create "this" exactly the same as anyopne else who chose to take that craft and is at the same level as you. I'd say blacksmithing should at least have intelligence, over all experience in doing it, strength, and some dexterity considerations. Not just that you have made XX amount of knives you are now skilled in making bastartd swords of the finest quality right from your first try. Where was the failures? Where is the challenge? Where is the need to actually work it??
Lastly in my rant: Death! What use is there to having death that has almost no penalty to it at all? Opps I died. Now I have 10 minutes of dread. Oh NO!! What am I going to do??? Oh i'll go take a Bio break grab a drink and when I come back it will be gone. Repair costs? Almost nil. Come on people out there give me a game where if I am in battle and I am barely winning , in danger of losing, I want my pulse to quicken and my hands to sweat!! I want death to hurt me. I want death to mean something. I dont want to lose a months worth of work, but I want to lose a decent amount so that it makes it worth my while to know how to fight in the first place. As games stand now it is just tackle something see if you win or lose. if you lose wait a level if you win grind it if it is now too cheap in the XP.
Sorry Turbine you have produced another dud that I will not buy and play. But don't feel bad. it is not your company I dislike, it is just your game.
My personal views. Not expecting anyone to agree with me. Take the time to form your own oppinions.
sorry but you have to play the game after lvl 15 and do the epic quests. the game was capped on open beta because turbine didn't wanted to show everything, remember there is more then 2000 quests, alot of deeds to raise your traits, game is full of content, and more coming on first update, il say there is enough content for six months at least. i have hardcore players in my guild that didn't had time to complete all deeds that they could at lvl 15. Craft is much better then what people thinks, there is unique recipes, and if you use mastery for critical, you can double that item status. i could go on and on, but really people need's to play the game now to judge it, not while in beta with evrything capped.
Just bought and loaded LOTRO and I guess the jury is still out. It feels like a cross between AC2 and WoW. Graphics are ok but can't call them outstanding. There are a load of mini-quests like WoW (I call them "jobs"), relatively fast game play, decent crafting system but I can't say as I feel as if I'm in Middle Earth. I've played many MMORPG's and I honestly don't see how this one is all that different. I'll leave it on my computer for a while longer to see how things flush out. Based on my very limited time playing I'd give it a 6.5 but that could go up or down in time.
if you want a costly death, go play EVE Online. Losing your 120,000,000 isk BS to a gate ganker is about as costly as it gets. However the death in this game at least has SOME penalty, however small. Games such as WoW and EQ2 have pretty much no penalty. So I really don't understand your rant on that particular aspect of the game. Although you have made some other points I agree with.
This review was about as good as the lotr game. Bland, no depth, generic, uninspired. Lots of games are going to be clones, watch for tons of these types of games in the future as the bandwagon loads up. Here's an article about how much more of the fodder like this game is to come...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6431207.stm
I have played it. Matter of fact if it is on the market it is probably sitting on our shelves. My kids are the envy of the schools as they have had access to everything. Some days I can't play because concentration is distracted by a dozen kids in the puter room.
My Death rant was about all games in general with a quip about this one. I use to play a MUD with permadeath. You did have safeties with favors but the cost in favors was random and you might wind up permadead if the random # was more than the favors you had if you chose to depart and rez in a temple. There was also a Cleric class that could rez you for a set price in favors but it cost the Clerics too so that service was offered at a cost by them. But when I played that I actually was deeply immersed into the fight to the death battles. Asheron's Call death where you had to run naked and find your corpse gave a battle more flavor. WoW's run to the body is also a penalty but then rezing on the spot with all your gear back on with such low damage to it .... makes it become --- blah.
What would I personally like added to the fighting to make it make me squirm in my seat with sweaty palms and an elevated heart rate? That is hard to answer. Reduced stats if the game is based on Health, Stamina, Strength and the like. A cumulative death penalty that lasts at least 1 hour online timer, Subsequent deaths within that timer adds additional penalties. Equipment damages. Say equipment has a durability of 100. Each death reduces that durability by 1 point forever. And by 25 % until the item is taken to a shop for repairs. I like the idea of having to go back to where you fell or have the option to grant a player the ability to drag your corpse to another location so that you can meet, retrieve your items from the corpse, pick them up and wear them again.
But to sell to todays kids who are handed everything on a platter - - - they would cry about having to actually play smart.
