With the announcement that Lord of the Rings Online would be expanding this fall, Turbine generated a lot of excitement as players would finally get to Isengard. MMORPG.com's Drew Wood had the opportunity to check out some of the Rise of Isengard expansion and has some impressions to offer. Check it out and then let us know what you're looking forward to in the comments.

The expansion though is really all about the regional content and the storyline leading up to your confrontation at Isengard. Working with the Grey Company of Rangers (who are scouting out Dunland), you must learn the nuances and intricacies of the Dunland people, learning just what kind of hold Saruman has over them and what's in store for the Rohirrim. The Rangers have split up their forces, allowing you two entrances into the content of the expansion with two regions within Dunland. First, I was shown the Bonevales, the ancient resting place of the elder dead of Dunland, where one of the Dunland clans was forced to settle. Having lost their army in their quest to retake their ancestral homeland to a campaign against the Rohirrim, the clan now uses the bodies of their fallen to, essentially make a new army.

Read more of Drew Wood's Lord of the Rings Online: Rise of Isengard Impressions.

Sounds Great!

Also, here's hoping that all of the under the hood tinkering (class updates, etc...) go a long way towards freshening up the whole leveling experience from 1-65 (as a serial Altoholic, this is where I spend most of my time!)

Only the Reaver!?

Great. That's actually the only class I wanted to play. Time to massacre some pointy-eared pansies!

That didn't sound very orcish, did it?

Nice little read

I'm really looking forward to this expansion

 One thing I'd love to see Turbine do is to revamp their software engine like Funcom did. The new Funcom engine was a big improvement to how smoothly their game flows graphically. Even after repeated updates to video cards over the past four years, it always feels a bit "jumpy" for a lack of a better word in LotRO. That said I still think that even after four years the over all landscape is one of the most beautiful painted out there.

 Basically for a future expansion/update by Turbine i'd love to see said software engine overhaul. :) Otherwise I tend to always be rather excited by any expanision by Turbine and always buy them. Bought the 49.95 Isengard expansion and don't regret that since it does support them to continue building a great game.

  One issue I did run into, actually two issues but the first one is that the %25 exp bonus you get with the one expansion is a "pocket" item. Sorry Turbine, I'm not about to give up my pocket items that give me stat bonuses etc for one that just makes me earn exp faster. Bad implimentation.

  The second issue is the sheer amount of space the cloaks and cosmetic clothing takes up. They should have made "one" set that was account bound instead I have 6x3 per character, ugh. 

 These are minor issues but I figured I'd mention them because they can be corrected or improved upon.

I thought I might be tempted to return at the next serious expansion. I'm not.

First. All these Dunland clans and their diversity, one clan raising their dead, it simply doesn't ring true as Middle Earth. It is colourful and generic high fantasy. It is Turbine adding a region and then stuffing it full.

Tolkien was not high fantasy. It was low fantasy. Magic was rare. Turbine's "middle earth" has become a generic fantasy world. For those who read Tolkien as a child it is quite sad to see the uniqueness of that world get trashed for profit.

Originally posted by AcmeGamer

Even after repeated updates to video cards over the past four years, it always feels a bit "jumpy" for a lack of a better word in LotRO.

 

turn off quest tracking the on minimap, helped me when i started playing.

As much as I once tried to convince folks I wasn't a fanboy of lotro, I'm beginning to embrace my inner fanboy now. I know, I know, but for some reason, the game just does it for me. And yes, I've already preordered the expac.

Originally posted by Strap

I thought I might be tempted to return at the next serious expansion. I'm not.

 

First. All these Dunland clans and their diversity, one clan raising their dead, it simply doesn't ring true as Middle Earth. It is colourful and generic high fantasy. It is Turbine adding a region and then stuffing it full.

 

Tolkien was not high fantasy. It was low fantasy. Magic was rare. Turbine's "middle earth" has become a generic fantasy world. For those who read Tolkien as a child it is quite sad to see the uniqueness of that world get trashed for profit.

 

 

98% of all quests and content in Lotro are based off of the novels. That inculdes the novels Tolkien wrote other the the famous trilogy.

You do know there are other novels of Middle Earth lore right? Not to mention that Turbine is having to stretch lore out and expand on to make enough content to last several years because otehrwise it wouldn't take too long to go through everything in one go. 

