Comments on: Preview: Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

by: FLIRNO

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 02:03:43 +0000

There’s a lot of inconsistencies that seem to have trickled into the game from other avenues — the general differentiation between ‘goblins’ and ‘orcs’ (which in Tolkien’s world are supposed to be two words for the same race) is particularly non-Tolkien. This particular can be traced to previously popular engagements such as Dungeons and Dragons and anything influenced by that and other now ‘classic’ RPG systems.

by: FLIRNO

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 02:00:52 +0000

Very few games really get the Tolkien aspect of magic correct anyways — although Battle for middle earth was a lot closer to the mark. Gandalf as a wizard drew his power from the divine source of his nature — like sauron and any of the balrogs he was a maia (a kind of elemental power from the time before time second only to the valar) after all however reduced in his avatar form (and a fire maia at that). Most of the magic in the books was touched with strong overtones of natural elemental divinity. The powers levered by Morgoth and sauron and their ilk were also of that line — but corrupted, infernal.

Someone who is looking for a faithful representation of the world portrayed in the novels is simply not going to find it in this kind of a game from this kind of company because as others have noted, the general population would not then find the game to their expectations or taste. The almighty dollar rules it out.

by: Grundurig

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 17:30:43 +0000

A couple things…

Lore-Masters don’t use magic. Their fireball is actually a molotov cocktail that they craft. They are more akin to scientists than actually being like Gandolf or Elrond. I guess they are like Gandolf in that they make fireworks, but unlike Gandolf they fight using the fireworks instead of using them to entertain Hobbits.

Another note, Captain is NOT a fighter. They are a support class that can fight. Similar to a Paladin in other games, but without the religious feel. Guardian is the tank class, which would equate to a fighter or warrior in other MMOs.

by: Beeker

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 19:42:09 +0000

I tried the “stress test”, too, and I agree — the game was kinda generic. But, it was still fun and the graphics rocked, so I’ll probably sign up.

by: Andy Gore

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:41:20 +0000

I agree that some people (maybe even a lot) would be less inclined to play if they couldn’t be a magic user. I was just pointing out that this really does go against the spirit of the books, where magic is a arcane and rare thing. In fact, the way Tolkien writes it, it doesn’t even seem very much like magic in the “wizard points staff and a fireball appears” way. More like a mysterious force, almost religious in its nature.

BTW, I just forked over $48 my founders membership on Amazon (and it took a lot of poking around to find where they hid the founders authorization code on the site). So. yeah, clearly, I hated the game

by: Absolution

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:36:28 +0000

I think you were a little harsh on what you said “seeing Gandalfs around every bend dampens the believability of the adventure.” I don’t think that many people would play the game if you could only be rangers and fighters that were either Humans or Hobbits. I know i sure wouldn’t. Ofcourse they have to make sacrifices to the story to make the game fun to play.

by: Andy Gore

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 21:11:47 +0000

Hey there Chance. I’m sorry to hear my preview offended you, but I’d like to point out a couple of things before you completely cast it aside:

First, you haven’t heard my entire opinion unless you read to the end of the story. There are many things I really liked about the LOTRO sneak peek, and on the whole I liked the game very much.

Second, I understand you feel that customization is a key feature of the game and that the deeper you go, the more you can change. And had I had more time with the game, I might have seen that. But, that doesn’t exactly address what I did critique – things like how commonplace magic seems to be in the game (versus the books), or how generic the professions were. Or how common races like Elves and Dwarves are. None of this is consistent with the books.

Third, this is a preview, not a review, which is why there’s no score for the product. When LOTRO officially ships, I’ll update this article and address anything I might have misconstrued because it was a beta, and issue a final score.

And, finally, I’m not entirely sure how you can say I’m not a LOTR fan. I’d hazard a guess that I finished my tenth reading of the trilogy before you were born. I have the books in soft cover, hard cover, I have a first edition of the Silmarillion, and I have Ralph Bakshi’s LOTR on DVD, as well as boxed sets of Jackson’s magnum opus. That would be a very strange thing indeed for someone to do, if they weren’t a fan.

by: chance

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 20:50:32 +0000

I’m sorry, i’ve played the Beta of this game and if you dont like this game then you are NOT a Lord of the Rings fan…or maybe your just a fan of the movies?? This game is so deep its not funny….and whats with this “clone” crap you are talking about? Customization in this game is amazing…maybe not for the first bit of the game…but as you get deeper in the game, the customization is unreal. Dont place reviews on biased opinions. ( I didnt even finish reading the article because I realized the more I read it, the dumber I got).