Review: Lord of the Rings Online

Hey everyone, LMS here! :D It's the start of Spring Break and I'm super excited! Not for the beach, or a vacation, or alcohol, but for two reasons: no classes and mega internet time, which means more gaming! And that's always fantastic!



So I was asked by one of my friends to review Lord of the Rings Online and, to be honest, I was really rather hesitant. I just... wasn't ever a huge LotR fan. "BLASPHEMY!" You might cry. And, to an extent, you're right. The movies were cool for me and, to be fair, I never read the books, so I can't really say I'm not a fan until I've at least tried it. I get that. It just... never really appealed to me until recently and I'm just like ".... meeeeeeh," to it all as I shrug my virtual shoulders. It doesn't really move me one way or another, doesn't make me feel, like, if I don't read/see the series, I'll die in some awesome, explosive and firey death or anything. So when I was asked to do a review of the MMO, I was hesitant. However, after playing for just under a week, I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised. I'll throw out the usual game information and ratings and we can get underway with this review.

Game Basics:
Title: Lord of the Rings Online
Publisher: Turbine
Genre: Fantasy MMORPG
Website: http://www.lotro.com/
Cost: Free-to-play, pay for extra features

Ratings:
Graphics: 4/5
Character Customization: 3/5
Beginning/Tutorial: 2/3
Class Skills, Character Development, etc.: 4/5
Story, Quests, Content: 3.5/5

So, some basic information. You can choose one of four races (Elf, Dwarf, Human, and Hobbit) and nine classes. There are the Captain, Guardian, Champion, Burglar, Hunter, Lore Master, Warden, Rune Keeper and Minstrel to choose from. It's a nice change of pace from the traditional Warrior-Paladin-Mage-Hunter-Rogue-Healer or the more basic Warrior-Hunter-Mage-Healer setups to be honest because each class has something unique to offer and aren't just the traditional cookie-cutter standards that most MMOs cling to like a starved dog clings to meat.Sure, some classes have the traditional roles built in; hunters do long-range damage, Guardians are more defensive hack-n-slashers. But even then there are still some unique traits each class gets.

In addition, each race gets both buffs and debuffs which also pretty neat. The Elves, for example, get a debuff that decreases their Fate and so on. And, just a tangent, why change "health" and "mana" to "Fate" and "Will Power"? I heard that it makes more sense if you read the series, but that's one of my major issues with LotRO. Sure, it's a game based on the Lord of the Rings series. But what about all of us newbies or just ignorant people-- why can't we get the explanation or understanding that the series-savvy gamers get? I'm not asking that every little detail be explained or that they explain who Sauron is or what the Ring is, but it'd be nice for some general explanations, like racial or location lore. In some ways, the game definitely accomplishes that, especially in the beginner area quests and content for the Elves (I rolled one in case you didn't notice). But, going with that same example, why not explain why the Dwarf leader was rape-and-pillaging the Elf village as opposed to just saying "oh, he wanted the runes to become immortal, ergo, VIOLENCE IS THE ONLY ANSWER!" I don't know, maybe it's just me being unfamiliar with the story and lore, but I feel like some of the questlines would make more sense if the developers took the information just a little further and explained it just that much more, to really sell their point, so to speak.  The beginning tutorial zone is decent, as it immerses the character DIRECTLY from creation screen into the LotR world and so on. The tutorial itself could be a bit more thorough but it was easy enough to follow for even beginners to get a grasp on and I don't have much else to say about it.

The graphics are hit or miss for me. I wasn't thoroughly impressed with them but then again I've been spoiled by Aion and RIFT, so it's no surprise. The Elf architecture and areas are just SO PRETTY that I almost forget that a lot of the tree branches are flatter than a piece of paper or that when my Elf goes skipping through a river that there is no moving water animation. ALMOST. It's like when your boyfriend has a lazer light show and all these appealing things around his penis but you still can't help but notice the rash that's on his cock. You just kind of go "YEEEAAAAWWWWWWNO", watching your tone go from super excited to rather disappointed in the blink of an eye. It's not that the game has bad graphics, in fact, the environments are really good and nicely filled. It's just the things that aren't as good are quickly noticeable and distract you from the goodness around you.

