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Lord of the Rings Online Review: Rise of Isengard & F2P Goodness - Edit
8.3
| Pros |
 Free Great graphics Lots of content Solo & group friendly |
| Cons |
 Gated content over level 65 Monster play not fully realized No Hobbit punting |
In the wake of Lord of the Rings Online’s latest expansion, Rise of Isengard, we decided it was high time to take another look at this popular free-to-play (F2P)/subscription hybrid MMO. While many folks seemed hesitant to give this one a try prior to the F2P conversion, the ability to enjoy 65 levels without ever paying a subscription cost means there’s little reason not to sample the familiar and rather beautiful world from the Lord of the Rings book series (and eventual movie franchise). And no, this one isn’t just for folks obsessed with the novels.
Aesthetics: 9/10
Without a doubt, LOTRO is one of the most visually appealing MMOs I have played in the last few years. While the character creation options are classic Turbine and highly reminiscent of Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO), the world itself goes leaps and bounds beyond most F2P MMO options—including DDO, itself. The costumes here are more vivid and detailed, even if the character models and their customization isn’t quite as polished or as broad in options as the world might indicate at first glance. Not only are the cities for each of the four primary races of Middle Earth vastly different and intricately designed, but the quest lines and cinema events inspired by the series are unique and work to create a vivid glimpse of the storyline from character creation.
The human lands are a combination of rustic lodges and rolling hills or farmlands, whereas the dwarf areas feature snow-capped mountains and frozen lakes. The Shire has the classic circle doors which are a hallmark of the Lord of the Rings world, and the elven cities are ornate and beautiful while still looking timeless and one with nature. Obviously, the game designers took care to pay tribute to the details of this vast, familiar world not only for the sake of the Lord of the Rings fans who might try the game, but also players unfamiliar with the novels who still crave detailed, immersing environments. The soundtrack, sound effects, and voice acting within LOTRO aren’t the most impressive I’ve encountered, but they do enough justice to this visually appealing world to create an enjoyable package. You will encounter characters from the books and movie franchise, and the adaptation of those actors’ visage onto the characters within the game itself is done well considering the limitations imposed by the models.
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Gameplay: 8.5/10
LOTRO plays-out like most of the popular MMOs on the market: Lots of questing at the lower levels, followed by some epic raid options as you hit the end-game levels and plenty of ways to spend your time working on things like crafting, fun PvP and even player housing. But what really stands out with LOTRO is how much content to have access to without subscribing to the monthly “VIP” subscription service, at least for the first 20-30 levels of the game—not bad for a “free trial” worth of content. Your first purchase of Turbine Points grants you a Premium Account, just like with DDO, and two extra character slots. You also gain Turbine Points while leveling-up (albeit slowly, I grant you); though this ends up being something of a tease when you realize that 100 Turbine Points won’t buy you much in the store, it does add up over time.
One great feature which mixes-up things a bit is the implementation of the choreographed, cinematic scenes and missions. These transport you into the action or locations from the series, allowing you to interact with Gandalf or Strider among others. While this formulaic system might sound entirely unimpressive to non-fans of the series, the game is surprisingly engaging while questing thanks to the vivid, well developed storyline based on the franchise. I’ll admit, for years I incorrectly assumed the bulk of LOTRO players were just fans of the Lord of the Rings world who enjoyed being immersed in the culture, landscape and realms described within the books; imagine my surprise to realize the appeal of the game stems well beyond its famous origins, offering quite a bit to players who have never even seen or read the Lord of the Rings.
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I would say that one area of LOTRO which shines above many similar systems out there are some of the bonus, optional and often overlooked elements: The crafting system, and even the player housing system, for example. There are seven crafting vocations, and each as three professions within that vocation, so there is plenty of opportunities to spend your time and hard-earned coin leveling up as a jeweler, tailor, cook, woodworker and more. As far as housing, it’s easy to navigate, customizable without being a maddening process, and the housing areas match the LOTRO world beautifully. This feature is optional of course, but it is a quaint, enjoyable element you can choose to enjoy or not. Additional storage makes it more functional than simply cosmetic, and it’s certainly a better feature within LOTRO than many rival F2P titles.
