Staff Writer Donna Desborough gives us her review of Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar.

Lord of the Rings Online has set the MMO world on its ear. For the long wait leading up to its release many speculated and others tested, but everyone seemed very excited. The creation of a game based around a modern classic like Lord of the Rings was certainly going to be an endeavor. The question is this though; did Turbine live up to the challenge?

Everyone knows at least the very basics of the Lord of the Rings lore. The Tolkien Estate has given Turbine the ability and rights to make the game and to add their own pieces to that timeless story.

Shadows of Angmar sees us, the regular folk, fighting for our homes against the armies of the Witch King. We are not the heroes. We are the free people of the lands of Eriador. The story is about our characters defending their homes and lands in any way they can. They are the unsung heroes that you don't get to hear about in the books.

The story can be experienced at your own pace. Through the quest system you can take missions that are split into books and chapters. These will propel you through the story that Turbine has written for us that links into the lore and stories from the books. There are some people who don't like the changes that Turbine have made, there always will be with such a popular IP, but I think that the overall story that we are getting from this online adaptation of Lord of the Rings is a good one. Without knowing the books and supporting literature by heart, you can still easily follow the stories told in the main quest series with ease and enjoyment.

Read the whole review here.

An 8.5? please.  Nothing wrong with this game,  but nothing great either.  Average, nothing more nor less.

Decent review, better than the previous one.

It is a good game, just like wow, but basic nether the less.

People, like the reviewer, keep claiming this game is different, but I don't see where.  Yes, the PVP is different, and I won't go into why I don't like it, but what else is different?  It just seems to scream WoW clone to me.  I'd try it to find out for myself, but not for $50.

just a comment regarding service, etc for turbine versus codemasters: you write "inconsistent" in the eu. that is very diplomatically written.
it sucks, is a better word. since beta and still yet, there is very little communication from developers, the q&a thread never gets any answers (the latest one become e.g. obsolete with the evendim patch). the gm's don't do the same things as the turbine gm's, calling it a policy (a popular topic at the moment: one of the faulty spawns in the expansion; turbine happiliy resets everything, codemasters (or, well, alchemic dreams, whatever) talk about their policy, bla bla, trying to avoid exploits, etc; maybe they are right, but if it is different in the us version...). turbine has a test-server, codemasters doesn't. on the eu-side many have felt and feel like second rate customers. one can not even post on us-boards, since those are connected to your  turbine-account! speak of community split!

if turbine should offer another lifetime-subscription opportunity as codemasters did, i am off to turbine and will screw my codie lifetime sub

I thought the review was fair.  In regards to WoW comparisons I -do- also think it is significantly different. 

Most of the comments saying they are the same game in a different wrapper honestly seem to come from people that are either very new to the entire genre (IE, only know WoW and what they hear about other games) or are just looking for something to say that is negative about the game.  Its a good card to play if you want to bash the game and try to deter players, but I dont think its very accurate.

The feel of the game is similiar yes.  But outside of that and the basics that most MMO's share, the actual game itself is night and day.

WoW is, and always has been heavily itemized.  Many people (of course not all, there will be generalizations in my comments, I am just going on experience and what most people seem to do) do quests and instances simply for the gear reward.  Or the XP in earlier levels, but mostly the instances are there for the loot.

There also is not much fluidity to WoW, this goes back to the loot driven nature of it, no one seems to really care that as you level up, there is no huge backstory leading you on, you go to areas, do some quests/instances and move on.  Yes, there is a global story behind WoW, but do most players pay attention to it?  How does running instance after instance over and over again even fit into a good backstory?  It doesnt...

WoW has become a race to lvl 60/70.  So that the "real" game can begin.  LoTRo is nothing like this.  Some players are doing that, but the game was designed more around the journey to the end, rather than getting to that end.  Will you see leveling services in LoTRo?  Unless there are some drastic changes, I highly doubt it.  They would be doing the entire game for you.

Instances are very short compared to WoW's.  They can still be rather challenging, but they do not take hours to do.  They could get longer though, I am only mid level, but at the mid point in the leveling journey, compared to WoW, the instances are very short.