If you are a fan of Toklien's works, be glad there is any appreciation shown to his works rather than none at all I would suggest.

I started in '07 during book 9 and liked it so much I ended up witih 2 lifetime accounts. Like all games you get tired and move on to other things but I've continued to buy the expansions and play off and on  (mostly in monster pvp). It's never seemed like a tolkien world to me since it follows the movies and Turbine has continued to add to the story even if it really doesn't fit in so like others have said it's more like your average fantasy game with no real surprises or unique kinds of gameplay. I'm sure this appeals to the masses as it makes it easy to get into with the exception of the every increasing complexity of the legendary weapons and items. Isengard isn't offering anything I'm willing to spend more cash on and frankly with it taking 4 years to reach this point I no longer want to support Turbines long-winded retelling which only sets us up for many more years of buying content. On top of this they are dog slow when it comes to fixing things and their forums have turned into a slaughterhouse for their moderators to keep cracking the whip with a zeal that I find embarrassing. (I got moderated as it turned out because I made a post saying I was leaving for awhile. Apparently, their guidelines for the forums calls for this to head off any chance of a loud goodbye. It only took me 4 months to find this out and it's obvious their business is all that matters to Turbine and the subscribers need to mind their place and keep forking over the cash in what looks to be a 10 year mission to Mount doom. Of course if you are the type that likes grinding levels, equipment ect it's probably the game for you but since they went 'free to play' the gloves have come off and it's more a monetary enterprise than a tolkien oriented love-fest. I'm not forecasting doom here but more just frustration with their lack of  care devoted to their customers. So follow the herd and you will find great happiness in the next green field ready for consumption. (I'll be there chewing my cud but only on the older grass).

Originally posted by Strap

Tolkien was not high fantasy. It was low fantasy. Magic was rare. Turbine's "middle earth" has become a generic fantasy world. For those who read Tolkien as a child it is quite sad to see the uniqueness of that world get trashed for profit.

Yeah... the Rune-Keeper was a pretty bad idea and a bit overpowered (survivability) for a glass-cannon.

Originally posted by Strap                                                                                                                                                           

Tolkien was not high fantasy. It was low fantasy. Magic was rare. Turbine's "middle earth" has become a generic fantasy world. For those who read Tolkien as a child it is quite sad to see the uniqueness of that world get trashed for profit.

I definitely agree with you. I never really got the feeling from this game that I was looking for. I'm always more interested in large world changing events, though I realize that with a world that has a defined storyline that you get a lot less of that. But going on some random quest to collect a plant and never getting to see something like a huge battle at Helms Deep is just not my cup of tea.

My favorite thing in this game was the PVP, but I played a lot during beta and there are so many ghosts, drakelings, treants, vines, wolves, skeletons, wights, and whatever else they decided to throw in there. It's such a different game than I think it should be. I'm glad if people find enjoyment in it, but I just don't enjoy it any more.

What a game, I have been playing since Beta, & loving it! So looking forward to this expansion! I have 10 characters on Brandywine..tells it all!! Hope to see my friends in the new places!!  :)    

Btw, WHAT in the world is an advertisement doing on here?!?!?!?  Thought this was a GAME site..it needs to be taken off...    :(

I still want to know if this expansion is modular -- I don't want to waste Turbine Points on a 24-man raid that I will never play. I don't want to subsidize gameplay that I don't participate in.

