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Lord of the Rings Online Previews: Hands On: First 10 Levels
At an event in San Francisco, MMORPG.com got to play Turbine's next MMO for several hours.
By Dana Massey on November 06, 2006
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Lord of the Rings Online: Hands-On, First 10 Levels (Page 2 of 3)
As the Hobbit tutorial was not complete, the second phase was actually the Human tutorial area. There, I was in one of Turbine's new layered instances. That is, an area where a bunch of newbies are sent. It is public, in a way, but not yet quite in the real world. Ultimately, the town I was in would burn down as part of the introductory quest and after that instance, my Hobbit was in the real world. Nonetheless, this middle section was greatly improved over the previous. There were literally more quests than I could ever hope to do. I got through my early levels without ever having a want for quests. Never did I go grind. After a while, I jumped back on the main thread and tried to save the town from raiders, a quest that was set up quite seamlessly by the quests before it, but failed. The town burned down and boom, they sent me back to the Shire (a beta mechanic, since normally a Hobbit would not have been off in the human lands so early anyway).
On the plus side, Turbine did a good job of taking familiar MMO quest mechanics and creating new and fun quests from them. For example, back in the Shire, I helped a Hobbit find his charges during a game of hide and seek. Extremely simple, but the quest was good fun and even taught me the geography of the area.
To help with this, Turbine added a little progress list on the right side of the screen. There, players can add or remove quests to their active list and have simple instructions on what their next step is. All that needs to be done is to click on one to bring up even more detailed instructions. The tool was intuitive and handy. For example, when I left the Human areas for the Shire, I removed the old quests from my active list. I still had them and even re-added them when I went back to Human territory, but since I had no hope of completing them all those miles away, I just stowed them until I wanted to take them up again.
General Gameplay The most impressive thing about Lord of the Rings Online was the way they laid out their world. I actually had to ask to see if monsters scaled with characters. It seemed that no matter what I was doing, the monsters around me were always in my general level range. "That's just good game design," Jeff Anderson told me. He's right, it is. Too often, MMORPGs throw you on some quest and leave you in an area of the world with monsters that are beneath your notice or too strong to imagine. Lord of the Rings Online never did that to me. It seemed like just before I would outstrip the enemies in my area, a quest would send me off to a new one and I'd never be the wiser.
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Turbine DOESN'T do it again... ever since I first heard they were the dev team I lost interest in playing, just like I did when I first heard SOE was doing SWG, and with DDO...
There is no doubt they can make a pretty MMO, even AC2 LOOKED good, but thats where things break down...
Its sad, really
Grinding quests is still grinding, sounds too much like FFxi (group combos, lots of quests, little char customization) but with a tired engine and a shiny new skin
Very good review, it make me want to play the game even more than i already wanted to.The one thing I am not happy to hear is the character customization.
I tought they would have gone a step ahead with this one and have more option then say *cough warcraft cough* since they only have so many races to choose from I mean, look at eq2, they have all these options with char customization and they have what, around 16 races? I hope they will be improving that area but for the rest, it look fine to me!
Grinding faction and rerunning the same instance 40 -60 times is a grind to me and boring as watching paint dry. Lotro disguises the 'grind' quite simply with good content. And the ability to solo or group as you wish is a great bonus for the casual player. They have more then a 'pretty' MMO. Then again you'll never see it. <shrug> To each their own 'grind'.
To all those sceptics who are so quick to jump in and criticise I say "Don't knock it until you've tried it" The author of the article said himself he went there not really expecting much and walked away after 7 immersed hours in the game to write what I feel was a very clear and unbiased article. I am always willing to give a new game a DECENT try, I hated a few games when I first tried them, but rather than quit quickly I allowed myself some time to really give them a feel and they turned out to be addictive and fun.
The only thing that might differentiate it from the popular tripe in the MMO industry today are the visuals. That in and of itself is not worth the purchase price.
"While the petting zoo feeling was disappointing, it is hard to fault Turbine for doing what almost every MMO on Earth has ever done. Idealistically, I'd hoped things would be different, but given no one has yet presented a better way of doing things, perhaps that was a bit naive. "
I disagree. I expect developers to be innovative and not copy every aspect of WoW's simplicity in hopes to mimic their success. LOTR shouldn't be using icons over questgivers and showing their location on a minimap with obvious scripts that don't offer any puzzle solving. That is just way too easy and gives me the feeling of being led around by my nose.
The way quests were done in early EQ1 were much better. Not knowing who had a quest actually made every NPC worth engaging. When questgivers have icons or glows around them, indicating there is a quest available, it makes every other NPC unimportant and no one bothers talking to them. Those other NPCs might as well not even be there at all.
