I signed up for the open beta for the Lord of the Rings MMO yesterday and spent half a day downloading, in hopes I’d find something different that what I’ve tried before, or at least something that fits well with Tolkien’s lore. After the name creation screen, which I was a bit impressed with (it had common elven prefixes and suffices listed), everything else was a disappointment. Gandalf was jarring, maybe because I’m used to the pleasant voice of Gandalf in the movies and in Battle for Middle Earth. But after the cutscenes were over, I was pushed into a quest where Dwarves were working with Goblins to invade Elven lands. This seemed a bit odd to me, but I continued.
The graphical style seemed more fitting for a cartoon than Lord of the Rings, even a plain realistic look would be better than this. Also I had few indications that I was in an Elven village at all, except for the names.
I had to defeat goblins around the village and so I did. During character creation I picked an Elven Ranger to see how archery was implemented in this game, and I have to say it doesn’t do justice to Legolas or even WoW’s hunters. The ranged attacks were pathetic and the goblins closed to melee almost instantly. So I used my knife and fought through to see a Troll invading and Elrond took him out. Then that quest was over and I had to wander around looking for some npcs.
Other than the aesthetic aspects of the game, I also had difficulty with the controls. I quickly changed the keybinds to the way I like it, but I found that turning was very clunky as it was hard to finely change direction and I ended up swinging 90 degrees instead of 45. Because the turn rate was very high, I kept wobbling back and forth changing direction. In addition, using the right mouse button to change looks made running awkward as I wasn’t moving in the direction I was looking and had to try to readjust my view quickly.
I quickly got stuck on a mission where the Dwarves were blocking my entrance and I couldn’t fight them or find a way around, and I didn’t have the patience to figure it out, at least for now.
I really liked both Battle for Middle Earth games but I must say LOTR Online is an utter flop to me. Both the gameplay and the aesthetics failed to do respect to Tolkien’s vision. And there isn’t any redeeming factor that I can see. So I’ll go back to EVE Online disappointed at what could have been.
I didn’t really expect anything from it – I learned not to keep up with game previews and hype so I won’t be disappointed – but it still disappointed me. Played for about half an hour and already got bored. It seems so generic.
Yeah I keep looking for a new MMO that will break the mold. I can’t wait to see a mmorts or something different. For now, I’m getting my different in EVE. WoW dazzled me because of its excellent ui and decent graphics so I’d definitely call it better than LOTRO.
Hmm, I rather like it. I’ve never played WoW but I did play EQ for a few years.
I don’t have problems with the controls (I go 1st person).
I rather like the “deed” system. These are like quests that you get automatically.
Find 5 Elf ruins, kill 30 wolves, etc. Often they just give you a title (defender of the halls, feather foe, etc) but they also can give you a virtue (stat increase).
Lets hear your idea John. Personally, I’ve always wanted to see a mmo where things actually happen, rather than the universe resetting each time a new person starts a quest (i.e. You found the sacred whatever, we are saved, etc. You take a few steps, turn around and see the npc say, “You must find me the sacred whatever, we are doomed without it,” to another character.
I’m not really going to try to defend the game because there’s enough MMORPGs out that, if you don’t like one, go play another. But I didn’t have any problems with the controls or movement. Complaining that your level 1 archer can’t compete with Legolas seems a little strange as well – By level seven, my hunter already had several archery moves and I could easily get off a handful of shots before the mob closed range. I’d assume that by the time I’m in my twenties or thirties, I’d have some fairly impressive archery skills (well, I would except that I’m levelling a captain as my main, not a hunter).
Horrors. I’ve done the rounds of MMORPGs (EQ, COH, WOW played seriously and brief stints on half a dozen others.) And while it’s true that each game builds upon what works in past games, all the others I’ve played have at least *tried * to add something truly innovative. This game feels totally phoned in by people who didn’t have any new ideas of their own. Honestly there have been WOW content patches that have been more creative and forward-thinking.
And while there are a couple of nice tweaks, to me they were swamped by the reintroduction of huge new problem areas (world size, a general lack of artistic imagination, limited character creation flexibility, limited PVP, memory hoggishness, UI scaling and design flaws, animation problems, and don’t get me started on the professions). And that’s just what was obvious after a few levels. I’m not optimistic that the game designers handled the subtler and more intractable problems of grouping, balancing, economy, endgame, etc with any more finesse.