Monster Play came to F2P with the Rise of Isengard expansion, though you’ve only got one race to play with unless you hit the Turbine Store. Orc Reavers are certainly enough to give this version of PvP a try though, especially if you’re itching to slay fellow players. Monsters begin play at level 75, but you’ve got to gain Infamy (or Renown as the Free Peoples) to increase in Rank and thereby skills and overall effectiveness. I’ll admit there’s something terribly satisfying about wandering around as a Warg looking for Free People to tear apart. If PvP isn’t your thing, you never have to touch the “PvMP” (player versus monster player) system, but it’s a great way to break the monotony of quest grinding.
Innovation: 8/10
Unfortunately, LOTRO isn’t overwhelmingly innovative or revolutionary even with the application of the famous setting for the game. That isn’t to say the game designers aren’t keeping players on their toes, or continuing to produce stellar content; quite the opposite really, and the success of the Rise of Isengard expansion is proof of that. Still, while the aesthetics are very nice all around, questing to level-up is repetitious by its very nature, and LOTRO is pretty standard when it comes to the level grind. One thing which is a welcome change from questing is the Skirmish system option in which you are transported into an instanced battlefield to face waves of foes while claiming control points. While you can solo in this mode, it is one feature which is much more fun in a larger group.
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As far as the classes available, the options in LOTRO are varied and specialized enough to be enjoyable, without really standing out much in the sea of options elsewhere in the MMO world. Each race receives special benefits or weaknesses, but honestly I would have enjoyed more customization in each specific class, especially towards the level 65 F2P cap, though the increase to 75 has introduced quite a few more options to players. With Rise of Isengard, a new 24-player raid was introduced along with the other new perks, but honestly while it’s new to LOTRO it isn’t new in the MMO scene.
Polish: 8/10
When it comes to Polish, I have certainly encountered far worse than LOTRO. The interface is rather user-friendly and easy to understand and navigate, and naturally the Turbine Store is highly accessible. I found that interaction with NPCs was highly responsive, and in combat monsters reacted the way I would have expected—no problematic delay, few line-of-sight issues, and good reaction time for my button mashing. Like DDO, LOTRO does allow for quite a bit of tactical combat especially within a group, and even more so in the latter raiding levels. The map is great for locating quest givers, recipients and objectives, though I found it to be fairly useless long-range despite the zoom in/out feature; you might actually have to read the quest objectives on this one to figure out exactly where that far arrow is indicating.
Longevity: 8/10
LOTRO has already seen three major expansions and the 4-year anniversary of the original launch, plus a successful conversion from pay-to-play (P2P) to a F2P version with a subscription option. Not bad, considering this MMO has something of a mixed reputation within the gamer community. According to a statement from Turbine, Rise of Isengard is the most successful expansion for LOTRO to date, which seems to indicate interest in this F2P/P2P combination is only increasing with time. The forums are highly active, and there are plenty of websites full of information on quests, crafting, raid tactics and more. If an active, growing community is a sure sign of an MMO’s longevity, LOTRO is definitely on the safer side of the spectrum. As long as Turbine keeps the quality expansions and new content coming, I don’t foresee LOTRO disappearing from the MMO map anytime soon.
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Social: 8/10
If you’re familiar with the Lord of the Rings world, you probably won’t be surprised to know that LOTRO is a rather social game. Kinships—the in-game Guild system—are taken pretty seriously, and the community seems to take a lot of pride in their guilds. That same community is very active on both the official LOTRO forums and various unofficial networks, so there are plenty of opportunities to find a Kinship or simply an assortment of in-game allies without dragging real-life friends onto the game. However, I have to admit there are a whole lot of reasons to do so, especially since LOTRO gives you plenty of free content to experience at least the basic features of the game, and volumes more if you decide to subscribe or purchase individual upgrades.