In early EQ1 you had to pursue a conversation with a NPC in an attempt to extract information. Some of it was useful, pertaining to a quest or tactical, geographical information, while some of it was lore, or just plain fluff. The information wasn't just handed to you on a silver platter. You could miss a quest or important information by not pursuing a line of questioning which made each NPC potentially valuable and each quest more realistic and individually attuned. You had to think and problem solve since some were quite vague, but that makes them challenging and unique and the game fun, even though at times frustrating as well.
i'm not too sure though if i'll play LOTRO though. the character customization is a large feature and very important. and it also seems that there's lots of instancing (i could be wrong i dunno). if it's anything like DDO then i wont play it, Turbine totally messed up with that game.
as for one of the above posters who said Turbine AND SOE made him turn down a game, i say this: go marry a night elf, blizzard fanboi!
oh and btw i dont think LOTRO is copying WoW in any way. nor do i think WoW copied pieces from EQ and the other "elder" games, it's just the way mmorpgs are. Turbine's not trying to make a completely innovative game, they're trying to make one with the same feel as the rest but with a LOTR spin on it, which will be very popular with role-players.
LotRO is very much on the "open world" style of gaming. It is not hyper instanced.
There are instanced missions, but those are largely large story events that involve changing the world (something you cannot do when others are around).
They also use layered instances. IE: I am in an instanced tutorial (alone) when I start. Then I go into a city with other newbies and we play, but when I complete my newbie arc, I enter a new instance to fight off invaders in that town. Eventually, the town burns down at the end of the quest. Then, I enter the completely open world, where the town has burned down for all in it (given they've completed that quest).
To quote a friend of mine:
"I think the game will draw in a lot of hard core LOTR fans yet to me it just seems like a generic MMORPG. It doesn't introduce anything new to the MMO world, its one thing to keep a few tried and true features and a whole other to have nothing but, and one of the great things of the books/movies is the epic-ness of it all. How can LOTRO portray any sense of epic-ness with 1000 other people in a server? It just seems like its a medicre MMO trying to ride the Lord of the Rings namesake. "
I'm a life long LOTR reader/fan, have all the extended version gift box sets, read the Silmarillion and all the Unfinished Tales... get once Turbine was announced I almost literally cried.
Is it just be or is MMORPG.com getting like so many of the game mags out there, afraid to write a bad review so it doesn't loose insider perks and adverts? To biased and you loose readers, as many a game mag has found out!
Bluntly, you're wrong. I'm sorry, but saying you enjoyed something doesn't mean you've sold out to the man. I clearly explained all the things I disliked or liked and the reasons I disliked or liked them. This allows people to evaluate the features I mentioned on their own and form their own opinions, as well as reading mine That's really all you can do at this early stage.
Plus, I more or less agree with your friend (and my article said as much). The only thing I'd add is that they did a damn polished job of it. The mechanics are the same, but the setting is great and the content is bountiful. I've played many games with these mechanics that do not allow me to level up exclusively through quests... That was a major reason I enjoyed LotRO. The fact that the game felt so "complete" at such an early stage was quite impressive.
As the headline said: this game is not innovative.
If you're seeking innovation... look somewhere else.
If you want a familiar, yet really polished MMORPG in just about the best fantasy setting possible... LotRO will interest you.
Well to be fair, I was thinking of another couple reviews moreso than this one when I said that, but from what you said even just about Char creation, just not being innovative doesn't really describe it... I mean, if the Char creation quality was only up to EQ2 levels it still wouldn't be INNOVATIVE, but it would be up to the "AAA" MMO standard thats already been set...
Perhaps that comment isn't justified by this review, but even the bad ones aren't bad enough... to say DDO came out to "mixed" reviews really is being too generous... its floundering at best.
For me, I write what I think. I honestly have never considered a phrase like "Studio X won't talk to me if I trash their game" when writing. That's just one of those things you need to take our word for though.
For LotRO, the bottom line for me was that I had a lot of fun, despite its flaws. Read the article, I think I mostly talk about flaws, but for whatever reason, I had a blast. That's a good sign for a game, flaws can be fixed, fun is harder.
My original headline was "I liked it and I don't know why", lol. Anyway, it's a mixed bag and not for anyone, but that's what I thought in ten levels. Garrett's doing a full preview for when the NDA comes down, so I am sure we'll go more in depth then.
