One MMO to rule them all?
With the Lord of the Rings Online, then, Turbine have set themselves a massive challenge. Formerly Middle Earth Online and developed by Sierra, Turbine pretty much scrapped everything at started again, in the process taking on the seemingly impossible tasks: Make a Lord of the Rings game that isn't forgettable pap, and make an online RPG that can compete with the behemoth World of Warcraft.
Perhaps the most shocking thing, then, is that Turbine seem to have done just that. At its most simple level, Lord Of The Rings Online: The Shadows of Angmar is a refined, well crafted experience that stands up on its own in either right. But the real strength of the game lies when you consider it as a whole, and just what it manages to do.
First off, you will need to create your character. LOTRO:SOA gives you the chance to play as Men, Elves, Hobbits, or Dwarfs, each of the main races of Middle Earth. All are available in male or female forms, with the exception of Dwarves- no bearded ladies here. You can choose from one of 7 classes, each of which has its own abilities and role to play, from the aggressive melee Champion to the stealthy Burglar, from the inspirational leadership abilities of the Captain to the animal control and spellcasting abilities of the Loremaster. Not all classes are open to all of the races- you can't be a Dwarfen Loremaster, and the race of Men are the only class who can lead others as a Captain- but there are a good selection available for each race. You can customise your character's hair, facial features, build and suchlike, and of course you'll need to give him or her a name. We created Berelain, an elf Champion from Lothlorien, so if you're ever around the Evernight server come and say hello. LOTRO then drops you into a tutorial introduction for your character which takes place before the game. These short, instanced quests set the tone for much of the game, whilst also instructing you in how to play. The Elf introduction we played took place in Edhelion, a good time before the Lord of the Rings story, where we found ourselves defending the Elven city from Goblins and Trolls under the leadership of an evil dwarf, fighting alongside Elrond. Other racial intro quests offer similar cameos; humans characters rescue a Sackville-Baggins who is being hunted by a Black Rider, and Dwarfs find themselves with Gimli at the farewell party for Thorin Oakenshield's party as they head to the Shire at the beginning of events in the Hobbit. The intro's are welcome, and set up story threads that are developed later on in the game.
The game proper begins around the time Frodo and his companions set out from the Shire. Your first five or so levels take place in a larger area with other new characters, again serving as an introduction to the way the game plays and some of its mechanics. It becomes clear from these early sections that the game places a heavy emphasis on questing and exploration rather than fighting; quests are abundant, even in introductory areas, and offer much greater rewards than can be gained from fighting enemies. Only after you have completed this story driven section are you allowed into the full world of Middle Earth, although you can chose to skip the intro and tutorial if you wish (be warned, though: you'll wind up starting the game with less experience and equipment if you do!). From there, you're free to explore as you wish and pick up further quests as you go along, and the quests are thankfully just as free flowing as the game progresses. Quest givers are highlighted on your map and in the game world with a golden ring symbol, making them easy to spot. The quests themselves run the gamut of typical 'hunt X monsters' or 'find X items' to more interesting and quite engaging explorations into ancient ruins, investigating old artefacts, and even delivering post to nearby towns whilst avoiding nosey hobbits. Most quests are linked in chains, and have their own story arcs.
Working in conjunction with the rest of the game though is the Epic Storyline. Yes, Storyline. LOTRO is fairly unique amongst MMORPGs in that the focus of the game is squarely on the epic storyline which your characters will experience. This storyline is divided into various Books, each of which will see you through a series of linked quests dealing with a major threat to Middle Earth. Many of these quests take place in private, instanced dungeons, either for you or a party of adventurers (more on those later), and are often woven around the events of the Lord of the Rings story. The first book, for instance, has you venturing into the Old Forest in Bree-land and seeking the assistance of Tom Bombadil to battle the Wights of the Barrow Downs after their awakening by the Fellowship. Other Books see you aiding Radagast the Brown to defeat a Wight who has arisen in the Trollshaws, and venturing into the ruins of the ruined Dunedain capital of Annuminas which has been overtaken by goblins and Angmarim.
Now, if those names don't mean much to you, don't worry. Whilst much of the game is squarely catered for fans of the books -and of the world in general- the well-written quest descriptions do a good job of explaining the situation to you and giving you a sense of involvement in the events which are taking place.
The other real innovation the game offers is in its Fellowship mechanic. Whilst the majority of the game plays similarly to most other MMO's on the market- 3rd person camera, auto attack combat, and an array of skills to use against your opponents- the Fellowship system differs slightly. Fellowships are what the game calls groups of players that have banded together, allowing them to share their abilities and take on much tougher opponents. Where LOTRO's strength in this area lies is in the way the different classes work together. A successful Fellowship will need to pool the abilities of all of its members, making especial use of the Guardian's ability to focus enemies' attention on himself and absorb huge amounts of damage and the minstrel's healing abilities, for instance. But this is nothing unusual- most MMO's have a similar mechanic. But LOTRO offers two things that set it apart- Traits and Conjunctions.