Value: 8.5/10
As far as free content goes, LOTRO offers a fair amount compared to other F2P titles out there—and it comes with nice graphics, a highly popular world inspired by an epic franchise, and the option to pay-as-you-go rather than only a flat-rate subscription fee. More than a few players opt to buffet-table their Turbine Point purchases, rather than to go VIP indefinitely, which is great for customizing your experience to fit your budget. Don’t want to spend a dime? Then don’t—the free level cap of 65 is pretty generous in terms of content and play-time available before you have to even consider grabbing your credit card.
If you do decide to subscribe to VIP, then LOTRO unlocks to a vast, complex and very satisfying amount of options. You gain two additional class options, scores of quests, the level 75 cap and more. The Rise of Isengard expansion also comes with some fun bonus freebies, three new areas to explore, and enough content to provide quite a few more hours of activity if you’ve previously seen or done everything. The mail system and auction house become entirely available, rather than the limited versions for free and premium accounts, plus you land 500 bonus Turbine Points a month for your shopping pleasure.
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The Road Goes Ever On and On…
My journey into Middle Earth via LOTRO was a pleasant one, and I am still surprised by how much this MMO impressed me and captured my attention. Taking a look back at other F2P titles I have devoted hours on over the past year, I feel silly for not giving LOTRO a try sooner; this is definitely one worth taking a closer look at, especially if you want all the bells and whistles with a subscription and a visually appealing world to go along with them.
The addition of the new realms with the Rise of Isengard expansion, additional instances, plus the 24-man raid and the addition of Monster Play to the F2P roster really upped the overall value for LOTRO for both subscribers and free players, and I feel the expansion is well worth picking up in any of the three packages available. Enjoyment of this MMO certainly isn’t limited to ravenous fans of the franchise, table-top gamers, and other classic gamer “nerds”. I dare say, there’s a little something for most of us with in this virtual Middle Earth.
nice read..not..i love lotro but very disappointed so far with isengard..its now gone from one of the best mmo's to a solo rpg...the addition of the f2p is ok..i dont mind that..atm i feel like frodo..lotro is a lonely road atm..hope it improves real soon.i will stick with it though being a lifer.
Unfortunately it's gone beyond trying to convert to single player mode. They have totally dumbed down their crafting/harvesting system the same way SWG tried to do with the NGE because they were worried about WoW. Except this time I think Lotro is worried about SWTOR. Game devs need to stop worrying to the point of paranoia and just stay true to their fanbase.
I had played Lotro ever since alpha testing and was in the beta for RoI as well. Sad to say, I cancelled my subscription and won't be going back unless Turbine changed back some of their bad choices. I am sure it won't happen anytime soon if at all, but I know I am not alone on this view because others have agreed with me on their official forums.
But like many devs these days, they choose not to listen to the people making their paychecks possible.
Failing with an IP as vast and loved as lord of the rings tells me turbine are not a great developement studio, the original lord of the rings game middle earth online was a far superior idea.
THIS.
+1
Additionally I don't really like F2P mode, cause it clearly changes devs focus to make game connects to store in as many places as possible, to increase store sales as far as changing game mechanics to boost store sales (it was done in Lotro).
It 'feels' like it is more about the store than game itself.
Not sure what to think about someone saying an idea that never saw the light of day is superior to the gameplay that made it in, maybe you are right but I heard the same types of comments about the original pre CU/NGE SWG and that game couldn't sustain a population large enough to satisfy it's developers either.
Not sure I'd be so quick to just dismiss Turbine as a developer either since the fact remains that ip's don't make the product there are far too many games with sure shot ip's that also failed or underserved that ip's percieved market from AOC to STO and MXO.
But it was only an "idea", and never came to fruition. There may have been a reason for that. Many times lofty ideas never see the light of day because there isn't an easy way to implement those ideas. Just look at Darkfall. A lot of lofty ideas, but the game that was released was no where near the original idea for the game.
I became bored quicker than I thought with the new expansion and have since cancelled my sub. I was hoping for something "more" (though I don't know what that "more" is).
Not sure where you get the "failing with an IP thing" . Lotro is thriving and all the servers I play on are always very busy. As Turbine said, Isengard has been their most successful expansion ever. Turbine has done quite well with the Lord of the Rings IP.
