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Lord of the Rings Online Editorial: Community Spotlight: Member Written Preview
This week, on Community Spotlight, Laura Genender gives us a look at a member-written review from our forums.
By Guest Writer on February 28, 2007
Community Spotlight
Member Preview of Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
This week on the forums, user zaxtor99 showed us a glimpse into the Lord of the Rings Online stress test beta weekend. Comparing it to the popular World of Warcraft, zaxtor99's review is well done, and MMORPG.com is proud to present it, in its entirety, as our Spotlight of the Week!
- Laura Genender, Community Manager
Zaxtor99's Preview
Okay, people. I know that this game is still in beta, and is still not due out on store shelves for over a month. But most beta MMOs are not nearly this ready for release either.
Lord of The Rings Online is not perfect. And it will not please every single mmo player either. None the less, here is what I think after personally spending 12+ hours in the game on this stress test beta weekend...
;)
I had already been granted acceptance for the stress test a last weekend and downloaded the client. (Pretty quick 3 hour download or so with a 3 MB/sec net connection). On Friday at noon eastern time, I was able to log into the game and play immediately. Once I completed a quick introduction quest to learn the layout and how to move etc.. I was in the game world with other players in front of me. And when I say other players... I mean just that. Literally hundreds of other players on my screen in front of my avatar. And the lag was ZERO. Impressive Turbine. For me only having a medium level gaming machine (AMD 4200+ Dual Core, 6800 GS 256mb Graphics card and 1 GB Ram) the game played extremely smooth at 1024x768 resolution and HIGH overall settings with VERY HIGH being the only higher Options settings selection.
Quests are laid out so they are easily seen with a RING over the head of quest givers heads. Players names were in yellow, as were NPC trainers and vendors. This is something I would change before launch if I was Turbine. Players names should be a different color then that of NPCS and NPC trainers etc. It might be an option that can be changed in the settings ( I didn't look) but it should still be different as a default I would think.
The graphics are top notch, and honestly put the graphics found in World of Warcraft to shame. There is a town called Thorins Hall which for some reason reminded me of Ironforge in WOW. In Thorins Hall, the interior just looks breathtaking with shiny reflective floors that looked like they were buffed by a million janitors hard at work to leave a very nice reflective shine. NPCS are pretty much laid out to the sides of the main mirrored walkway and easy to find without having to go into buildings and through doors as in WOW.
;)
There are mailboxes and Auctioneers in the main towns, and the look of the AH window is almost an exact replica of what we are familiar with in WOW. The AH is going to be a very popular selling and buying source for many a LORTO travelers no doubt.
The class and race selection is pretty limited but certainly offers enough choices to let you fill up all your character slots with completely different characters. The race selections are Human (male and female), Dwarf (male only), Hobbit (male and female) and Elf (male and female). The class selections are Minstrel, Guardian, Hunter, Captain, Lore Master, Burglar, and Champion. The race selection that you choose can limit your class choice and the best class choices are available for the Human race.
Looks of the selected avatar are pretty limited, but you can change the standard hair style, color, eye color, clothes, etc etc. Nothing extra ordinary here. Pretty standard stuff and a little less options that what we find in World of Warcraft.
;)
You will see that I will do a lot of comparisons to World of Warcraft here, simply because this game most closely resembles World of Warcraft features and play style.
The graphics get a 9.5 out of 10 in my book and they honestly surprised me. The screenshots cannot truly show how well they really look in the game. (By comparison, I'd give WOW about an 8.0 here)
The race/class selection and customization of looks I'd give a 6.0 out of 10 score, because I'd really like to see a few more options here, I'd like an ability to choose from a few more class varieties and change the way I look just a little more. (WOW gets an 8.0 here especially with its expansion and new classes in place at this time)
Game Play / Lag
Game play/lag is extremely smooth in LOTRO. At this time I had almost zero lag during my game time, even during peak time. I also experienced no real bugs or problems which is surprising for a game still over a month away from release. If Turbine releases this game at launch as smoothly as it went on this stress test weekend, then it will surely be one of the best all time launches of an MMO ever. Game play smoothness and lag score a 10.0 here. Likewise WOW is right there as well. 10.0 for WOW in this category too.
