LOTRO Review
by John "Loktofeit" Albano
Intro - "Before I speak, I have something important to say."
I have fond and distinct memories of my Mother's horrified look as I walked around the house singing "Where there's a whip, there's a way," and even more fond memories of the humorously bewildered look as I tried to explain her where I got the phrase from. A few years later, I had the pleasure of being able to read the books that these fantastic movies came from, and further enjoy the tales of Tolkien on yet another level. In the recent past, the new movies have brought the story even more to life with epic Hollywood flare. Turbine takes Lord of the Rings to the next step - we've read about the world and we've seen movies of it, but in April 2007 we get the chance to gather our fellowships and embark on our own adventures and tales in Middle Earth.
I've played a range of games from UO to WOW and what holds my attention more often than not are the diversions and the community - I have Centipede and Space Invaders if I want to sit around gaining points and leveling. LOTRO seems to have drawn a lot from existing popular MMOGs and added in a range of extras to create a familiar yet unique game world.
The following categories will receive a numerical rating from 1(worst) to 10(best), and a brief summary of why I rated it how I did. These ratings and impressoins will be from my perspective - that of a casual gamer.
Races (9.0) - "Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?"
The races are the standard fare of hobbit, elf, dwarf, and human. Elves... oh, elves. Turbine spared us the exaggerated stupidity of several recent MMOGs. Female elves have clothes, male elves don't look like goth rejects, and both the donkey-ear handlebars and the double bowling balls for breasts are pleasantly absent. Turbine refrained from making the race a legion of promiscuous attention whores, and for that I thank them very much. Humans, are your middle of the road race. As usual, they're average at everything and can be all classes. Dwarves, are the short little stocky guys that you know and love. Hobbits are neat. They are the little busy folk that really add life to the land. You'll notice The Shire seems to come alive with both player and NPC hobbits. Appearance choices for each race change based on the place of origin you choose for your character. My old dark-skinned brown-eyed Gondorian looks extremely different from my pasty white green-eyed redhead gal from Rohan.
I gave the Races a 9.0 because there isn't really any way to improve on the races other than to make up some new ones and that wouldn't fit in the lore too well. While they are the same races we are used to, they managed to make them less annoying and irritating than in most recent MMOGs.
Classes (9.0) - "If you've heard this story before, don't stop me, because I'd like to hear it again."
The character classes are the Burglar, Champion, Guardian, Hunter, Lore-Master, and Minstrel. The names have changed, but the classes remain the same. Your rogue, damage dealer, tank, ranged, mage, and healer are all ready to be played in the same manner that you've been playing them probably for the past eight years. I blame the lack of diversity more on the benefits of familiarity than anything else. Classes and the "know your role" experience aren't normally what I find fun, but Turbine's system of skills and traits really impressed me. Traits are acquired by accomplishing deeds. Those deeds could anything from the completion of a number of quests in an area to the mass slaying of a type of creature to the simple use and perfection of a particular skill that you have. Similar to the Guild Wars skill system, you can have a collection of traits but only have a set numberof them in use at any one time. Not only does it allow for specializing and customizing your character, but it allows you to adjust your character to suit a specific adventure or task you are about to embark on.
I gave the class system a 9 because they have a unique system that I found to be a source of questing and adventure in and of itself, but it lost a point to the use of the same characters we've been seeing over and over in the majority of MMOGs.
Crafting (9.0) - "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others."
The crafting system allows people to take Vocations. Each vocation is made up of three crafting related professons - two of which play off of each other and the third that usually requires resources from another player's profession. The professions I tried were farmer and the ore/wood gathering profesions. Each of the professions has unique animations that add to the entertainment value. The farmer bends over and gathers his crops, the tailor lays out the material and goes to work, and the jeweler works his gems with scrutiny. A lot of little touches keep the skills entertaining. By myself, I didn't find the crafting of much value as I could buy or find better bows and armor than I seemed to be able to make, but as a member of our Kinship, it proved rather rewarding. It was fun to funnel supplies up to our crafts people one day and get new toys in the mailbox the next.
I gave crafting a 9.0 because after 10 levels of it, I still found it overall to be a rewarding and entertaining experience. The items I was harvesting were still of value to the Kinship, and the items that were being sent back were useful.
Equipment (7.5) - "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."
From what I saw, the equipment leaves a good bit to be desired. The best part about the preorder gear is that they add a bit of diversity to the sea of endless orange capes in every direction that you look. I am hoping that there is some decent diversity as the levels go up, because right now everyone looks the same except some have different silly hats. I like the fact that if there is a robe pattern that I like, it's still avaialble so that I can keep the same look as I level up, however, I only found two different robes in 15 levels of playing - the standard patchwork robe, and a green one. And then there is item decay and damage. This can affect everything you are wearing and even the items in your bag. As the items are damaged, the value goes down. This proves extremely frustrating for the players that suffered several deaths, as now not only do they have a higher repair bill, but they also receive less cash for their loot they planned to sell to pay for the repairs. I'm fine with item decay, but it seems to be done to an unnecessary level in LOTRO. Now, I'm not a powergamer, so I may have just been blind to it, but I didn't notice a difference in damage taken or given whether my gear was fully repaired or near falling apart. It makes me wonder if there is a future plan for item decay or it was some random ex-EQ flagellate on the team that felt there was a serious lack of punishment in LOTRO and wanted to remedy that.