Nice review!
It really is a matter of taste. I love LotRO, but the main issue before was the limited population (causing Turbine to shift away from the heavy group focus and towards solo player viability). With F2P, more people should be playing, so I'll likely check it out again very soon.
The re-review seems rather generous.
Aesthetics - 7.5 - 8
The environmental visuals are very nice as is the soundtrack. These are the greatest immersive features the game has to offer. However, the character models look very dated and plastic, the animations are wooden, and the armour sets haven't seen new meshes in years.
Gameplay - 6.5
The gameplay is very slow and clunky. The game lacks any sort of cohesive design and over-arching system behind it. Ever single expansion the combat system, and as a result class mechanics, is completely overhauled. Turbine has flipped back and forth between their approach to combat mechanics and Rise of Isengard is no exception. Despite all of these overhauls the combat is still very slow and clunky with long skill cooldowns and heavy use of mob spammed debuffs.
Itemization has been a mess since Mirkwood with lower level instance gear surpassing the quality of higher level newer gear. With the new combat revamp low to mid-tier gears don't work well with character progression at all.
Crafting has absolutely no consistency to it at all. The first six tiers approach creating items in one manner, while the seventh tier (the one slapped on with RoI) approaches creation with a completely different philosophy. For tiers 1 - 6 crafters harvest and refine materials and can create basic recipes that are automatically granted. More recipes can be purchased from a vendor, found as world drops, or gained through faction reputation. For tier 7 harvesters must gain faction through reputation to even be able to refine materials, most recipes are faction gated, and the crafting process flip-flops haphazardly between professions. On top of all that stat itemization in crafting at mid-levels is still a mess.
Housing is the same half-baked unfinished hooked system that has been in place since its inception. The housing items and available hooks aren't distributed well at all. The neighborhoods are completely out of common hubs. There is a skill that can return the player to their house (on a one hour cooldown which can be reduced by a store purchase), but neighborhoods are ghost towns even so. Compared other instanced housing systems, say in EQ2, LotROs is horrendously crude. Even Facebook games let you decorate your digs better than LotRO.
Innovation - 6.5 - 7
The skirmish system and scalable group instances is one of the more interesting and somewhat unique aspects of the game. It keeps a lot of old content relevant and lets players decide if they want a challenge or just to smash things. It's one of the few truly innovative features the game offers. Without this I would give the game a 5 for innovation as it doesn't do anything original and all the rest of their subsystems lack the polish or depth of any other major title.
Even after you point out that their innovation is lackluster you give them an 8. That's just too high.
Polish - 7
I'm being generous here. The game has outstanding bugs from years past (auction house - mail box - mouse scroll lock bug) and this last expansion released with a major area that caused many crashes to desktop along with falling through the world. Turbine's development pace is, in a word, glacial and under-delivers.
Social - 6
This is one of the least fun games to form up groups I've ever played. You are discouraged from randomly helping others in overland content as they will get an xp loss unless you group up. Forming instance groups seems needlessly painful for some inexplicable reason. The only global channels are user generated so unless someone new knows the channel and how to join one they can be left in a very quiet chat world.
Guild tools are rudimentary at best (you can lock out new recruits from guild housing chests). There is a huge lack of guild tools for recruitment and finer grained permissions for members.
Longevity - 8
The game will last until 2014/2017 just because their license is already secured out until then and there are diehard LotR fans. Outside of that there are better games for what people are looking for (pvp, pve combat/instances/gear, socializing, housing/decorating).
Value - 6
For the early levels, like the reviewer said, a lot is free. You can easily level until 30 - 35 without buying anything. Once you get past that you will be paying $7 - $10 (each) for quest packs, skirmishes, account upgrades, and so on. Many of the newest features added to the game are store exclusives and some features (the ability to skip the intro area) have been removed from the game and put in the store as an exclusive.
It's a F2P game and moving more in that direction with every update and patch. If you just want a game to play very casually with your kids or spouse this isn't a bad one. If you really want to enjoy an MMO experience there are much better game options out there.
