Developer Turbine aren’t new to this little genre known as MMOs, in fact the company has garnished a lot of success from games such as Asheron's Call and the more recent, Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach – so understanding how the genre works would certainly be something you’d expect from the company. With the company’s upcoming project, The Lord of the Rings Online, they aren’t expecting to break the World of Warcraft juggernaut, but offer an excellent alternative which provides gameplay that isn’t witnessed in Blizzard’s series. From our recent playtime with the beta version it seems Turbine has succeed in a number of areas, but there are still several issues that could easily prevent it from gaining any ground; just like Dungeons & Dragons Online.
There will be a bunch of familar content for Lord of the Rings fans to indulge themselves in.
Lord of the Rings Online appears to be the company’s most robust title though. The game has a fantastic brand backing and has incorporated a number of winning concepts from other MMOs, while all the same providing a lot of new – and equally as good – ideas. For comparisons sake, it is basically EverQuest in the Lord of the Rings mold. You’ll come across several identical concepts throughout the game, but ideally they are the most prominent concepts in the genre and makes Lord of the Rings Online easy to enjoy for longtime MMO fans. That’s not to say, the game won’t be enjoyable for newcomers either – in fact, the game has a nice transition for casual gamers to adapt to the massive content provided.
One thing Lord of the Rings Online appears to have done better than other MMOs on the market is that the story is not only well presented, but throughout the adventure you’re constantly dragged through the horrific events that take place. The game takes place just after Frodo and company leave The Shire on their adventure to destroy that one ring to rule them all. So as expected, you’ll come across a few familiar faces and areas that’ll influence your playtime. Unlike a game like World of Warcraft, where you know there’s a story but you have very little indication of it, Lord of the Rings Online will allow gamers to partake in important transitions in the game world. An early instance is where you are required to stop an invasion on a human town from a force of bandits. You’ll enter an instanced area that is unique to you, and you will be required to fulfil certain tasks to drive them back and save the burning town. After doing this, you’ll enter this new world where parts of the town are burnt to rubble and ultimately, the surrounding environment has changed quite drastically. Admittedly, this was by far one of the most promising features we encountered in the game. Not only does this feature hold amazing potential, but it also enables gamers to be a major part of the ever changing world and its story – making your presence a bit more meaningful. This could very easily allow gamers to partake in massive sieges from the Lord of the Ring lore.
There will be plenty of devilish creatures to watch out for.
Gameplay is much like any other MMO on the market - you’ll be able to choose from 7 playable classes with 4 different races and slowly adapt them into stronger characters by gaining levels (cap of 50), acquiring new items and abilities. You’ll be able to hotkey abilities much like any other western role-playing games too. The standard fundamentals such as fulfilling quests are also well in place. While there are your typical quests such as ‘Kill X amount of enemies’, the game has a distinct variety by allowing you to infiltrate huge fortresses, slay large monsters and casually deliver buckets of water to villages. There appears to be a decent variety of quests that won’t instantly bore gamers that are accustomed to recent MMO endeavours.
Interestingly, the game incorporates a few gameplay options that work towards motivating players to continually play. One such feature is the achievements system. You’ll have a lore book that keeps track of certain activities in each area, and rewarding you once fulfilling these. There are basic achievements such as killing X amount of a certain enemy (such as bandits or spiders), but also achievements such as uncovering hidden lore status the entail parts of the Middle-Earth story. Often, when completing these tasks, you’ll be rewarded with stat bonuses, meaning that fulfilling such achievements help to make your character stronger. Additionally, there’s a titles system, which provides gamers with new titles under their name. These are a great way to show off some of your accomplishments, since you are rewarded with new titles for not dying for X amount of levels, gaining favourable reputation with certain towns or even titles for being the receiver of a certain amount of hugs.
The game does a nice job of recreating the Middle-Earth world. The areas are shown in epic proportions, with lovely scaled backdrops and well-created environments - the game feels very similar to EverQuest in its creation. From what we played there also seems to be a good variety in terms of areas, from snowy mountains, dry deserts and attractive forest locations. There are often several instanced areas for solo play and group play within each area, making them even larger.
Epic locations are all part of making the game that much more enjoyable.
Player versus Player content may be what hinders Lord of the Rings Online’s success, largely because there doesn’t seem to be as much of it when compared to other popular MMOs; which is largely due to it possibly ruining the lore. First thing, the game does not have opposing factions. There’s no good versus evil, only one faction that is working together in making Middle-Earth more bearable to live in. That instantly subtracts PvP realms from the equation, and only allows for PvP instanced areas – though these are done in an interesting fashion. You’ll be able to jump into a PvP instance called ‘Monster Play’. In here you’ll be able to either play as several different monster characters (spiders, wolves, Orcs etc.) or use your own characters to fight in epic battles. These ‘Monster Play’ areas have quest hubs enabling you to fulfil PvE quests, as well as PvP quests. During this time you’ll be rewarded with monster points, which can go towards upgrading your character or by buying new weapons and items. It’s difficult to say just how well this idea will be done, since it’ll largely depend on scaling of battles and the battle objectives and zones.
Understandably, while it was obviously a beta, there are a handful of small annoyances that could hurt the final product. The camera system is a tad cumbersome, since it doesn’t centre on your character's view meaning you’ll need to constantly pan the camera angles around to see just where you are going and what’s in front of you. Then there’s the worry of just how long it will take for gamers to get bored of the game. The PvP appears to be a tad restrictive, and it’s unknown just how much end game content will be available once released. Additionally, the soundtrack seemed a tad sparse in a lot of the areas we visited, not something you’ll generally associate yourself with in a Lord of the Rings game.
While it is difficult to judge just how well Lord of the Rings Online will stand against games such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft, the potential from what we’ve seen and played certainly appealed to us. If the little annoyances that we found, and the game manages to build on what we’ve seen, then Lord of the Rings Online certainly has the ability to be a successful MMORPG. We’ll find out in late April just how well it holds up.
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