I've seen the armor and attire at the level 50 range but I only saw one set per class. The gear that I saw looked really sharp and detailed, but if everyone is going to end up with the same set at the end, then I'm not all that impressed.
I gave equipment a 7.5 because, even though the gear looked great and the items seemed useful, it seemed to regularly repairs and there didn't seem to be much diversity to it.
Combat (9.5) - "Remember, we're fighting for this woman's honor, which is probably far more than she's ever done!"
The combat seems just plain fun. I've played the 1-15 range solo and with groups, and I played level 50 with a group. Combat comes in a range of flavors and you experience several of them through yuor first ten levels or so. You start off with the static "kill me now" kind of mobs that stand around just waiting for you to murder them. After that, you graduate to mobs that aggro. From there you move on to the three bandits staring into space and don't notice you killing their 2 friends across the court yard until you decide to pull their group next. Then you get to experience the nuthouse kind of combat where there are mobs in every direction that aggro. For my human characters that was some nasty underground spider lair place where you have winding corridors, webs everywhere, spiders in each direction, and that includes dropping from the ceiling. I noticed a gradual increase in my participation in combat as I increased in levels. With additional skills and the variety in the behavior of the mobs as I leveled, I found combat to be more and more engaging as I progressed. The level 50 Champion experience was impressive. Picking and choosing the traits that I wanted to "plug in" before battle, managing skills, and dungeon crawling was a blast. Combat maneuvers proved a really fun team feature, and group combat was really entetaining. You know those commericals for board games where everyone looks like that are having an abnormally great time playing? That's how it felt going through the isntance we went through. The game allows for avenues of retreat, mobs that don't chase forever, line of sight attacks (instead of getting hit by a spell through a tree or house), and several other logical features that made it a fun and engaging instance instead of a "do or die" "win or wipe" outcome. The mobs are about as stupid as your average MMOG mob, but the mechanics of combat keep it fun.
"But.... what about PvP?" I'm glad you asked...
PvP/MonsterPlay (9.5) - "I won't belong to any organization that would have me as a member."
MonsterPlay (MP) is something that I think everyone should try at least once, whether they are a PvPer or not. As a Creep (monster) you really have nothing to lose and plenty to gain. The MonsterPlsy 'arena' is The Ettenmoors, and there's a good amount of diverse terrain to make for some nice combat scenarios. You can fight to complete quests, fight just to run up Destiny Points to buy buffs and extras for your main character, and fight to take keeps. More than likely you will remember the first time you take a keep. The keep's banners change, the sky and weather changes, and the availablility of certain quest characters change. MP also includes ranking, ratings, and kill counts. All in all, it's an accessible and rewarding combat experience.
Exploration (9.5) - "Whoever named it necking was a poor judge of anatomy."
The world is small in size only. Each area of the game world has a variety of things to do or see within it. A lot of people judge the size and scope of the game world by how fast they can run across it. Running across the existing game world will probably take a quarter of the time to run across most newer game worlds, however the catch is that in LOTRO there is something to do or interact with almost every step of the way. Turbine doesn't create 80-acre fields of nothingness just to brag about a big world. They take each acre of land and figure out what they can do to make it fun. Midgewater Marsh is a good example of that. There are three or four different locatoons for quests and the 'camping' crowd. There's mobs throughout the swamp. There are ways to enter/exit in most directions instead of the normal theme park system of entering on one side, seeing your sights, and exiting to the next assigned region on the other side. There are resource nodes scattered about the swamp, and the mobs drop items useful for selling, using, or crafting.
The world and game design is conducive to exploring. In some other MMOGs, if you enter a zone prematurely, you get your butt handed to you and you are escorted to the door. In LOTRO, you can go meandering around with reasonable caution and also reasonable chance of survival. LOTROVault hosted a Rivendell Run where we had a group of level 6 players run to a destination that took them through mobs in a level 30 area. We lost a lot of people but several, even in their fit of reckless abandon, made it safely across. It wasn't isnta-death the minute a level 30 glanced in your level 6's direction. That's key for an explorable world - there has to be the ability for the player to say "Oh shmiz, I need to turn back, NOW," even if they come to that realization a bit late. On top of all of that, there's places to go that are worth visiting sheerly for the diversion they provide. Two things that I suggest: the pie-eating contest and the 'tag' arena.
I gave exploration a 9.5. You are not funneled from one area to another. You aren't crossing barren stretches of nothingness. The game world is full of more than just places to go and see. It is filled with plenty of things to do when you get there.
Questing (9.0) - "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know. . . . But that's entirely irrelephant to what I was talking about."
