Long before Hollywood brought the Lord of the Rings to the big screen, the gaming community has awaited an online adaptation of the classic novels. Turbine has accepted that challenge with Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO), expected to be released in April 2007.You can choose between the 4 major races – Man, Elf, Dwarf and Hobbit. All your usual customizable choices for your avatar are here plus you get to select where your character hails from. For Hobbits this is one of the major areas of the Shire. During my playtime, I did not see that this had any impact on game play. Turbine is also attempting to keep character names appropriate for Middle Earth. This is a daunting task and I was disappointed that several names I generated from various “Middle-Earth Name Generators” online were rejected as “gibberish”. But I can live with that if it cuts down on any ***Frodo*** and Leggolases running around.
I will only briefly cover the various classes available. The Champion is your melee damage dealer, sacrificing defenses. The Captain would fit into a “Paladin” type role; he is a buffer and can use pets. The Burglar is your debuffer and is the only class to be able to create conjunctions, which I’ll attempt to explain later when I discuss combat. The Guardian fits the role of “tank” acting as your defensive melee combatant. The Lore-Master has crowd-control as well as some supportive abilities including the use of various pets. The Hunter provides ranged damage per second as well as using traps during combat. The Minstrel is your healer and does a surprisingly good amount of damage considering their role.
The first thing I have to say about LotRO is that Middle Earth is stunning! Turbine has done a fantastic job bringing Tolkien’s world to life. I enjoyed visiting Bag End and the Party Tree, Tom Bombadil and his wife, and the Forsaken Inn among other locations from the novels. I’ll take this time to point out that LotRO is based on the books and not the movies and thus is held to the books’ canon.
Game play consists of your standard MMO options. There are a few twists that are quite interesting. First are the conjunctions that I mentioned earlier. Conjunctions are group based attacks that are high-yield. The Burglar class is the only class that can create a conjunction, although all other classes have the chance of spawning one, although randomly. When a conjunction is available, a multi-colored wheel will appear on your screen. Choosing the red wheel damages the selected monster; yellow does damage over time; blue restores power and green heals. The more players who choose a particular aspect of the wheel, the higher the resulting effect. Coordination is key here and gives that boss battle a nice moment of repose.
Turbine is also introducing “traits”, abilities that are earned by accomplishing certain tasks in game. Your character is limited to the number of traits available, giving each player the opportunity to make their character unique in more than just appearance.
Crafting takes the form of “vocations”. There are several to choose from and each is composed of 3 professions. Generally, each vocation is composed of gathering, crafting and something else. They have designed it so players must trade or purchase supplies to complete their crafts. For example, if you chose Explorer as I did, you would have Prospecting, Forester and Tailor. I was able to gather both wood and ore and to treat the wood and smelt the ores, but then sold those to weapon makers and armorers. As an explorer I was fortunate that the forestry skill allowed me to tan the hides I needed for tailoring. It will be interesting to see how the community reacts to having to depend on other players for crafting.
But what about PvP, you ask? In LotRO, this takes the form of PvMP or Player versus Monster Players. Even though I did not get the chance to give this a try the general concept is that a certain levels, players can locate a NPC and be given the opportunity to play a monster or take their character to the PVP zone.
The most disappointing aspect of the game for me was the guild or Kinship interface. If you have any experience with Turbine’s Dungeons and Dragons Online, you’ll recognize the interface. There is no customization; you are limited to the owner, the successor and officers, which for many pre existing guilds is not enough control. Only the owner and successor have the power to promote/demote members.
Turbine has announced what has to be the most creative pricing scheme that I have heard of in an MMO. If you pre-order the game, you qualify for Founder’s Benefits. Aside from the unique in game items that are the norm for MMOs these days, you get special pricing. That is $9.99/ month or $199 for life! So if you think you’ll enjoy playing the game for more than 20 months you’ll basically be playing for free.
There are two deciding factors on the initial success of the game. First, “Will LotRO satisfy the “fanboys”?” My answer is – What does? There will always be something left out, done incorrectly or poorly. Second, “How will it appeal to the average MMO player?” As a casual player of MMOs, I found LotRO to be a refreshing break even though a lot of the elements have been done before. It probably helps that I also enjoyed the trilogy. No matter what your answers are to the questions the game offers something for everyone and anyone who wants to visit Middle Earth should give Lord of the Rings Online a try.
I am a 30 something year old female. I am married and have 1 son and 2 dogs. Harmakhet says I am not a "twitch" gamer. I am a casual gamer for both on and offline games. I am not very good at console games, so I tend to play the "kiddie" games there. I prefer games that have a good story that I can get caught up in.
I had an Atari 2600 growing up and begged Dad for a Nintendo which he refused to buy. He recently told me that he bought the Atari thinking video games were a passing phase. I never touched another console until I met Harmakhet. I played a few games on my Commodore 64, nothing worth remembering, and then Crystal Quest on my Mac. I used to watch a friend play Marathon on the Mac and it was then that I discovered my true calling. I am a navigator! I couldn't manage the controls myself, but I could direct players back to the health, ammo, etc. So I started doing that with Harmakhet. I'd also tell him if a game was bad. If I couldn't stand watching him play it, it must be a dud. He'd usually agree within a few weeks.
I've played some of the original Sims games and a few Nancy Drew before I got into MMOs. I can't remember who told me about Disney's Toontown Online, but I played it for several years. I even became a moderator at a fan site for the game. I'm looking forward to the munchkin being old enough to play TT.