I think LoTR is going to be a good game. I like it when I have a lot of little quests to do. Kill 6 of this, or 10 of that, etc. plus turning in the quests yields good bonus points to level faster. All you guys that don't like it, don't play it. That way there will be less people to drag down their servers and I will get a better gaming experience. Lol.
Well I can't fault you there, Turbine seems to be on the very edge of greatness, yet someone or something keeps pulling them back to mediocrity. (One would assume on the corperate level.)
AC2 was just beautiful, and the first game to have a respec, but the combat, the lack of shops, and a retarded pyramid scheme guild setup combined to give me LITERAL headaches when I played it... also WTF is up with only 3 races, 2 of which were as ugly and disingenuous as sin?
Then they get what SHOULD have been the GOD license of MMOs: D and freaking D, that which every RPG in small or large part was based off of. EQ was modeled to be D+D online but without the license and look how successful it was/still is (its numbers now probably beat DDO,lol).
You seriously could not imagine a sweeter plum from a MMO... and yet with all the lore, the built in classes, races, etc etc etc (one could literally go on for DAYS about all the content literally handed to them on a silver platter), they somehow manage to bollocks that up.
And now LOTR... sigh... one wonders where they keep getting the money.
But their games never fail to be beautiful, but something fundimental breaks down, its like a cloned sheep with fraying chromasomes, it looks good and sounds right, but it just falls apart.
The more I think about it the more I think the review isn't so bad, as long as one considers eye candy can do a lot for you for 10 levels...
but with no, and I mean NO innovation, and typical Turbine excecution, people who buy this are gonna with they had their 50 bucks when the 30 day trial is over and so is their time in Middle Earth, (online)...
I will be looking forward for more to come. LOTRO sounds great, I will definitly be giving it a try.
The game is stunningly beautiful at times. Anyone who wrote off Turbine after D&DO will find they did so prematurely. I think LOTRO will benefit from those WoW fans (non-PvP) who want something simiiliar but offer a refreshing change of scenery.
I know I'm there, at least until Warhammer manages to make it retail... ;)
Did you stop playing the beta after 5 minutes? DDO this game is not, not even close.
DDO is a fully instanced, group only, twitch based fantasy game.
This is an open world, solo & group, strategic and thoughtful MMO. Its nothing like DDO in anyway. The combat is fun and fairly original in parts, the enviroments are interesting and well laid out, the storyline quests are engaging, and they are actually attempting to stay true to the source material instead of dumping in mages, warlocks and necro's like everyone else. Go back to the beta now, log in a dwarf and work your way through the Dwarf starter area for a few hours, exploring the HUGE Dwarf halls that are reminisent of Moria, then log in to DDO and sit on the dock (the starter area) then come back and say it is the same game.
Turbine = the Uwe Boll of MMOs
Also, I completly agree with what R.A. Salvatore said at the Mythic las vegas show. MMO's are most fun when YOU make up a story for yourself, not run through a tredmill of scripted scenes that TELL you what your story is.
Even my current dislike of vanguard is less than my hatered for what LoTR:O is right now, because even with all the dumbing down done to vanguard, it's still a sandbox where I can make my own story, not be told what the hell to do and who the hell I am.
Okay so we get you didnt like it. Does the N.D.A you had to agree to for the Beta allow you to violate it if you dont like the game?
Great article Dana!
I look forward to the day this game goes gold.
sounded pretty good for a beta review/preview
cant wait to get into middle earth
I however dont like the fact that CHR creation might suck from what was just told to us but if the game is good then ill look past it
as someone in the vanguard beta right now, all i have to say is what the hell are you talking about? the gameplay is nothing like wow. even with the nda on clampdown, i can give you one solid reason straight from the art director, "by endgame each class will have 100 or more skills". compare that to wow's handful of decently balanced skills.
also, the grapics are not like eq2, almost in the least. you can see forever, the area is all pretty much bright and realistically sunbleached while eq2 sticks to forests and dark areas. the graphics are nothing like each other in the actual build either. while eq2 tried to make everything look real and plastic, vanguard's graphics have a unique style to them. you can see that there were in fact artists that designed them rather than some computer program.
as for grinding, there really isn't any in vanguard. the first while in newbie land were boring but as soon as you got out of that it turned into something entirely different.
you want to comment on being led around in mmo's, guild wars should have been your top choice. let's put a dot on the map and arrows that tell you exactly where to go. you know? why not give you some fake party members since you are playing a fake mmo, this way you can say you play mmo's but never really have to be made fun of for not knowing how to play.
bottom line: stop talking. you don't know what you're talking about obviously, and rather than stay out of things you felt you had to publicly embarrass yourself. well good job, you win.
The bottom line is this.....