I liken this to playing racing games where you have the option of Arcade mode or simulation. I'm tired of Arcade mode. Oh well. Every once in a while I feel the need to open my mouth and speak out. Today is one of them.
this game aint rated 8.5 lol.i cant beleive it.if you are tried of guildwars or wow .might be nice but if you can be patient wait for another game too expensive to be worth it monthly fee are way higher then wow.i regret to have shelled all that money .i has some cool stuff.but if you overplayed everquest2 and your tired of it dont go here cause you will fall in memory lane. 20 a month canadian .you are way beter off with guild wars graffic on older system will be way nicer on guild wars then on this game.espacially since summer is coming .sorry if i tho it was worth it i would say so i got cought by the lotr online thing and i should have sticked with the tried and true wow gw and all the others that have million players playing .
i give it an 8 like everquest2.
someone posted that and 8 + meant the game was worth playing .and that person is right if you dont mind the cost of the game AND the 20 dollars canadian a month no problem go play .but if you like your 15 dollars ca for wow a month dont change just yet .wait in september and see what happens.
Hi Donna and thank you for a simple but down to earth appraisal of LOTRo. Too many articles we read are simply market ploys to make the consumer buy a shoddy product. your article avoids this by simply stating the facts and not going overboard with your scoring. I play a captain on max graphics on a 200" screen and I think it edges Guildwars - for example the corn moving on the fields and trees swaying in the wind - only seen this level of plantation movement before in Project Entropia - I score the graphics/artwork/animations about 9.0 when comparing to what else is available on the market now. The combat has only one merit =NOT hitpoints but morale - plays like WoW or Everquest (both very poor for combat when compared with D&D online - but I have yet to try out the Fellowship combos - I think this is where the nuances will become important in combat situations especially player versus player in the Ettinmoors. (The option of playing in the Army of Sauron is very well executed - cannot fault this except that the evil players don't stand a chance!) The customisation of your character is intricate and rewards those who complete the various non-Ring bearer quests (for traits that is - seen this system before but here it is done brilliantly). Even like the fact food is integral to the game. I COULD GO ON AND ON but I won't. simply Lord Of The Rings Angmar takes all the best OR popular elements of fantasy mmorpg and beautifully executes them into one game. Thus it is now the best of its ilk.
Have to agree on the innovation on Monster Play. I fonly in the way that they have decided to keep the feel of the worlds Good vs. Evil approach.
With Monster play you ARE playing the evil that Saurons minion's represent. Rather than the usual well I want to play a Hobbit but he must be more disgusting and irrevocably malevolent than even Melkor himsself. That (and the usual L3g0l4s irrelavancy) is the sort of thing that pulls you straight out of the character environment in this sort of game (my opinion only).
The Open Beta only ocurred on the US server and was IIRC from beginning of April. The Euro servers didn't have there own equivalent Open Beta till the 14th April and had no such cap.
The reviewer may well have (and I am not saying she did) gone well beyond the 15th level limit that the US servers had to endure. I know I got past that in the 10 days I had to play during "Early Access" and I know of others who got to 30th in the time allowed (madness in my opinion).
Epic quests = wonderfully personal storyline, Crafting = Good but still has some major issues (Farming anyone!)
Its actually a comment I have seen from many people that they dislike the game and only upon querying them you find that they played it for a couple of hours max. If anything is the games weakness its that the wonder comes with a little more time investment than a lot of MMOG window shoppers are happy to give.
Dont get that impression from the reviewer though.
endemonia your prob right .people if you do get this game do upgrade your computer to at least 2gb of ram if you got xp.vista beats me.and the other post about the monster system your absolutelly right its nice to be able to be the bad guy in the same server i think its the coolest thing.
i love the fact that you pass other player and oups they begin to play music lol and its some kind of defence too.LOL
i might as well try it for a while ,we have been waiting for a while for a new mmorpg.and to this fact this is i think a true mmorpg .
someone reminded me that i compared apple with orange last night.
and that person is right cause guild-wars is not in their own term a mmorpg ,its a corpg .
sorry to all.in this i got to correct my grain of salt and say that its a great MMORPG
ok now game programmer where is my next CORPG game
hmm... you lost me drbaltazar, i have no problem with guild wars or scoring systems. You like GW - that is great. My issue is with the quality and depth of the the LoTR review.