Traits are abilities that you can equip your character with once you have unlocked them. Traits have varied effects, from increasing the amount of damage you deal or reducing the amount you receive, to giving you new abilities and powers normally reserved for specific classes. This means that no two characters need ever be the same, and group members can take on roles that would normally not be suited to their characters- a Champion, for instance, might take on a defensive role using the right mixture of Traits. These Traits affect solo play as well, of course, and give you new abilities to use against your opponents, too.
More important than Traits, though, are the Fellowship Conjunctions. In a system that might be familiar to EverQuest 2 players, certain moves - and random chances- can trigger Conjunctions to take place. During a conjunction, combat pauses for a moment to give each player the chance to pick from one of four coloured buttons. Each button has different effects; green gives you a morale boost (LOTRO's term for health), red inflicts damage, blue recovers your power, and yellow deals damage over time. But not only does it matter which colours you chose- but also which order you chose them in, in a somewhat poker-like experience where getting the right mix of colours at the right time results in some exceptional effects. Of course, in order to pull this off, you'll need to work pretty closely together as a group...
Which brings us neatly to the community of the game. For some reason best known only to itself, LOTRO's community seems to be one of the finest yet to grace an MMO. Equal parts social , funny, and helpful to newcomers, the LOTRO user base appears to be made up of mature gamers who are just there to have fun, not to grind their way to the top of the pile or make fun of 'n00bs'. This is highlighted by the wide range of social options the game gives players; from a beautifully realised player housing system that lets you have your own neighbourhoods and visit friend's houses to a system that lets any character play a musical instrument and give impromptu concerts to other players. In fact, a concert was being held just the other weekend outside the Prancing Pony in Bree, with hobbits dancing and everything. It's like the towns of the world are some sort of glorified avatar chatroom, and the rest of the game sometimes gets forgotten in the wake of the entertaining social quests- such as the fantastic Shire pub run, which has you racing from tavern to tavern across the Shire, getting progressively more drunk as you down several drinks in each one.
What else is there? The list is endless. The game world is large, and beautifully realised, full of intricate details and places to explore. What's more, the game rewards you for doing so, with a great Deed system that grants you new Traits and Titles for completing tasks such as visiting all the ruins in an area, discovering a series of markers, or slaying an amount of enemies. These Deeds vary by area, and remain unobtrusive, yet at the same time offering encouragement to see more of what the game world has to offer. LOTRO offers a crafting system similar to WoWs, but again stressing co-operation with other players, since no one crafting profession allows you to gather all the items you need by yourself. Free updates released every 2-3 months offer an abundance of new features, ranging from entire new regions (two such areas, Evendim and Forochel, have already been added), new Books in the Epic quest line, and new features such as the recently added Outfit system, which lets you wear different outfits but keep the same benefits from your armour. Even the player housing was added in a post-release content update. There is also a small Player versus Player section, which allows players over level 40 to participate in battles with other characters (of any level) who take the role of monsters such as Orcs and Wargs, although this PvP is limited to a confined region so as not to spill out into the rest of the game world. The emphasis of LOTRO is squarely on Player vs Environment, but in a setting such as Middle Earth, this design is a sensible choice.
The actually look and feel of LOTRO is exceptional. The game engine scales wonderfully, and offers breathtaking vistas and well crafted locales no matter how good a machine you are running it on. Of course, with all the graphical bells and whistles turned on you can expect to see a beautiful looking game, full of exquisite detail. Special note must be paid to the art design, for whilst the game does not have a license for Peter Jackson's films, the art design is every bit as competent, bringing the world of Middle Earth to life convincingly and believably. Famous locations from the books, such as the Prancing Pony in Bree Town, the Old Forest, The Hobbt-houses of the Shire and the vale of Rivendell are clearly inspired from the artwork of Alan Lee and his contemporaries, and even the designs of weapons, armour and clothing all fit into the feel of the world. Musically, the game boasts a well crafted soundtrack, though it's probably not anything you would chose to listen to when not playing the game, and after a while you might just decide to turn it off and have some other music playing instead (might I recommend the Lord of the Rings soundtrack by Howard Shore...). Character voices and sound effects are serviceable, if not exceptional, but do the job just fine.
Really, there is so much to LOTRO that it is difficult to fit it all into one review. It's not a game that will appeal to everyone- in focussing on storytelling, socialising and conveying an atmosphere, it won't appeal to those who like to have the most powerful characters with the most powerful weapons, but thats no bad thing. Although the regions of the world might initially seem quite limiting, new areas are being added, and the first paid expansion, the Mines of Moria, promises to add almost a third again to the game world. For all of its surface similarities to World of Warcraft, LOTRO is a very different beast, and one that has its own very distinct niche and very distinct way of doing things. There is a free trial available, which is a good way to introduce yourself to the world if you're not sure, but Lord of the Rings Online: The Shadows of Angmar is by any standards a truly exceptional game that is far better than it has any right to be. LOTRO is a finely crafted and refined experience that offers everything fans of the genre- and fans of the books- could want.