Previews and reviews are all well and good but unless you are smart enough to seperate the previewer/reviewer's personal opinions from any actual facts and useful information then reading them will only make you biased.
If you really want to know if a game suits your needs or playstyle you should look at only the facts. Dont worry about whether so and so thinks its boring or someone else thinks it is too much like another game. Go read the FAQs yourself and study up on what the game has and is.
Last but not least try the game before forming an opinion about it. You will never really know whether the game is for you if you dont at least try it out. How many 50 dollar single player games have you brought home from the store thinking it would be just awesome because the back of the box said it was? You regret buying the ones that were crappy but how would you ever have known if you hadnt tried it?
Turbine has good ideas and follows through with them. DDO was never meant to be an MMO and they stuck to that. It never got HUGE because of that but the fans of it love it for what it is, not what everyone else wanted it to be. I respect and admire that in a game company.
I can trust Turbine do make this game what they originally intended it to be:
"Experience an epic storyline through hundreds of quests created as a companion to The Lord of the Rings. Adventure in familiar areas as well as new ones, created for the game, which were only briefly touched on by J.R.R. Tolkien in his master works. Experience Middle-earth as never before as you swim the Brandywine River or make your way through the mists of the Old Forest. Turbine, working closely with Tolkien Enterprises, has created what Gamedaily calls "...a must have title for fans of Tolkien lore."
(Quoted from the bottom of this page)
-Naaz.
Guess you should actualy LOOK at EQ2 once before making your feeble attempts at an argument. The races that are shared looks almost Identical, a lot of the armor designs look very similar, the way armor looks plastic is also similar....vanguard graphics ARE Eq2, just having the benefit of several years more development and technology.
Ohh and I'm SOOO glad you believe everything that the people MAKING the game (who have to hype it at every opportunity) tell you to believe. I'm happy you showed your intelligence by believing everything the salesmen tell you.
There's plenty of grind in vanguard unless, ofcourse, you're a kid and have time to play the game for 6+ hours a day, in which case I'm not surprized you think there's no grind to it. But from actualy playing the game, and from what the developers say their vision for the game is, there's plenty of grinding in the game. It starts realy slowing down at about the high teens.
And I dont consider guild wars an MMO, i consider it a single player RPG with a big online game mode.
Could you also explain how I dont know what I'm talking about if I've played since beta 2, and followed the game before that, only quitting very recently?
Or did you just run out of things the developers told you to believe about the game?
yeah i guess vanguard is just ripping the races off of eq2, that originally ripped off d&d, which ripped off tolkien and numerous other fantasy writers dating back to when england owned most of the world. these races have been around forever, the will continue to be around forever. the fact that brad mcquaid is heading this game even makes it less of an eq2 rip-off and more of a "i've been doing this since day one." kind of thing.
at first i thought vanguard sucked. the newbie level almost ruined the game, but after that it does get incredibly good. and as for what the people making the game say, i could care less. i only look at facts that they have. i don't care about their vision, the experience, yada yada yada. i want a fun game.
vanguard delievers on that. quite well.
Sorry, I wasnt going to make up some elaborate and eloquent defense against a kid that screams "OMG, YOU DONT KNOW WHAT YOU TALKING ABoUT, AND I DO!!"
Way to sugar coat grinding...its just long levels...riiiiiight.
There's also a difference between using the same idea and using models that look almost identical.
Anyway, I'd like to get back to bashing LoTR:O
Well, one's opinion is one's opinion. You can't make them change it if they don't want to.
I think that people are expecting too much when they say "innovative".
I would say the monster play pvp concept is innovative as I don't know of any game that has done that. Also, the use of "fear" might be a bit innovative as well.
But why do we have to reinvent the wheel? And is it needed.
Being innovative for the sake of being different is just as bad as doing same old same old. I think I'll agree with the idea that placing markers above npc's makes all the non quest npc's less important. But then again, how many times do you want to click on an "eye candy" npc only to hear "have a nice day" and nothing more. For me that would get old quickly.
And as far as creating your own story. Well, I suppose role players would tell you that you can just roleplay your own story.
As far as the game goes, I'm not sure if there are games where you can "create" your own story in any meaningful way. At least in a way that you can't do in what the current LOTRO is shaping up to be.
Perhaps open pvp games. But this is not an open pvp game so you are not going to be getting inter clan intrigue.
I haven't tried this game yet. I am dissapointed in the character creating. Not that I need sliders but I would have wanted more.
I don't mind grind. And I don't have 6 hours per day to play. But I do want something different to do if I choose to do it.