Originally posted by jeddak

I started in '07 during book 9 and liked it so much I ended up witih 2 lifetime accounts. Like all games you get tired and move on to other things but I've continued to buy the expansions and play off and on  (mostly in monster pvp). It's never seemed like a tolkien world to me since it follows the movies and Turbine has continued to add to the story even if it really doesn't fit in so like others have said it's more like your average fantasy game with no real surprises or unique kinds of gameplay. I'm sure this appeals to the masses as it makes it easy to get into with the exception of the every increasing complexity of the legendary weapons and items. Isengard isn't offering anything I'm willing to spend more cash on and frankly with it taking 4 years to reach this point I no longer want to support Turbines long-winded retelling which only sets us up for many more years of buying content. On top of this they are dog slow when it comes to fixing things and their forums have turned into a slaughterhouse for their moderators to keep cracking the whip with a zeal that I find embarrassing. (I got moderated as it turned out because I made a post saying I was leaving for awhile. Apparently, their guidelines for the forums calls for this to head off any chance of a loud goodbye. It only took me 4 months to find this out and it's obvious their business is all that matters to Turbine and the subscribers need to mind their place and keep forking over the cash in what looks to be a 10 year mission to Mount doom. Of course if you are the type that likes grinding levels, equipment ect it's probably the game for you but since they went 'free to play' the gloves have come off and it's more a monetary enterprise than a tolkien oriented love-fest. I'm not forecasting doom here but more just frustration with their lack of  care devoted to their customers. So follow the herd and you will find great happiness in the next green field ready for consumption. (I'll be there chewing my cud but only on the older grass).

 Somehow I read this wall of text. You think this game is following the movies? Where the heck did you get that idea? They follow the books that Tolkien wrote. And not just the Lord of the Rings novels but other books that Tolkein wrote that dealt with the lore of Middle Earth. They do their best to stick with the lore that Tolkein wrote and I think they have done a good job, it could be a lot worse. Like I said in another thread no game will ever be perfect, you are just kidding yourself if you think that.

Turbine is a company and they have to make decisions on what will make them money, because you know thats what companies do. Their free to play/sub hybrid must be working and people must be enjoying their time if Turbine said they had a huge increase in population and an increase in profits. So yea, shame on Turbine for think about making money.

And just to note, I have been playing since 07 and have been playing nonstop since then and also have a lifetime sub. Yes Turbine has done some things that make me scratch my head, but I don't let "little" things get in the way of my enjoyment.

I look forward to this expansion already.I even tried to pre order with Legendary version.

But for a person with Windows 7, IE 9 and just a Dutch but confirmed Paypal account, i cant seem to buy this.

There is a bug somewhere saying the transaction is not correctly done at the paypal site.

So i created a support ticket at the LOTRO support page to Turbine.

2 days later i get email not from them but from my payment..that has gone wrong.

Funny thing is...you need to pay within 3 days or else the order become invalid and will be deleted.The support ticket will be answered withing 3-5 days...sigh. Still no reply from Turbine.

GReat work guys!! Im really disappointed. Anyone know any dutch phonenumbers to call Turbine to get this job done?

Sara Oakheart was in the novels :P? Looking forward to Isengard and the Monster Play.

I still think LOTRO is yet one of the best MMOs out there presently. ^^

Originally posted by Elikal

I still think LOTRO is yet one of the best MMOs out there presently. ^^

Hmm. Interesting. Don't you think that SWTOR and LotrO have a lot in common as features, both being of the themepark mold? Just saying

Originally posted by Czanrei

Originally posted by Strap

I thought I might be tempted to return at the next serious expansion. I'm not.

 

First. All these Dunland clans and their diversity, one clan raising their dead, it simply doesn't ring true as Middle Earth. It is colourful and generic high fantasy. It is Turbine adding a region and then stuffing it full.

 

Tolkien was not high fantasy. It was low fantasy. Magic was rare. Turbine's "middle earth" has become a generic fantasy world. For those who read Tolkien as a child it is quite sad to see the uniqueness of that world get trashed for profit.

 

 

98% of all quests and content in Lotro are based off of the novels. That inculdes the novels Tolkien wrote other the the famous trilogy.

You do know there are other novels of Middle Earth lore right? Not to mention that Turbine is having to stretch lore out and expand on to make enough content to last several years because otehrwise it wouldn't take too long to go through everything in one go. 

If you are a fan of Toklien's works, be glad there is any appreciation shown to his works rather than none at all I would suggest.

Really???  Well you'll have to convince me of that.

It's been a very long time however I don't remember any mention of Azog the orc king of Moria in anything Tolkien wrote, however the whole story of your character being in Moria surrounds itself around this Azog character that doesn't appear in any of Tolkien's books from what I can remember.

I'd say less than 50% of what's in the game is actually in the literature.  Then again I haven't read much other than the trilogy so please share the titles of other Tolkien books from which Lotro is getting it's story line from.  I am very interested in reading them.