My Review: Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

I got my hands on a ten day buddy pass trial and played as much as possible.

First impression: Visually un-interesting, dull in color. But that's because World of Warcraft is so visually colorful and full of unique details. LotR is more realistic, which is actually a plus. Some of the animations worked well, too. Half-orcs especially.

And that was backed up by the excellent sound. I really felt like I was taking hits out of an enemy.

Instead of hit points, they use "morale points." This actually worked out nicely, seemed more realistic. The Bard was a healer, and that worked nicely.

Larger parties is good.

The classes were also a good assortment, especially Champion class.

In-Game Voice Chat is a great plus.

My biggest beef with the game is the "Grinding" required. My second is the running around, great distances, expense in travel. Lack of a horse.

Skill Training was varied, but expensive. I could make my character specialize in any way, though.

One of the "Crafts" was, literally, "Farming." A small patch of dirt, and a player was kneeling over some crops. (Some were growing pipe weed.)

My advice: Give players horses early. In fact, as soon as a player feels the need for a horse, they should be able to get one. (Otherwise, give one at say, level 12 or 13.)

Fetch quests that asked for 7, 8, 10, 12, 24!!! And collection items was real bad and screwy.

Overall estimate, buy? Yes. Buy the lifetime membership for the game, $300. (Price drop wouldn't hurt.)

But overall, the game is enjoyable, if you like MMO's. But the best gameplay comes from groups, and full groups at that. Luckily groups could have any range of levels.

Remove the Quest limit.

The best gameplay, a group of friends who will always, regularly game together. That way you can "mow" through areas and get things done right away, and have fun doing it. When the fighting slowing downs, that's when it gets lame.

The level difference was screwy at times, but sensible.

I felt like I was "working" this game, not playing it. The designers need to get rid of that.

Rare drops was worst, too. Especially for quest items.

Ultimately, the game will improve and expand, and MMO enjoyers will like the game, I think.

Category:

People & Blogs

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• lord
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• ring
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• angmar
• shadow
• mmo
• massive
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• rpg
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• horse
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• wow
• world
• warcraft
• lotr

[Rus9215]

WoW. Thats a really bad idea to say that on utube.

[primarch4]

does everyone compare every game to wow?

[TheBoueta]

i dont know if it was different back when you played it but you should have gotten a temporary horse in your mail at maybe level 10 or some low level like that until you were able to get a normal horse from a stablemaster

[CUBAMANNN]

@DeathScreamer97 lol this game was built to make money off lord of the rings fans. I hope to think there is a larger lotr fan base than wow. Note, I did not say lorto, i said lotr. Books, Movies, and decades of genre. Don't kid yourself like so many wow junkies do.

[moria9000]

i dont like Wow !! it suck ..but LOTR is just cooler because it IS LOTR in a game!! :D and that is why i choose LOTR instead of WOW...

[apaar1000]

does it really have voice chat

[Centration]

nice review

[TheMisterPorto]

wife beater!

[DeathScreamer97]

Lotro was built up to be a wow killer but never made it to that status but the game itself to me is a 4 and a half star game

[Typhouesmaul]

@primarch4 apparently so because thats all the games i'm reading of wow rip off! so yea everyone compares games to wow now.

[powerslayer94]

@jhjsaat omg fucktard .. this is the best mmo .. go play Wow u nerd

[jhjsaat]

enjoy that....?! Worst mmo ever!