At least in LOTRO there are quests. I don't know if they will be good or not. That quite frankly is opinion. I personall thought that WoW's quests were fun. Not ground breaking but I actually enjoyed myself. And this is from a person who plays Lineage 2, possibly the worst quests in the mmorpg genre. I never take quests because they are so bad. Suddenly I see that another game makes them at least more entertaining and I can do them.
Now, I also think the movies might be a detriment to this game. Sure, you will get a lot of people wanting to try it because of the movies but then people are going to expect that type of setting. It doesn't look like they are going to get that. For many that will be a turn off.
I think I'll wait to pass judgement until I try the game.
As far as the review. I don't get the sense that the reviewer was getting pressure to say things other than their opinion or candy coat things.
I do get that they were being diplomatic. Quite frankly I find it refreshing. I'm tired of people bashing things in an unconstructive way just so they can be edgy. I find it far more professional to say what didn't work. I think the reviewer did a decent job of that.
And though they weren't bothered by a bit of same old same old, that is their opinion. People have to remember that that is what a review is. Opinion. "They" weren't bothered. But they do bring it up to give the general public and sense of what might be an issue.
Your logic has collapsed completely...I have to make a successful game to judge one now? Well holy crap, I guess that puts 100% of the game reviewers out there out of work!
And you're getting judged because you decided to do the same to me in your first post...awww, and you dont like it, do you?
Turbine have given themselves a headstart by using LOTR in their game title. If I went ahead and started the game, then I know it will be enjoyable. What I really want is for Turbine to recreate things that I read in the book 'The Hobbit'. I don't think it is possible to capture Tolkein's world in a game of any sort. I read the LOTR trilogy simply because 'The Hobbit' was a good book, but in no way did it please me as much to read the trilogy as it did to read the prequel. I have the impression that Turbine is making LOTR into an mmo because it already fits into the categories of 'fantasy', 'popular', 'epic' and 'proven to be scalable to other media'!
The conflict I have in games like this is more about the fact that I cannot decide if I am supposed to be immersing myself in another world. That is something that games cannot do for me unless they are fast paced and exciting, just like a good book.
The review helps me see what this game will be like, but I cannot say that I am surprised at the content, since I have read so many reviews already.
p.s. thanks to mmorpg.com for accelerating games of the present into the future!
The article makes it sound as though there may yet be hope for this MMO!
If you all liked what you read in that article, I'd highly recommend signing up for the Beta if you haven't already. We're going to be inviting a bunch of people over the coming weeks and months and it's a great opportunity to play the game and form your own opinions.
http://www.lotro.com/betasignup
What if you didn't like what you read in the article? are they invited too?
I guess the people are right when they Turbine delivers on their promises, and quote them on not promising anything but graphics>gameplay
*chuckles* Tough crowd.
Of course. Everyone is invited to sign up! Feel free to click the link and sign up right now if you want.
Nice article. I hope Turbine was able to read this. There are so many things about this game that can be great but there seem to be some things that are bringing it down. The lack of character customizing is truly questionable. Why wouldn't Turbine want you to customize your character with sliding bars? I really hope Turbine makes some big changes in the BETA period.
We have a lot of changes in store for Beta. Unfortunately I can't talk about them in detail without breaking my own NDA. :) The game continues to improve with every update though and we have quite a few planned in the coming months.
Tough crowd indeed.
Great preview Dana, thanks for bringing it to us.
I do have to say though, every time I read about this game, the more and more I realize that it holds absolutely no interest for me and I would consider myself a huge Tolkien fan. Oh well, what can you do.
Can I blame them for taking a WoW approach to the game? Absolutely not, they want to appeal to a wide spectrum of players and I get that but what I've read, seen and heard, this game is absolutely not for me.
It seemed that no matter what I was doing, the monsters around me were always in my general level range. "That's just good game design," Jeff Anderson told me.
So they pushed the easy button for a player. No probs, don't worry, mommy won't let you have a problem and won't let you die.
Sounds pretty boring. Excitement from being attacked by a killer monster (for your level) and dieing, escaping or even managing to kill it (with or without group) is more valuable to me. And what's wrong with mixing monsters and therefore players of different levels? Be careful, smart or form a group or ask higher level to help you. And learn something from higher level ppl in the process and watch their uber-weapons and spells. All that sounds way less boring to me than "my general level range".
I agree.
This reeks of safety net game play to me. I keep referring back to early EQ1 because that has been my favorite up until now. Zones in early EQ1 were more of a mixed bag, some easier mobs mixed in with more dangerous ones and sometimes that rare random spawn that would ravage everything in sight. That was exciting and kept me on my toes.