Upon launching the game for the first time, running a quest or two, yes, it can feel like a similiar game.  But, once you spend some time there, start learning the Deed/Trait system, getting into the Storyline quests, joining fellowships, I see the similiarities for the most part dropping off.

All of this only goes so far though.  If you are sick of the entire style that WoW has you will find it more of the same, but this goes back to my comments about people that have only played WoW before, most people realize that game didnt do a whole lot that was new either, they just happened to put together a nearly perfect package for the market.

LoTRo is not revolutionary, nor is it even very evolutionary.  There is not a whole lot being added to the genre as far as mechanics.  I do very much enjoy the Deed system, but this, even if semi unique, is not groundbreaking.  The combat system will feel familiar, so if you are sick of the calculated combat, simulating traditional P&P gameplay, this will feel stale to you.  But again, WoW certaintly did not come up with thsi concept, many many games have adopted it.

Groundbreaking or "new"?  No.

A WoW-Clone?? No, not even close.  Mechanics may be similiar, but the game itself, the feel of it, the concepts that allow the player to have fun differ greatly.

This I feel is the perfect game to tide over players until the next batch comes out.  It may have lasting power to pull players through AoC and WAR, I have no idea...but its certaintly fresh enough to play until then and has a refreshing storyline quest system that gives players a feeling that they fit into the whole story. 

The storyline is very interesting; the quests are the meat of the game. So, my only gripe is that if you aren't on the same page, meaning doing the same quests, as some groups of people, you are left waiting around until you can find a group. I spent all of Saturday evening, really wanting to play, and I couldn't find a group on one of my pages. I didn't feel like grinding; that's a really slow process in LOTRO, and I don't like crafting. I didn't have any solo quests to do.

One group I had done some fellowing with, wouldn't invite me, not because I'm not a good player of my class, Minstrel, but because they already had a Minstrel. They were grinding for Legendary books and pages and the other Minstrel didn't want competition for that. Those books and pages are very rare drops.

I play online games for the community, and this is the first game I've played where community means so little.

This game should be much lower than 8.5. It just exploits the popular IP so they can pull people into playing this uninteresting wow clone.

Originally posted by flood950
I thought the review was fair.  In regards to WoW comparisons I -do- also think it is significantly different. 

Most of the comments saying they are the same game in a different wrapper honestly seem to come from people that are either very new to the entire genre (IE, only know WoW and what they hear about other games) or are just looking for something to say that is negative about the game.  Its a good card to play if you want to bash the game and try to deter players, but I dont think its very accurate.

The feel of the game is similiar yes.  But outside of that and the basics that most MMO's share, the actual game itself is night and day.

WoW is, and always has been heavily itemized.  Many people (of course not all, there will be generalizations in my comments, I am just going on experience and what most people seem to do) do quests and instances simply for the gear reward.  Or the XP in earlier levels, but mostly the instances are there for the loot.

There also is not much fluidity to WoW, this goes back to the loot driven nature of it, no one seems to really care that as you level up, there is no huge backstory leading you on, you go to areas, do some quests/instances and move on.  Yes, there is a global story behind WoW, but do most players pay attention to it?  How does running instance after instance over and over again even fit into a good backstory?  It doesnt...

WoW has become a race to lvl 60/70.  So that the "real" game can begin.  LoTRo is nothing like this.  Some players are doing that, but the game was designed more around the journey to the end, rather than getting to that end.  Will you see leveling services in LoTRo?  Unless there are some drastic changes, I highly doubt it.  They would be doing the entire game for you.

Instances are very short compared to WoW's.  They can still be rather challenging, but they do not take hours to do.  They could get longer though, I am only mid level, but at the mid point in the leveling journey, compared to WoW, the instances are very short.

Upon launching the game for the first time, running a quest or two, yes, it can feel like a similiar game.  But, once you spend some time there, start learning the Deed/Trait system, getting into the Storyline quests, joining fellowships, I see the similiarities for the most part dropping off.