Very good game, even more now with f2p. The PvP is almost pathetic. No ballance, at all. Only one boring zone. Bit its PvE aspects are great. Good story and interesting places, not only for Tolkien fans, but for MMO its well made.
People always have a reason to complain it seems. Before MMOs became popular it was forum ranting over single player game minutae. I suppose that still goes on...
LOTRO is not a perfect game, it is a good game if you can get into the mindset that it is what it is. And it is a solo heavy ,socially heavy adventure with a decent representation of what Middle Earth is. If it aint for you , move on.
If there are features not present, look elsewhere. The game was never meant to be PVP- but devs accomodated by adding PVMP. that part is not the game focus. f2per who have entitlement issues need be reminded that one can go all the way to 65 without spending a dime. It has been done. Why moan over the grind needed to achieve that if its free?
Well far as I am concerned it is a pretty neat game for being fairly free. Middle Earth Online was a disaster waiting to happen, I was so glad Turbine picked up the IP from those incompetents. I don't understand the problem some of you have with the crafting systems, they seem to work fine for me.
I think Tolkien is spinning in his grave, I'm sure if he was alive this game wouldn't exist :), but as MMO its good game, even very good.
i usually don't complain about lotro because up until this expansion it has been a fun experience. I was highly disappointed in this expansion. It's like developers like this have all completely forgotten that to keep a game fresh you have to have to improve upon the ui. There is no AOE looting, there are no random events, no combat mounts, guild perks, rewarding exploration, fishing with something other then fish as the reward.
UI elements like these could have completely changed the game for many a player it's disappointing that the devs only care about canon and releasing a tiny zone as an expansion. Sure they have new dungeons and skirms but cmon now people, that's not the only aspect of an mmo that people like to do. There's even an outcry from WoW players about this.
I cannot wait for GW2 i hope their numbers are so huge that it completely changes the industry.
**Pando Media Booster will, once the download completes, and unless otherwise directed by the user, continue to "seed" the files out which can use bandwidth. If you'd like to disable Pando (to prevent this) rather than remove it entirely this can be done from its Control panel option.
This point IS NOT MADE CLEAR SO FREE DOESN'T MEAN $#!^ when it comes to your ISP.
Don't forget to uninstall. PMB.exe
I agree. But if Tolkein were still alive, the movies wouldn't exist, either. He was very much opposed to people messing with his work whether it did his work justice, or not.
Turbine did a good job with the lore, IMO, as well as putting it to good use in their own stories. I didn't realize how much of the stuff ingame was based on the Appendix in RotK til' I reread it a few weeks back.
Aesthetics: 9/10
I clearly must not have played the same game as you? Because the LotRo I bought looks awful, the characters are wooden, the horses are even worse, the background scenery is the only thing that looks any way half good. Yes, it has a ok story & nice, helpful people playing it, but thats about it. Most of it was empty, dead & very boring. Sorry.
I agree 100%. Pity that one of the best IPs is wasted by Turbine.
I like Lotro a lot. Been playing it for the last year and am having more fun with this game than with most others I've played. That said, the new expansion is very disappointing. No new dunegons, no new game modes, nothing really groundbreaking. They updated existing systems and made them work a little better. The quests are smoother. The number issues are better. The gear grind is more friendly. But there's nothing new or amazing, and at level cap there's nothing to do besides run old instances at the higher level, and the one new raid. The new raid is really cool, but it's a huge investment. A good kill takes around an hour, and a practice attempt can run even longer, and you may not even get to the parts you need to practice.
When LOTRO launched and right up to Moria, I felt that the developers were truly dedicated to producing a game based faithfully on the spirit of Tolkien's works. The art of storytelling and world design came first. Since then, every expansion introduces more blatant commercialism and more ways to completely skip the art, storytelling and world.
Its become a bunch of menus and a town hub, thanks to Instance Join.
If you've never played LOTRO and like the IP, then it's absolutely worth trying.
I'm totally disenchanted with the game have already abandoned it for the foreseeable future after reaching the level cap in ROI. They barely release content and the expansions are getting smaller and smaller.