Nice review, but I'm curious what the death penalty/mechanic for the game is?
Turbine lost me when they struck out with D&D Online. I'm VERY skeptical about LOTRO now. I don't like hand-holding ala WoW style, which sounds like that is what LOTRO is all about.
Surprisingly, the negative reaction here to the review by Dana makes me want to play LOTRO even more!! I'm serious. The emotional, irrational rage some of you have intrigues me to the point of unbridled curiousity.
Rather than yet more, 'choose which linear quest/class line from the set you wish to pursue' MMO's where are the inheritors to UO, a proper sandbox where you built your own story and place in the world, with the freedom to change direction and go somewhere else or become something different.
Just squint a bit so the graphics look less crappy and you're set.
Seriously people, after LOTRO, Turbine is going to be the new punchline for MMOG developer cracks - SoE will be so happy. I'm not sure why they spend all the money to obtain high-end IP to build games around, but you'd think they could bother make something with that IP that doesnt suck a golf ball through a garden hose.
Well, that and the large number of quests, anything that lessens the need to grind can't be a bad thing.
Sorry but looks just like WoW to me just without pvp.
Same old mass market mmo... I have been looking forward to Lotro for so long... bloody Quest Grinding again! I'm sick of static Worlds with mobs nicely mapped out with weak AI :(
Where is that virtual World we all dream about?
No innovation here, just the same old dry template with Tolken characters and landscape
What a dissapointment!
Good review.
But I very worried about the lack of characterisation.
I want Lotro to be not just a petty/fun MMORG I want it to be a world where I am immersed in the storyline and the world.
I want to create unique characters that are persistent in Middle earth for a long time. I want to play my part in the fight for good against the "gathering of the dark" integrated in the storyline but with other PPL as well as solo play.
So important for me are the ability of customise the appearance of my avarter. Also I want to live in Middle earth and will need a guildhall to meet up in and some real estate (perhaps to craft a dwelling) where I can keep items and memories.
I am worried that Turbine might be tempted to position Lotor in a solo direction in the thinking that they have group play covered in DDO. This sort of thinking seems weak to me. Cant see how a game charging a montly fee but that feels like a good offline game can have a long life. and dont believe MMOs are a mature enough to have this type of market segmention.
Maybe this stuff wont be aroung at launch and I'll try it because I am a Lotr fans. I just hope Turbine has a develope plan for lotro that is going keep me playing for years.
Sturmrade, you seem to be posting quite a lot of responses to a game that you aren't even going to try. And I am infering that you think EQ was the greatest thing since sliced bread. You position against this game is wobley at best.
I enjoyed the review and having not yet gotten into the beta, it makes me want to play it that much more. Sounds like they reverted to the tried and true potatoe head format of character creation. This aspect will hopefully be overlooked by an abundance of equipment models. And as you said there is no reinventing of the wheel. What people must remember is, yes they want to make a truly great game, however, you'd be acting naive to say money was not a motivation. Over half the people playing an MMO are playing World of Warcraft. So to try and immitate the simplicity of WoW is only natural, you cannot fault them for that. The tricky part is adding innovations without making things complex. Is it complexity what I want? Damn straight. I'd love to see more difficutly. But bottom line, the average player doesn't want complexity or difficulty.
I hope they pull in a fresh batch of MMO players into a pretty stagnant player base.
Play a Turbine game, your curiosity will evaporate (except AC1, that one was OK, a fluke it seems as time passes)
I was sceptical for sure, but now, I think I will give this title a shot when it comes out.
Better that it follow the footsteps of World of Warcraft than that of EverQuest. EQ was all about work with very little that was fun. Its mechanics fostered addiction with meaningless time sinks and well manicured deterrents with its whole flagging system, key system and raid centric gameplay. While WoW ends up being raid centric in the end, up till 55, it was a very fun game, despite all of the hand holding / petting zoo quests and zones.
I will definitely give this game a try, but only if they reward all play styles equally. If I'm forced to raid in order to get the best gear, then they can take a flying leap off a very tall mountain. If group instances take more than 2 hour chunks of time to finish, then they can take another flying leap off a very tall building. If solo content is nothing more than a time filler till you can get a group or raid, then they can burn in hell for all eternity and they won't get a single dime from me : )
In other words, I have a lot of expectations that have to be met before I'll fund another MMO company. I am not at all happy with current MMO paradigms, the sheer eliticism and caste like systems they foster are not appealing.
great game but pointless preview...Dana...you waffle on saying nothing about the game except that it is like every other fantasy mmo you have played - In other words only EQ?