All of this only goes so far though.  If you are sick of the entire style that WoW has you will find it more of the same, but this goes back to my comments about people that have only played WoW before, most people realize that game didnt do a whole lot that was new either, they just happened to put together a nearly perfect package for the market.

LoTRo is not revolutionary, nor is it even very evolutionary.  There is not a whole lot being added to the genre as far as mechanics.  I do very much enjoy the Deed system, but this, even if semi unique, is not groundbreaking.  The combat system will feel familiar, so if you are sick of the calculated combat, simulating traditional P&P gameplay, this will feel stale to you.  But again, WoW certaintly did not come up with thsi concept, many many games have adopted it.

Groundbreaking or "new"?  No.

A WoW-Clone?? No, not even close.  Mechanics may be similiar, but the game itself, the feel of it, the concepts that allow the player to have fun differ greatly.

This I feel is the perfect game to tide over players until the next batch comes out.  It may have lasting power to pull players through AoC and WAR, I have no idea...but its certaintly fresh enough to play until then and has a refreshing storyline quest system that gives players a feeling that they fit into the whole story. 

First of all, Flodd950, thank you for the post and please don't take any of this for a flame because I don't mean it to be.  Again, everything you mention is in WoW, it just seems to have a different feel to you not to be a really different feature.  To me, it seems like they both basically have all the same features but the features are somewhat different.  To me, this makes it seem like a clone.  It just doesn't seem to be doing anything new or really different, except the PVP which I am not going to go in to.

Let me give you an example of football.  There have been different leagues, some inside only (arena), ome have deeper inzones (Canadian) and some had slightly different scoring systems (XFL and USFL at the time) yet they are all football.  So yes, I look at the games and say they seem essentially the same.  You can argue that all MMOs are the same then but this sin't true.  DDO is different, was more different but is still different and still fantasy.  So, my fear in purchasing LotRO is that it will seems just like WoW to me feature wise.  Truthfully, the story behind the game doesn't matter as much as my walking away from a playing session having had fun and if it is like WoW, to me, I wonder if I won't be bored with it after the first weekend.

Your post was helpful though, in convincing me that I will probably just find it more of the same.  So, thanks for saving me $50.  I guess its back to DDO and Auto Assault (until it dies.)

For all posters saying LotRO is a WoW clone: Have you played any other online RPG games besides WoW? If you had, it seems to me you would be saying LotRO is a RPG clone of many other games, because that's what WoW was. To a point, all fantasy RPGs pretty much follow the Everquest pattern. But each one has had it's own graphics, it's own story, and it's own view on how classes should be balanced. Each adds it's own fluff, it's own way of crafting, etc. In other words, it's own variations based on the developer's visions.

Managed to play the game for about 2 weeks and then tootal boredom kicked in and the realisation that the game offers nothing new and just a very linear grind. Too Linear.

This doesn't compete with a lot of the stalwarts out there UO/AC/EQ/EQ2 are far far better than this game... The rating system on  this site is flawed and sadly I am loosing any respect for the rating systems used here.

Nice background but then i just went out and bought the book...

Originally posted by Brynn

For all posters saying LotRO is a WoW clone: Have you played any other online RPG games besides WoW? If you had, it seems to me you would be saying LotRO is a RPG clone of many other games, because that's what WoW was. To a point, all fantasy RPGs pretty much follow the Everquest pattern. But each one has had it's own graphics, it's own story, and it's own view on how classes should be balanced. Each adds it's own fluff, it's own way of crafting, etc. In other words, it's own variations based on the developer's visions.

*sigh*  I'm glad I'm left defending myself instead of others explaining the differences.

I've played DAoC, WoW, DDO, SWG, CoH, CoV, EVE, AA and WWII online.  Seems like I am missing a couple.  *shrug*  Oh, about 15-20 MUDs.  I'm one of those older gamers.

