Lord of the Rings: Online Review

By James Sheets

Game Information Title: Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar Creator: Turbine Genre: Mass Multiplayer Online Role-Playing

Game Price: $29.99 (game + 1 month access)

$14.99 per month OR$9.99 per 3 months OR$199.00 lifetime access

Minimum System SpecsOS: Windows® XP Processor: Intel Pentium® 4 1.8 GHz or

equivalentRAM: 512 MBVideo: 64 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 3 OR

ATI® Radeon® 8500 Disk Space: 7 GB availableDirectX: DirectX® 9.0c  DVD: 2x DVD-ROMInternet: 56kbps Modem

Recommended System SpecsOS: Windows® XP / Vista Processor: Intel Pentium® 4 2.8 GHz or

equivalentRAM: 1 GB Video: 128 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® FX 6800 OR

ATI® Radeon® X850 Disk Space: 10 GB available DirectX: DirectX® 9.0c DVD Drive: 2x DVD-ROM Internet: Broadband DSL/Cable

Overview Based on the books, not the movie (licensing) Set during the time of the three books

Frodo has The One Ring, and is being pursued You’re a spectator who learns about The One Ring

The starting story different for each race You have to fight the forces of Sauron and

Saruman to help Frodo

Installation Normal Client

DVD installer – high res textures Buddy Pass

Ten day free access Downloadable installer – low res textures

Run installer (high res takes an hour, low res 40 min) Launcher prompts for game account

If you don’t have an account, it prompts you to create one Launches Turbine website Prompts for game key or buddy pass Create account information Submit credit card info (buddy pass skips this)

Game checks for patches and applies any available Game launches

EULA agreement Character selection Start playing

User Interface Standard MMORPG fair

Player + Group Health Bars, Buff / Debuff List, Quest Tracker, Hotkeys, Mini-map, World Map, Chat

Fairly easy to use Familiar control scheme (WSAD) Does it’s job well enough Compared to World of Warcraft

Basically no UI customization Can’t scale GUI elements – everything is very large No hotkeys to show/hide quest tracker Can’t change the chat font size

Game Play 4 Different races (Man, Elf, Dwarf, Hobbit) 6 different classes; some race restrictions

Guardian (tank) Burglar (DPS / group attack opener / crowd control) Hunter (Ranged DPS / crowd control) Champion (tank / healer / pet / buffs) Minstrel (healer / buffs) Lore Master (crowd control / healer / buffs / pet)

Level from 1 – 50 Multiple crafting professions Play across multiple, level-based zones Multiple quests for every level; progress the

storyline Instanced dungeons for major story events High level raids (25 player groups)

“Scoring” / Objectives No end to MMORPG’s

3D chat room Item acquisition Group participation

Take part in the LOTR story Attain Deeds

Gained by Exploring / finding different areas Killing X number of mobs Completing quest

New titles New abilities

PVP Combat Zone

Artwork Very good for an MMORPG Scales suitably for older machines Lots of customization Varying landscapes and environments Detailed textures Environmental effects (rain, day/night cycles) Little diversity in armor / item looks

Sounds and Music Music is standard fair Sounds are ok, but get repetitive fast Ability to play your own music

You can train an instrument at level 5 Different instruments have different sounds 3 different octaves / pitches Full range of musical notes Other players can hear your music Online music sheets for some popular songs

Special Features LOTR storyline

As you progress in level, the storyline opens up The Music System Instanced Dungeons

A copy of a dungeon is created for your group Scripted events often take place to progress the story

Game Patches Occur roughly every 3 months Add new quests, content, and further the story

PVP Players can play and level up bad-guys PVP and enemy players can only occur in one zone

Raids Currently only one raid

Manual Very full-featured manual Explains most of the game’s features Online website also has a lot of information Introduction zone to help new players “Newbie” tips appear once to familiarize you

with new objects the first time you encounter them

In-game help menu

Bugs None I know of

Audience Lord of the Rings fans MMORPG players

New Experienced

All age levels Language filter Helpful people Ages 10+ (no real blood, but fighting) Still an online game; younger kids should be

monitored

The Good Storyline Art and environment Quests and Quest log size Deeds Traveling Built-in voice chat Group Abilities

The Bad Mounts High-level mobs High-level dungeon instances Soloability Crafting

The Ugly Dominated by WoW in many respects Raids We know how the story goes

Design Mistakes Raids

Not much reason to raid Only 1 raid Doesn’t fit the casual-friendly feel of the game

PVP Not much incentive to PVP Monster players are much weaker Monster players are in lower numbers

Summary Strengths?

Good storyline Music system Fairly polished and stable

Weaknesses? Lack of high level content Little diversity in items Boring crafting

Worth Purchasing? If you like LOTR or are a casual MMORPG fan, yes

Improvement? More things to keep high-level players interested