Quests
Quests is where LOTRO absolutely kills WOW in my opinion. LOTRO from what little I have seen beats WOW hands down. Much more complex quests that are honestly just much more enjoyable and fun that what is found in WOW. LOTRO scores a 9.0 here. WOW gets a 6.5. The reason you ask? Simply because of so many well though out Quests that seem to be something that you might read about in a Tolkien book. There are some go kill 10 critters and report back quests here in LOTRO, but much fewer then what is found in WOW. Like WOW, the best experience and rewards does come from completing the quests, it's just that the quests in LORTO are actually more fun and a breath of fresh air. I was surprised here by how thought out and well constructed most of the quests were.
Article Continued on Page 2...
My friends and I did encounter one serious issue. During the peak times in the level 1-6 area on Brandywine (town named Archten?) we logged in and found that we were apparently in different instances of the town. We could form a fellowship with each other, and could see eachother's locations on the map, but we could not see eachother's characters. Through chat we confirmed that we were looking at different sets of other players around us, as well as different spawns of mobs outside of town.
We were only able to adventure together after we all entered the end of level 6 instance. We never found any other way to get our characters into the same copy of the game environment.
Hey Siergen, just FYI this is a known issue and will be fixed for launch. The beginning goes something like this: Private Encounter (ie personal Instance), Public Instance (where you had issues), then Open World (all the people).
During peak times, multiple instances are formed for the Public Instances (in your case Archet).Sooooo, you will be able to choose which instance your friends will be in and vice versa. Furthermore, there will be quick travel too once you get in the open world so a man in bree does not have to walk all the way to Thorin's Hall to meet with his dwarf friend. Thank you turbine for that one!
Hope that helps. Coherency is not guaranteed at this time. Nyquil is still flooding the system.
The article is right on.
LOTRO is a very addicting game that will run on just about any system out there.
I have a AMD 3000+ with 1 GB ram and a 7800 gs and the game runs really smooth even with graphics set to high.
If you preorder you can play for $9.99 a month. You just can't beat that much fun at that price.
While other games have promised the world and fallen Turbine promised nothing more than a fun game but have delivered big with great graphics and sound, tons of crafting and a great story line with quests that are interesting, challenging and fun along with what so far has been an awesome community.
Hope to see you all there
Waitaminute! According to this:
http://www.gamespot.com/betas/lord_of_the_rings_online/index.php
It says the minimum requirements for the beta test are 2.4 GHz and the AMD 4200+ is only 2.2!
You mean I could have played in the stress test?
I assumed that anything below the min requirements would have been unplayable esp. during a Stress Test. Turbine needs to update that or release what the specs are for the game.
Yes LORTO is solid. I played the stress weekend and enjoyed it. I played all the races just to see how the intro storyline began. Humbly, I must say, LORTO hits a home run when it comes to immersing the player into the story. Cameos of main characters give your character a little carrot to look foward to the future.
It ran very well. After Vanguard hiccups and sputtering, it was refreshing to experience. To be honest, i was expecting the old DDO/ Guild Wars formula of instanced adventures and the only time you deal with the populace is when you are in towns/villages. Turbine might have got it right with instancing but not overdone.
Content critics may comment that the beginning adventures for lvl 1-6 are the same quests for the starter areas. If you are a human or halfling you only seem to get the same missions/tasks in your starter area. Mission rewards are identical. Dwarves and Elves at least have a little variation in their starter areas.
Hopefully at launch there will be more. I did remember at the Farmer Colins place there was a cellar door labeled but i could not get into. Perhaps more to come?
Don't have one myself - I just saw this about them which gave the clockspeed 2.4GHz
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/a64-x2-4200/
Must have been the wrong one.
Can i have your beta info if you aren't going to use it?
I know why the reviewer opted to compare LotRO to WoW...and it's because the two games are identical. I beta'd this as well, and damn near everything (UI, combat, music, etc.) screamed WoW. The only thing that WASN'T WoW is the graphics...which are DDO. It's the exact same engine. Nothing new here.