Others may care how a game looks, I care how a game plays.  I generally ignore the graphics protion of any review, same with the sound.  Story is fine, but if I want a good story, I will go read a book, I have several hundred waiting to be read.  A good story or no story is not a real difference in how the game PLAYS.  I disagree with you on each game is essentially the same.  DDO's combat seem different whether it is or not.  Dark Ages 3 groups add an interesting element to pvp.  Wow...well, WoW took what ever anyone did before them that was good and grouped it all together. 

Your argument is also lacking that all games are the same if they are RPGs, I've been playing RPGs since I was 12, 25 years ago and things have changed dramatically.  LotRO just chose to use a well known skeleton to build their game rather then trying something new.  There isn't anything wrong with that and fans of the books can flock to the game.  I'm not a fan though, so I am looking for other reasons to play. 

But again, what you seem to be telling me Brynn is that they are essiantially the same game and I accept that.  I see varying differences between WoW, DDO and DAoC, without adding in any of the games of other genres I have played.  I look at LotRO and it screams WoW.  All anyone has done is reinforce that feeling. 

I thought this was a very fair review.  I have played the game since last fall as a beta tester, and now as a lifer.

My personal rating for the game is just a little higher than the one of the author, but incredibly close.

I have played 15 or 20 MMO's in the last 10 years, and who knows how many RPG's before than on consoles all the way from Atari.

I have played DAoC for the last 5+ years too, and I am very excited about LotRO.   I can't wait until there are large numbers of players from both sides in Monster Play.   It should be a lot of fun.

I think this was a fair review and I have been playing the game since beta last November. I enjoy it.

The only three MMO's that kept me as a subscriber for more than the free month were EQII, DAoC, and UO. WoW never lasted 3 weeks on my hard drive so the WoW comparisons really confuse me. If anything the game bears more of a resemblance in design to EQII.

Nice Fair well balanced review,respect to the reviewer !

I liked the review.   It was well written and seemed un-biased.  I went into the game not expecting much, but I am still enjoying it and I am happy with the effort from Turbine.  Of course, there are many things I would like to see added, especially content for roleplayers, but the fundaments are there, and I think the review covers that.

 

I think that was a good review and a fair score.  I see some people complaining about the score... I'll just point out that it is consistent with the user reviews, and slightly lower than the average score from the major game sites.  What do the reviewers here have to do to make you guys happy, shit on every game that comes out???

Brilliant for about 5 or 6 hours, awful after a week.

Shouldn't be getting more than a 5 imho.

i'd have more fun attempting to make sweet love to my xbox 360.

than play this for more than a month. when the deed system feels like a full-time job..

wo0o only 400 orcs to kill before my trait is improved... yay....

 

i think not.

6 hours, you'll enjoy the shire, the beautiful world... ruined as always by codemasters, but their past MMOs should have spoken for themselves.... F2play anyone? :-p

I have to say Turbine does seem to be treating EU customers like redheaded stepchildren when it comes to feedback and communication.  There's no good excuse for cutting off EU players from the US forums like that have.  If they don't want EU customers to have access to US boards then at the very least create one forum that allows both to provide feedback and suggestions for the game.

Another area Turbine failed in is leaving out an RP server, especially with their pisspoor naming policies.  Sure in theory all servers are RP servers but anyone that's played an MMO knows that theory never sees the light of day in practice.  IMO, that alone was an insult to every RPer's intelligence and caused many to abandon their Founders account and move to the EU RP server.  Your players should never be put in a position like that AFTER they pre-order your product.

All in all, LOTRO is a decent game that could be tons better.  In today's genre there's no excuse for producing such limited and unimaginative character customization and animations (in particular combat) in an MMO like LOTRO has.  If you can't afford to put in the necessary funding an MMO requires to do it justice then perhaps pass on that project and take on something you can afford or have the technical knowhow to do.

After DDO and LOTRO, Turbine is just really near the top of my list for dev teams I'm not interested in following, but Codemasters has really come up a couple notches in my eyes with LOTRO just because of the way they're trying to handle the position Turbine is putting them in.  Maybe they'll take the plunge and develope their own MMO one day.  I really wish they'd stuck with developing Dragon Empires.  :(