Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
Review
This game brings the world of J.R.R. Tolkien to the online RPG crowd
by Rook & KingWilly
reviewed on PC
Rook:
The look and feel of LotR: Shadows of Angmar portrays the moving images of a classic. The art direction maintains fidelity to the feeling and atmosphere that J. R. R. Tolkien created in his writings. The graphics may not be as detailed or photorealistic as recent MMO titles, but the graphics are well suited to the title. The environment is smooth and amazing from a distance. It creates an image of being a small part in a much larger world. Unfortunately, nothing is perfect and the reuse of textures and meshing takes a little away from an otherwise unique world environment.
The audio component is outstanding and professionally done. The musical score blends seamlessly with the visual environment and brings the overall feeling of Middle Earth together. The voice acting is very much a part of the world around the player and fulfils its own role in the immersion of the unfolding story that the player now finds himself a part of.
KW:
The control system and user interface is easy enough too. It took me a little while to get used to finding everything, but once I had mastered where everything was, it seemed intuitive and well planned. Current quests were easy to access, weapons and armour could be easily transferred and other helpful details were also easy to find. Speaking of quests, they do start off very simple, which is really good for newcomers to this sort of game. The first few quests are tutorial-type quests. Simple fights and 'Go to... such and such' enable newbies to become accustomed to the interface and controls.
Rook:
LotR: Shadows of Angmar is an easy title for novice MMO players to pick up. Unfortunately, the user interface (UI) is an exact clone of the very popular World of Warcraft, down to window positioning. This is both good and bad though. The bad in this equation is that it is old news. It borderlines tacky to completely copy an existing UI used by another MMO. Despite this, it does not in anyway hinder the performance of the UI during gameplay. It's a tried and true format that several other titles have also adopted. It's an excellent UI setup that is streamlined, keeping minimum clutter on the playing screen which leaves more viable area to actually enjoy the visuals and action and it makes for very easy and very efficient gameplay. However, I still feel that it is unfortunate that a new and unique UI was not created for the new and unique title that is Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar.
KW:
As with most games, the quests get harder as you level-up, with larger battles and tougher opponents. In some ways, I'm not sure I made the right decision in choosing a Hobbit, as he seems slower than some of the other characters running around, and I suspect that other races would probably suit some conditions better. But having said that, I still wanted to see how far I could get my little Hobbit. He's still alive, but has had to re-spawn a couple of times. I found out fairly early that it pays to take on one enemy at a time whilst in the early levels.
Rook:
The playable classes available in Shadows of Angmar reflect the Tolkien's Middle Earth lore. Each class has its own play style that reflects the play style of the stereotypical fantasy classes. The Champion class is the down and dirty fighter, the DPS class to the MMO community. The Guardian is the stead-fast sword and board tank, the Hunter is a long range power house and the Burglar is your stereotypical rogue character. Some new class concepts however twist the standard roles of party members around. The Minstrel, for example is the party healer. Since Shadows of Angmar does not use "hit points" as such, you don't die when you are defeated. You are defeated when your "Morale" drops to zero, and at which point you are forced to retreat. This is how the Minstrel becomes the group healer. Singing and playing her instruments to cause demoralizing and damaging effects to the enemy, they are just as capable of playing a tune to keep the groups' morale from dropping too low.
8.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