Wooden characters Oo
Clearly you need to buy new pc man better then the wooden pc you got at that time ....
Lotro went from being my favorite mmo to making me want to barf out of boredom. i log in about once a month, sigh heavily, and then log out again.
I was so looking forward to Rise of Isengard, but since the expac released I never came further than level68-69, before I became totally bored out of my skull!
The whole Expansion is an On Rails SOLO experience, forcing you to follow the Main Epic Questline to unlock one questhub after the other.
No more freedom to go and quest where you want. NOPE! Somehow Turbine found it necessary to totally dumb down the game into a boring On Rails SOLO experience with this new expac.
The new crafting Tier is also a total joke, with lack of recipes!
I remember people complaining about the Size of the previous Mirkwood expansion and that it wasn't really an expansion in their eyes.
But sad truth is, that the Siege of Mirkwood expansion offered tons more content, more fun, fellowship quests, instances, new skirmish system with tons of skirmishes!
Rise of Isengard is nothing more than a questpack and then they had the nerves to charge FULL expansion price for it!
A total Rip Off for the loyal VIP subscribers! As at this moment VIP has become a total joke! You actually get more worth for your money staying Premium! /facepalm
I am totally done with LOTRO. One of my favorite games has become one of my most hated one overnight!
I have totally lost any respect I had for Turbine! As this expansion was nothing more than a sick money grab!
PS. And don't even talk about the poor Monsterplayers who have been totally screwed over once again!
Isengard is the worst expansion i ever tried in my 15 years on MMO-gaming. I already made a post on the forum about it. Tell how much they motivate people to buy it but how little it actually has to offer. The expansion "Rise of Isengard" is the closet it ever felt to a totally rip-off in any MMO, and i've even played AOC when it launched and other, but this is worse. It offers no content only a area to level to 75. It offers close to no gameplay in the zone Isengard. Which they advert it to have.
I can only strongly advice anyone, who have play lotro since the beginning and trough out all the expansion, that this is the worst ever, dont buy it, it has nothing to offer you haven't seen already, and half the stuff does not work (such as crafting, they just put in items to craft to say "check, we made new recipes" - New relics that are worse then the old once ...)
The only raid they added, the dragon. I have to say it looks amazing, actually one of the best animated encounters i've seen for long. But wait, its bugged, few different thing will make it bug out and their customer service basically just tell us "go screw your self" ...
DONT BUY IT .. i quit again after 3 weeks.
In all honesty, someone in the US should file a lawsuite against Turbine due to fales marketing, creating hype, motivate and encourage people to by an expansion under fales truth about what it offers. They have stepped on several issue in the marketing law. False marketing is serious business.
Thanks to the coders for RoI who put out an expac that crashes 32 bit OS's quite well. It's a known problem...let's see if they fix it. I would not mind, but the log in time keeps getting longer with each expansion...very slow now.
Ohh i also crash every now and then, every hour
I tried to download LoTR several times a couple of months ago. Unfortunately there was some major glitch or virus in Pando (the program they use to download) and not only couldn't I get it to work I had to restore my computer twice because of it (I kept trying different methods to download it because friends said it was great and I was sick of WoW).
A good lesson for other game makers. If you don't keep on top of your programming you're gonna lose some potential customers forever.
While it is true that the game is in a steady state of decline look 'n feel-wise, it's still a great game, but it's become this big budget thing which is expected to gain even larger revenues and the way to do this is to shift focus. Basically, it's all about becoming more Warcrafty.Who cares if a thousand vets leave in the process, there's 10.000 Warcraftees to replace em. That's called good business.
I'm one of those vets and have cancelled my account for various reasons. The main one being Turbine's arrogance and reluctance towards communication. Guardians have been asking to be heard for over a year now. No response. Europeans are being overcharged and demand an official statement. No response.
Good game for anyone who's considering to start. It's one of the best MMOs out there. For MMO Vets? Time to call it quits.