I wanted to know about how the combat works. Is it as good as DDO (which I rate the best combat system available for a fantasy mmo)?
What made the game true to the Tolkien books? Is there the poetic history imbued through npc lore and intereaction?
What about weapon and armour and magic items? What is the core game mechanic in relation to this? Is it simply ripped off from WoW?
I am sure this game will be fantastic - just wish the previews could be too.
Thanks for the article. I think it is a pretty fair and balanced review.
Regarding innovation, what are people really looking for here? New game mechanics? New combat styles? (Went over real well for SWG :) New crafting systems? New settings? I see people dissing lots of games for lack of innovation, but is this just jaded players saying "show me something new?" What exactly is it everyone is looking for?
Regarding character creation, maybe they've got some amazing thing up their hobbity sleeves and they don't want to reveal it yet...hehe who knows.
I will say, Turbine is very responsive to feedback, they seem to read comments on their forums and probably places like this and take it to heart. I believe if they will be able to meet and exceed expectations. They seem very smart, and after dealing with a certain ruthless mmo company, they just seem soooo nice and for me that means alot.
Well I'll wait for future reviews of how crafting, PVP and other aspects come into play to make my final decisions. But from what I gather from this article, its just a WOW clone.
Quests and Levels , bah !! Man i so wanted a more open world like Ultima Online and the game being skill based. I'm so disappointed.
I see the game like all the current MMORPGS, just with different graphics and a different title. In all honestly, the game looks like fun, might be enjoyable , but won't hold me in for long. This first review doesnt offer me anything fresh or innovative. I myself may not purchase it just for its name if its just gonna be similar to WOW which I played for 2 weeks before I got bored out of my mind.
I guess I'm just too old school and spolied from playing Ultima Online (Pre-Trammel). I hate to bring that up, but its the truth. I've played alot of MMORPGS since and only played SWG long term. Most of the others just a few weeks. Hope this game turns it around and I will wait for further reviews before passing my final judgement. So far i'm not impressed.
One other thing, I don't like scaled AI. I want to have challenges and figure things out for myself. If I want to fight a dragon at LEVEL 1 then I should be allowed to. Thats what a real world is like. I don't need someone to tell me to kill 3 damn spiders and search a corn field. I like to do whatever I want. If I come across some Trolls at a cave, I want to make my own quest, find my friends and say, "hey , I found these trolls in a cave, i need some help to take them down and then see whats in the cave" Stuff like that, stuff that Ultima Online Offered. And in my opinion, anything that doesnt incorporate something from UO is a step back in innovation. We used to make our own player run quests for crying outloud. Ouch, after typing that paragraph, I think i'm out of luck enjoying any of these new MMORPGs.
Thank you Dana. I felt like that was a well balanced and fair review. The only conclusion I have drawn is that this is a game I will buy and play----for a little while, at least. A truely emmersive game is rare. I've played them all, but only a couple held my attention long enough to begin to ruin a marriage or have my kids hate me.
Let's hope this game lives up to its apparent potential.
Bluntly, you're wrong. I'm sorry, but saying you enjoyed something doesn't mean you've sold out to the man. I clearly explained all the things I disliked or liked and the reasons I disliked or liked them. This allows people to evaluate the features I mentioned on their own and form their own opinions, as well as reading mine That's really all you can do at this early stage.
Plus, I more or less agree with your friend (and my article said as much). The only thing I'd add is that they did a damn polished job of it. The mechanics are the same, but the setting is great and the content is bountiful. I've played many games with these mechanics that do not allow me to level up exclusively through quests... That was a major reason I enjoyed LotRO. The fact that the game felt so "complete" at such an early stage was quite impressive.
As the headline said: this game is not innovative.
If you're seeking innovation... look somewhere else.
If you want a familiar, yet really polished MMORPG in just about the best fantasy setting possible... LotRO will interest you.
I tend to agree with Bluntly.
I mean the title should be 7 hours and 10 levels (and SOLO no less) - LotR is another DDO with a few weeks of play only. I mean geez, that is stunningly easy/quick for a supposed top notch full scalle MMO.
Aside from that you say it is nothing innovative just polished. That is like saying a new car that is nothing but the same car that was out 5 years ago is somehow good because it has 5 years of production behind it. I mean if it is just polished WOW that would be a pretty universally negative thing in any gaming realm save MMORPG where there are few negatives. Even a free to play game like Guild Wars offers new innovations AND polish with each of its subsequent release. To my knowledge Half Life 2 wasn't a prettier and more polished version of Half Life 1. The third LotR movie wasn't a better effect better acted version of the first. Get the pattern? New things should in some large way be, uhm, new.