So basically what we're looking at is yet another derivative attempt to cash in on WoW's 8 million + subscribers. Nothing new here, move along. My advice? Give up on the LotRO skin and just play the original game (that's WoW, for those who haven't been paying attention). If hardcore LotR action is what you're looking for, find yourself one of the NWN (maybe NWN2?) or TES mods and play with those; I've seen some exceptional Sauron & Witchking mods for Oblivion. Simply put, it just isn't here.
The article itself was well-written, btw. My personal opinion is that the author is woefully inexperienced in his MMO background (emphasis on PERSONAL and OPINION), but he is educated, which goes a long way.
Shame you only got WoW to compare, I find one has to compare it to EQ2 as well.
come on... if you gave crafting in WoW an 8... it should not be higher than 4. crafting in WoW is a joke. a sad joke. i hope Lord of the Rings does much better.
so, it seems the whole game is quests quests quests and leveling. how fun :( what about economy? is there competition for materials or mines? does it feel like a live world (see old SWG or UO) or more like a theme park (see almost any other MMORPG out there)? are quests instanced? can burglars steal from another player?
i care zero about graphics, sound and lag. what i want is a solid playability, not a multiplayer diablo, again.
It does use an interface very similar to WoW's, and many of the play mechanics are the same, but that's like discussing a painting in terms of its brushstrokes.
The feel is that of a modern MMO, with a lot of irritants removed, so inevitably comparisons to EQ2?WoW etc. can be made. But the experience of being in the game is certainly different from WoW. I think the review did cover that well. As for the Shire being the most advanced at this stage in beta? Well yes, it is. I know some areas are unfinished, but they are being worked on of course.
Some combat details are new to me; for example, the way wolves jink as they run at me, so an arrow misses; tidy. Solo friendly. Older machine friendly. And the use of instances extends beyond what I've ever seen on those occasions where instancing is used for storyline quests. A battle-scarred dev called one example "stunning". So give it a try, YMMV of course. BTW it also seems like a game that children can join their parents in, at least in part. Try delivering mail without being spotted by nosy hobbits, or carrying food without being spotted by hungry hobbits. Humor, charm, intensity; what more could one want?
I'm so glad I stay away from LotRO on stress test weekends, and do my beta-testing at other times.
This OP has experienced exactly one other MMO. WoW. Wow... if that's all the experience I had, I'd avoid spreading my opinions around when doing comparisons, and I'd sure think twice about basing my opinions on 12 hours of stress test weekend beta test time, and then submitting my little 2 page summary to be highlighted by MMORPG.com.
Well written little editorial, though. Just not based on enough experience.
My own Beta Journal of LotRO wouldn't be all that positive, if I were vain enough to write one and expect MMORPG.com to highlight it. I don't feel immersed, I don't like the graphics, I absolutely hate the character customization options at creation, the low level quests and the world of Middle Earth we're given to quest in. But I'm not egotistical enough to bother detailing my LotRO experiences, comparing them to another game that I didn't enjoy after levelling 3 characters into the 50's.
However, and nonetheless (not none the less, it's 1 word), I hope LotRO is successful, I hope Turbine adds content and customization options, and class balancing, as well as class complimentary functions for groups, and builds a game that appeals to a wide gaming audience, so that I'll go away when beta testing ends feeling I've contributed to that development. Because I'm sure not likely to play it when it goes Live.
But then again, I haven't spent hundreds of hours over the past 2 months playing LotRO. I've been beta testing it, and that's not nearly the same thing.
Kalmenicus the LotRO Beta Tester not Player
I actually wanted to point out that this was not submitted to MMORPG.com to be highlighted. This item was read, and picked, by our editorial team, to be highlighted for the Community Spotlight.
If you look back at past Community Spotlights, the function of the column is to highlight various interesting threads that appear on the forums. This member review was chosen for that, not because someone was "vain enough to write one and expect MMORPG.com to highlight it."
Just thought that post could use some clarification.
That is simply the key there. Do a lot with little resources. Just because you can code for a 3.0 ghz chip, doesn't make it a good idea. Sadly, Obsidian blew it with NWN2. Good to see other shops aren't all making the same mistake.
