Lord of the Rings Online, existing for 4 years now gets a new update with more new instances, quests and groundcover than ever before.

LotRO is a strong game. It has everything an masterfull MMORPG needs and has great graphics and an awesome storyline. Unlike WoW its what people call an slow-pace mmorpg, this means...the journey to the end is yust as important as the end itself, unlike wow which is really end-game bases while at lord of the rings online both end-game as the journey to it are magical enough to keep you bound (Though some people may find it to slow paced..to those..stay with WoW and shooters, because this is a game where u take a drink in one hand, put your other hand on your keyboard and yust relax :D).

 

The story begins simple, u make a character, do quests, train your proffessions and make fun with other people smoking, pvping, making music, doing instances and much more.

If u play F2P, like most of u would prefer (and me to) u need to gather turbine-points by doing quests and achievements. These points can be cashed in for questpacks, ridingskills,expansions and much much more. 100 turbine points is around 10 euro's. These points are account bound..so if u would make 25 characters on different realms..all get 100 TP with them and then delete them all..u would still have 2500 points at a newly made character or any other character, so this is an gap to freedom in this game.

 

In the beginning you can choose from multiple classes and races:

Races: Elves, Dwarfs, Humans and hobbits

Classes: Loremaster,Rune-keeper, Champion, Guardian, Warden, Burglar, Ministrel or Hunter

Because I like to play Magic-users I choose for an Dwarf Runekeeper since that’s an mage that uses special runes that emit magical powers.

 

LotRO embraces several play styles. It’s almost several different games.

Some players prefer questing, skirmishes, instances, dungeons, or raids. Others want to adventure in Ennorath solo, duo, three-person, full fellowship of six, or raids of twelve. Some enjoy roleplaying in the Prancing Pony and other social locales, or roleplay while adventuring. Some like crafting, or playing merchant in the Auction Hall. Some cherish the festivals, cosmetics, costumes, collecting mounts, or gathering the best gear. Others focus on the Moors, beating on other players. Some lead large kinships, and others prefer casual kinships. Some enjoy special events, like parties, plays, music concerts, holidays, festivals, competitions, Ales & Tales, Weatherstock, and many more.

Other games may have nothing worthwhile until endgame, or present a diluted shallow world, or use content leading up to the endgame as a long tutorial or training ground. Some may rush players through content, so they can quickly reach the “good stuff.”

 

 

Imagine going to the movies, yet watching hours of trailers and advertisements before the movie begins. How about days of movie previews? Imagine reading Lord of the Rings by skimming one page per chapter until the final chapter, and reading that final chapter repeatedly for a year. If there are other games in which only the endgame is interesting, their players have my sympathy.

The whole game of LotRO is worthwhile, beginning to end.

 

The Lord of the Rings is an epic story about journeys. The journey of the ring to Mordor, the journey of the Hobbits from the Shire to the wider world, the journey of the Elves to the West, the journey of Strider becoming Aragorn. Those journeys are worthy. They are not mere preamble before a final battle, especially not a few massive conflicts repeatedly played and dissected, and repeated over again.

 

Also, your journey through Middle Earth is yours. It’s a world, not a race. Immerse yourself in that world, and ignore the meta-knowledge that somebody is at level cap. Rushing to endgame is analogous to wishing your life away.

During that journey, I looked around occasionally. Some of my favorite moments include first leaving the introduction instance into the ‘real’ world, gazing around the docks of Celondim. Led my first small fellowship in Limael’s vineyard to a horrific defeat, which made me mad. Duillond atop the waterfall was gorgeous, Gondamon impressive. Bree just seemed perfect. Meeting Strider, and Gandalf too! The Old Forest was actually spooky, with scary atmosphere. The relief of stepping into Tom Bombadil’s house, with the most wonderful music. Weathertop, look at the view! The long ride on the Great East-West road, across the last bridge, the Fords of Bruinen, a frantic scramble up to the High Moor. Finally, setting eyes on Rivendell, a living explosion of autumn colors and rushing waterfalls. Meeting Elrond in the library, speaking with Bilbo in the Hall of Fire, and Aragorn in the guest house.

Middle Earth is the original fantasy archetype. It is full of enormous detail, wonderful beauty, a sense of gravitas. Enjoy the world; don’t just run past it!

 

 

After some time I began to see parts of the new free update (its more or less an expansion). The dynamics of the game has changed, the new character menu which is giving more info and is more streamlined says the same. In total they have added 5 more instances to the game (2 3-person, 2 6-person and 1 12 person instance).

Monsterplay: the PvP part of LotRO has given been given a big make-over to. New setbonuses, some new PvP available set and they have set the standard to creep leveling on a lower part. Creeps (the evil side) existing from orcs,spiders, wargen etc. have been getting a boost which causes them to need less training before entering the PvP zones successfully by getting stronger spells at lower level.

 

The part of LotRO called Evendim has changed the most of all. They have added more then 100 quests to that place and its now almost THE place to level and instance once your there.

Furthermore there a washinglist of changes to the different classes you can choose from.

New skirmishes which are really frightening (omg, the undead!), an MASSIVE amount of new recipes for every profession and hundreds more changes to every little part of the game including the auctionhouse, new festivals and the housing system (yes, you really can own your own house!).

This new update is a new beginning of LotRO and together with the new F2P system and the 4-year anniversary this could be the boost LotRO needed to get more people.

Still after this new LotRO that will hopefully rise into the sky theres 1 thing I still adore that will never change…the music!

For the total package I would like to give LotRO a 9 out of 10 which is an great score.

 

 

Character used to test: Loreraider – Dwarf Rune-keeper at Snowbourne EU

Leveled him from 1->40 for this review