I haven't played the game so it is hard for me to offer a relative comparison but hearing a reviewer say a major new MMO yields levels at a pace of faster than 1 level per hour of play and is a more polished version of a game out for years (one universally decried as done and in need of mold breaking) is a big red flag saying boring, uninnovative, and LotR name recognition money grab.
Eh, I think every MMO coming out in the next few years will be cookie cutter, lets be honest here, there isn't much that can change other then the atomospher or the way you interact with the enviorment. From killing npc's with a sword or blowing up a ship with a cannon, It's combat that all these games will have in comon as well as other basic MMO patterens. However what makes an MMO great is the obvious, easy interface, pretty to look at, depth, good sound (music helps here) and finally the top i think , immerision.. when it comes down to it, can you get lost into the MMO? if yes, then you got a great game. Simple as that I think, people always try to explain all aspects, but when it comes down to the basic of all basics, "does your MMO immerse the player so much that they loose track of time?" that is a good game :)
I just want a non classed based, skills based fantasy mmo. Thanks to bloody D&D every dev makes class based fantasy mmo. Yawn
The class system is just platforming/grinding and a gimmick to resolve balance issues...=lazy devs. When you see Eve top of the list you know I am right!
However LOTRO will have the best combat system out there as Turbine's DDO combat system is 2nd to none for a fantasy mmo.
I know what I want but the tech and the devs are not there yet. Viva la (r)evolution (and play lotr for the while).
Thx for the review - it has given me food for thought.
i was thinking; game adaption of book/film + turbine + notorously difficult Tolkiens = crappy game, steer well clear
now im going to have to bloody well go and try it for myself - damn it
Or you could trust your first instincts... I would
Guys its really pisses me off when you keep saying they took this from WOw and that etc....because wow has nothing original
its just shows how new all of you are to online gaming..
WOW has took averithing from eq ,AC and ac2 even use of the same terminology, i remmember when i tried wow i thought this was bloody copy of ac2 everything even quests looked alike , there was nothing new there in fact AC2 had some stuff that are still not in any other games ..
errm sorry we pissed you off by comparing LOTRo to other games (although nothing wrong with bad mouthing WoW
...maybe you could expand on your argument by mentioning those things that AC2 has that no other mmorpg has? Hopefully by comparing it to LOTRo which is what this thred is about.
He played for only 7 hours. The newness didn't even wear off. Give it a week and any person who played WoW or EQ2 would be returning to their old game, because this game is just a solo based, quest themepark like those. Why go to a new game that offers nothing much different than the old game you just left with high level characters?
I guess this game is great if you wanted a low customizable game, to solo mostly, to do one quest after another without end, but I have higher expectations. I like to group and almost require grouping to be the norm in the game if I will even consider resubbing to it after the first month. In LOTRO, you don't group, because no one really wants to. Every class can solo, and nothing is that hard that requires a group. Kudos to LoTRO for following the WoW formula, but not even being as good as WoW...and I am no WoW fan.
too right. The main point of playing online is so that you can interact with non AI...plenty on non online games for those who enjoy thier own company or prefer the solo style of play.
Except that interaction doesn't require grouping and there is a big difference in playing a single player game and playing solo in a multi-player game. If you guys can't figure that one out, then there's no hope in making you understand. I solo a lot in MMO's and yet despite that, I interact with people regularly in every aspect and it makes the game world feel alive, something you cannot get in a single player game. Single player games don't benefit from constant updates and added content. They also don't tend to be as open ended nor do they usually have many of the facets of an MMO such as housing, crafting, factions and diplomacy, PvP....etc.
I tell you what, using your own argument, I suggest if you want a grouping only game, go play Team Fortress cuz MMO's jsut aren't for you.
Good luck Lord of the Rings Online.
Turbine entertainment.
enough said there, ripping off players, community and whatever else before going under and running to some publisher with money.
simply because of what turbine HAS done in the past and their reputation, although the review looked like the infusion of funds let them get their game going and said game looked and sounded as the reviewer liked it, i still wont even try it.
an example of past customer dissatisfaction. hope turbine has learned a lesson and doesnt fubar any new folks in their new game.
Having said that, Turbine, up to this point, hasn't really done anything great. They made Asheron's Call, which had mediocre success. AC2 was dead before it was released & DDO is along the same lines as AC, a failure by industry standards, but the game has a dedicated fanbase.
Now, I don't expect anything more than what Turbine has offered before with LOTRO, but I am hoping I will be surprised when I actually get to play the game.