I have played LotRO since beta myself and have always had a fondness for it until lately. I have been losing interest in the game for over a year now and RoI was enough of a disappointment that I will probably be moving on to a new MMO soon. I will most likely stay around to see the instances that are supposed to come in the December update, if they manage to get them out by then. But I seriously don't see myself subbing beyond this month or December.
RoI was hyped up like it would deliver something akin to MoM in terms of content, locations and group stuff but instead it came off more like a Mirkwood mini-expansion. It feels as if they are more interested in the LotRO store than the actual game itself.
"Failing?" It's one of the most popular MMOs around, and has aged very well. There are some obvious issues with the direction that Turbine has taken it, and I didn't find the RoI expansion particularly awe-inspiring, but to say this game has failed in any respect is just incorrect. It's one of the most polished, visually-impressive, immersive, and content-filled MMOs on the market today. I'm always amazed when people believe a game has "failed" simply because they don't prefer it, no matter how many other people do.
the game was nerfed before f2p, it is now even worse. ROI was not worth the $ I paid for it. I ended my sub. MMO's are now all about greed, it is single player games for me.. they are still about making a profit but until I see a cash shop in a single player game I am good.
Turbine is the gaming company where golden franchise opportunities go to die.
This could have been a great game and actually deserve a 8.3 rating but now its not even close.
The first 2 years lotro was a solid game with a great jump into the market and the last 2 years have been lost with a f2p money grab.
Rise of Isengard as a stand alone $50.00 expac can be argued as the biggest rip off in mmo's ever.
MMORPG.com why not give a honest review of ROI as a stand alone expac? Don't forget the new pvmp map lie. Or the free dragon raid lie. Or the ROI ships with 3 massive zones lie. Or the convoluted turn of events where you are a fully armed prisoner of the bad guys helping to fight for them.
Well I honestly can't blame you for blowing smoke up everyones backsides with a generalised f2p fluff piece and just ignore that ROI even happened.
The sooner the lotro license ends the sooner a real game company can do a proper run at Lord of the Rings. Not Turbines vision of us trailing the fellowship with with a shovel and pooper scooper.
You all fail, this is a 1/10 game.
Copy and paste environements, scenarios and monsters. Kill small spiders for 10 levels the next are larger with different color. Then an end game boss is just a REALLY big spider with some spells. If you read the books, do yourself a favor and DO NOT PLAY.
Tie that in with the fact they want to profit on basic MMORPG elements makes this crooked publisher a zull on 0 /10
SO MUCH better F2P out there. I am currently enjoying several. Enjoy the fail your trolls and wanna be tolkien fans.
Best F2P model and game out there, didn't care for this expansion thou, but the game over-all for what you can access and later buy in bits, is perfect. Other companies should watch this company closly on how to do it right.
Good customer reviews for this product seem very far and few between considering it is some sort of record breaking expansion (which record we aren't being told).
Why are the official reviews so far out of line with customer reviews?
Polish - 8? It is one of the most polished MMOs on market with almost no bugs at all. Should be at least 9.5. And 8 for innovation, wtf? Its typical MMO that brought only a few new features. 5-6 max.
When it comes to the game itself, regardless the amount of ppl playing it, I also consider it a fail. They have been dumbing down the game for years already, and it had been getting more and more and more solo-oriented for years too when I left.
McDonnalds is the most successful food company in the world... Their food is junk anyway. I guess you get my point.
I wasa huge advocate for this game. Then after Mirkwood I was a little shocked at the lack of size of the expansion. After Mirkwwod I stopped paying attention to a lot of things and blindly kept leveling my Characters.
Then the Free to play came, I was a bit devistated that it went down that raod, and I knew the game would not be what I was hoping to be, which was a opened world to explore like it was in Eriador. I knew they would start coriddoring the content to sell in packages and each package would be so small, that it wouldn't even be worth buying.
Isengard is the first package to come after release of f2p, and it is a joke. A slap in the face to people who believed in Turbine and this project.
Isengard is a showcase of why big coorporations need to stay out of the mmorpg business, and I would say avoid any game that has a big corporation tied to it that has not been in the mmopg business for 10 years or more.
You may disagree with my opinion, and I respect that.