This is the first time in a long time that I actually stop to read the quests rather than just scroll to the end to see how many foos to kill and what the reward is for said carnage. The human quests are interesting to read. The hobbit quests are amusing and sometimes involve tricky evasive tactics to get your deliver safely to its location. Dwarven quests have great story and often have a certain sense of import to them. What impressed me most about the quests is they had relevance to what was going on in the area. In Archet, after it was burnt down, you were gathering a citizen's scattered belongings, burying the dead, and dealing with issues that related to what was actually going on. Now, there's very little difference in mechanics between these quests and, say... being sent for a shopping list of ostrich beaks, zebra hooves, lizard claws, and tiger paws. The difference is in the relevance to the story. In LOTRO, you learn what happened through quests and you become part of what is going on right now. There's a certain immersion to that. Even if one doesn't feel it to be immersive, there's an undeniable relevance that makes it more palatable because it feels like there is a reason that you are doing what you are doing.
The quests keep me entertained and give me that feeling of being part of the story. I don't need to change the world, just to know that my actions have anything to do with what is going on around me. A 9.0 for LOTRO's ability to provide that for me.
Interface (7.5) - "Room service? Send up a larger room."
LOTRO's interface is functional and provides all the main features that one needs. It doesn't really go out of the way to provide the convenient extras, though. Scaling and custom chat windows seem to be missing options, and alot of the windows, altough providing useful and intuitive information, just seem to use up an extreme amount of screen real estate. I was also surprised to see a lack of an interface editor or customization system. You can reskin it, but that's about it. One thing that I really liked about Shadowbane was the ability to completely alter my interface to have the data that I wanted and needed in the size, shape, and place that I needed it. Since then, only WOW seems to have taken that torch and run with it. The interface is functional and allows for the movement of its various objects about the screen, but it doesn't go much further than that.
I give the interface a 7.5 because it works well, but I feel so much more could have been done with it to make it less intrusive and more flexible.
Community (10) - " Why should I care about posterity? What's posterity ever done for me?"
Whether the game itself fosters community or whether it is the people that it attracts, LOTRO has one of the most interactive crowds that I have seen in an MMOG in a long while. Socializing extends beyond the immediate guild/kinship in LOTRO, and you can often find peopel gathering and and around the Prancing Pony to share tales or watch a few musicians perform. In the past month or so, several events have been run, drawing nice-sized crowds of participants. In my travels around the boards, it was a commonsite to see posts from one Kinship leader to another introducing themselves as a fellow Kinship on their particular server. To me, thisis an excellent sign. Lately, a common post during the first few months of an MMOG's release is "Where's the community?" Community is built by the efforts of the players to reach out to and interact with each other. I see that among the LOTRO players. Seeing that build now is promising. When the players view the enviroment as "our community" instead of "just a game" it usually results in a much more enjoyable game environment for everyone. That's an important part of MMOGs, and an important part of ANY social structure that wants to succeed. LOTRO has it, and it's a promising sight for the game's future.
A big fat 10 goes here.
Graphics (9.5) - "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."
It's great when a game offers exceptional graphics. It's amazing when they make it so that the average user can experience them and experience solid performance without having to go out and spend another $300 to $600 on upgrades. I have an Athlon 3400 with a 7600GS and an Althlon 5200 with an 8800GTS. The graphics are beautiful on both machines. The nighttime lighting and the daytime vistas are incredible. From the swaying flora to the way your Weaver digs and hides to the reflection of the landscape on the impressive running streams, LOTRO graphically delivers. Not just in screenshots, but in regular gameplay and even video. LOTRO serves up some of the best graphics that I have seen in an MMOG, with a graphics engine designed well enough to allow me to crank it up on even my midrange machines and get exceptional graphic quality. This is, by far, one of the best advances in MMOGs. It's usually been pretty accepted by the MMO community that you need the latest offering from Alienware or Falcon Northwest in order to experience an MMOG with the sliders on high. Turbine proves that it is possible for MMOG developers to provide decent graphics on their dime instead of yours.
9.5 here. A beautiful game world, and a solid engine to allow the majority of players to be able to experience and enjoy it.
Sound (9.0) - "What do you say the three of us get married: You girls have everything, you're short and tall, and slim and stout, and blonde and brunette. And that's just the kind of girl I crave!"
The game offers a nice range of sound effects and some great background music. Add to that an entire music system that allows players to play music in-game on a variety of instruments. Games like Asheron's Call spoiled me on sound, with satisfying critical hits, atmosphere noises, and crisp spell effects, but LOTRO does shine well despite the tough competition. Between the game sounds and the music system, the game earns a 9.0 from me.
Summary - "Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted."
In summary, I'd say the game just plain rocks. Not just because it gave me an excuse to go to Turbine HQ and not just because it gave me an excuse to use a bunch of Groucho Marx quotes, but because Lord of the Rings Online offers a solid game engine with engaging gameplay. No excuses. No cut corners. No throwing a half-finished product out the door. Turbine was put to task to create a game that does the franchise justice and they have done exactly that.
And if you see a spider in the Ettenmoors that can't fight to save his soul, stop and send a /cheer... I can use the encouragement. ;)
Overall Score
9.0