I must admit its more of a theme park but Turbine has done a good job at it, It a really enjoyable game, one you can pickup when ever you feel for some layback fun, for the moment only Vanguard has what you ask for( unfortunaly not solid/stable enough for many atm), but that’s a totally different type of game. Like the Poster said he did not get that much into crafting and I have to disagree on what he said, crafting does feels easy to get into much like WOW but it goes abit deeper (not SWG depth) but its fun to do, like planting your own weeds/union/tobaccos ect, and you'll see it grow onfarmfields which is a pretty nice feature and brings something new to craft/harvesting, also you have different crafting tools/table's.
LotrO will probably start of with a big player base, the IP alone will do that. Yup I wished the game was not what it turned out to be, but I guess to make something pleasing to a large number of people you need to dump down on things to make it accessible to the market, and afcourse with a IP like this and the money involved to be able to create what Turbine has done isn't always welcome thing to some players. Can only say if you get the chance, beta, invite key or what ever take the chance and make your own opinion see what’s it like.
I will get into LotrO (again) after release and like I said just for kicks, VSoH is actually giving me what I really want from a MMORPG, LotrO will give me what I expect from a MMO, both fun but both for different reasons
One thing I have to say though... LotRO is so much like WoW, who is to say people will leave WoW and join LotRO? its just too similar.
I also wanted to say how I love that every quest item is glowing...
That is one of the known issues and hopefully will be fixed before release. It is an issue that only affects the starter zone and the first five or six levels. You can choose to skip that instance and go straight to the open world as a level 2 after the first character. I prefer to run through it though and can make lvl 5 in an hour and have some good starter gear before entering the main game.
It is? and they do? Darn I have been testing for four or five months now and never noticed that? Also I never cared for the Warcraft world even in the old strategy games and never played WoW past the free thirty before going back to EQII. I don't see where the game is all that much like WOW myself, other than you have a choice on whether to solo or group. And that it runs and loks good even on older machines.
Some one is sure buying the heck out of the game. It is # 3 at Amazon.com and # 1 at EB Games. Not bad considering it does not hit the shelves till the end of April and these are just pre orders.
Good review - I have spent much more time in game, and honestly it only gets better. The starter areas are simple, and do what they are intended for - a tutorial. The economy is good in beta, and the crafting competition is doing well. Quests are fun, I find myself spending 4 hours longer ingame than usual as this game is so addictive. It is great to have a game that gets better the longer you play, I think Turbine has done an amazing job here. I think that many people will be very happy with this game upon release! Thanks for the excellent review.
So wait: if the only thing that isn't WoW are the graphics, then I take it that LOTRO is all about saving Azeroth from the Burning Legion? Ohhhhh wait....that dang storyline business might be a little different, too. Hmmmm.
Why would someone who wants to play an online game based on Tolkein's works have to hunt down some odd mods for Oblivion? Also, why would the fact that this game is derivative of WoW be a disparaging factor? If WoW got it "right" then I would think many people might prefer to play a game which follows well-established UI and gameplay to create a fun experience, rather than go off on some risky venture with a game that barfs up something less than stellar. By your logic, I should never have tried playing any other shooter after Half Life 2, since other games were essentially expanding upon and working from the improvements introduced in to the FPS genre by that benchmark. Nonsense.
I know nothing of LOTRO by the way, and was not in the Beta. I just was thoroughly unimpressed by your arguments.
As soon as I hear crafters get angry and start trashing a game for it's lack of crafting content (and holding up WoW as the standard by which NOT to do crafting) then I know it's gonna be a good game. I figured out a long time ago that crafting is the secret benchmark by which one can separate the "obtuse complextity is good" crowd from the "I have four hours a week to play and want to relax" crowd.
That said, I hope the crafting system is not so level-dependant as it is in WoW. I always felt in WoW that the problem with crafting was that you had to pretty much give up leveling exp if you wanted to advance your skills at a level out of sync with your crafting skills.
In any case, for my purposes if a game does't have fun quests and leveling, then there's not much more to look forward to. Crafting is a distant, distant seventh on my requirements list (after graphics, sounds, lag, and interface).
EDIT: I should mention one thing, though. A truly good game should be able to appease both the crafters and the questing levelers, without forcing one to adapt the style of the other. I.E. I can make my moolah while questing so I can spend it on all that strange stuff you are growing/building.