Of all the MMORPGs I’ve played I’d put this one second to last, right before Sims Online. And while Sims Onlline was an unmitigated disaster, at least it tried to create its own game.
MindWanderer, most of your assessment is similar to mine, but I’m not sure why you’re complaining about the graphics style. It’s not cartoony at all, but seems too realistic to me. Of course, I’m coming from City of Heroes. LotRO’s style is rather plain and simple. No flash at all and little color.
I didn’t like the default interface either. Switching a few keys around, and increasing the turning sensitivity made it much more to my liking.
Some missions are very ill-defined (poor directions on where to go, what to do). Even the tutorials were rather difficult, compared to the CoH tutorial. (For example, if a fight is going against you in the tutorial, it’s next to impossible to escape the monster. It’ll chase you forever, until it gets stuck on geometry.) But it’s still Beta and I use the /bug command liberally.
I really like the badge (deeds, etc) system they’ve implemented. Similar to CoH, but combined with the choosing which traits to activate, adds a lot to character customization.
As for meeting Tolkien’s vision, I’ll wait until I get to higher levels to decide how well they’ve met it. There’s limits to what can be done in a game.
I too, got the massive 3.2 gig open beta client and tried it out. I’ve been playing WoW consistantly since it launched, but I haven’t played any MMO’s previous to that. Basically, LOTR Online seems to be completely unoriginal to me. With the exception of the deed and title system, it could be mistaken for a reskinned WoW. I mean, they even have the same quest tracker…
I also grabbed the Eve Online trial at the same time, which I have found significantly more interesting.
It could be a reskinned WoW, which itself is a reskinned EQ. It is closer to WoW than WoW is to EQ, though. Too bad, I thought Turbine did well with Asheron’s Call (but not its sequel) - they would have been better off recycling that code. I can understand, though, why they redid WoW. It’s for the same reason Toyota doesn’t radically change the car interior, even though they might make it better. Instead, give people what they are used to and what they think they want. That’s how they’ll draw WoW players away. By keeping the interface similar, they hope to minimize people who’ll say “I don’t understand” and leave.
I played LotRO for a while, but eventually lost interest and fled back to WoW.
There were a few positives about the game:
Controls are very similar to WoW, so no real learning curve.
A continuing storyline.
Fairly interesting classes.
Deeds and Titles. CoH showed us that titles can be fun to collect.
No real PvP. I’m of the belief that PvP brings out the worst in everyone, and it tends to attract the more annoying players. As an example, look at WoW’s forums.
Armor/Clothing Dyes. I love trying to make myself look original and unique.
And a few negatives:
Everyone goes through the same race-based missions. This means that when the game goes live, everyone else will be doing exactly the same missions you’re doing, at the same time. Also, before too long, making alts will feel extremely repetitive.
Quest directions are pretty hard to follow, and are quite often wrong. I got killed several times by trying to follow a quest’s directions and accidentally blundering into an area well over my ability to handle.
Levels and classes. Yeah, I know- just about everyone has these. I’m tired of them.
As a result of having levels and classes, every Human Champion is exactly like all the other Human Champions, just with a different coat of paint.
Dyes are WAY too rare. They should be easily available, rather than a prestige item. I got really tired of my Hunter running around in ugly brown leather. Looking decent shouldn’t be a money sink.
“No-death” Titles. On the surface, these are pretty cool- if you reach certain levels without dying, you get a title such as “The Undefeated.” Pretty cool… until you get killed. Then you realize that you can’t get the next title. The end result of this is that players will do their damnedest to not die, going so far as to avoid grouping with random players because those players might get them killed.
Some areas just feel wrong. I especially had trouble with the Hobbit areas- they felt like just unending suburbs, as there were houses and buildings all over the place. The Elf areas were well laid-out, though.
The art style is, well, boring. Especially their special effects. This bugs me most of all, because they turned me down for a job last year. THIS was the guy they hired instead of ME?
I had really high hopes for the game. I just don’t see it becoming too popular.