The most interesting thing about LotRO are the various systems it uses as the core gameplay operation. Rather than talent points or stat points or anything like that, there are two systems to character development: deeds and traits. Deeds are kind of like achievements in LotRO, broken down into Class- and Location-based deeds. Class deeds are accomplished through, of course, using your skills and so on and by doing so, you unlock additional bonuses for those skills you have completed deeds for. Location-based deeds are exactly as they sound: they include killing X number of Y monsters, exploring various locations, and gaining reputation with certain factions. They don't award bonuses to your character per se but will award titles that you can equip. All deeds, however, award Turbine points and some also award Traits. I'll explain Turbine points later but for now I'll talk about Traits. Traits are kind of like character-specific passives. The ones that I've seen so far increase various stats, such as Fate, or Wisdom. There are a maximum number of traits that you can equip at a given time and you can buy more at the LotRO store either in-game or on the website.

The LotRO store, in my opinion, is a mega ripoff. Before the game went Free-to-Play, you obviously had to pay for all your features. When they switched over, many of the previously paid-for services became free, but in order to unlock more, you have to pay. I'm not talking about just cosmetic features or crafting features. Certain class skills are only available at the store. Surely you must be like, "LMS! You're KIDDING, right? That's GOT to be a joke." Sadly, it's not, my friends. I don't know if these skills are absolutely vital to gameplay or not, but if it is, that's a jerk move. Crafting or extra inventory slots I can understand and forgive, since they're not essential, but paying for skills is stupid. To be fair, when you first sign up for a free account, you do get 250 Turbine points and completing deeds will give you a few points, but I don't know if that will pay for a lot. I can understand that that particular system for paying for certain things encourages VIP/Premium account registration, since you get Turbine points on a monthly basis, but I don't approve of it.

The crafting system is pretty cool, too. You choose a "type" of crafter, such as a Scholar or a Woodsman, which determines what three crafting professions you get, typically two manufacturing and one gathering, I've noticed. To be honest, some of the professions you get don't seem to relate, such as the scholar, which I chose. You get the Historian profession, which makes dyes and scrolls using papers off of humanoid monsters; the Weaponsmith, which is self-explanatory; and the Farmer, which, well, farms food. And, before you ask, no, you can't farm crops to turn into dyes, at least to my knowledge. As usual, you have X number of skill points in your rank and you must fill Y skill points before you can get to the next rank. It's pretty good and a fun way to spend your time if you're not grinding or working on deeds.

All right, onto the healer information! :D There are two healing classes in LotRO: the Rune Keeper and the Minstrel. The Minstrel specializes in buffs and direct, large heals while the Rune Keeper can balance between DPS and HoTs. I, personally, rolled a Minstrel as my first character because, to be honest, you ATTACK THROUGH MUSIC. That's right! Lutes, drums, even friggin COWBELLS can be used as weapons and that to me is THE SHIT. That and while I tend to prefer HoTs, I find that direct healing is more useful for group healing. I'll eventually try a Rune Keeper to see how the DPS/Healing combination is, but from what I've heard, you can't do both at the same time; you either set yourself up for DPS or you set yourself up for healing and while I heard you CAN switch relatively easily, it sounds like it's a pain and potentially lethal if you do so in the middle of combat. I guess which side of the coin you choose will depend on what roll you're filling at the time and your playing style. The rest of the information for healers is nothing new, though, which is somewhat disappointing. You're not a damage dealer or a tank and you shouldn't expect to have high dps or serious survivability. I do like that, at least as a Minstrel, I am considerably less squishy than other games make healers, even while wearing light gear. It's good because so far I haven't died. Yet. (And now that I say that, I expect virtual death in my immediate future...) But the survivability makes sense in this game: if you're in a combat-intense world, your enemies will always go for the healers first, so why not buff them up, so to speak? Sure they may not be THE role for survival, but at least give them something, which LotRO does fairly well. I know my judgement of the game may change as I get further in because I hadn't gotten very far in it get to give accurate judgements and I can understand that I haven't unlocked all of the skills available to me quite yet. I am happy, though, that as a Minstrel, I have some offensive capabilities, as my buffs (Ballads) both damage my enemies AND provide benefits to me AND my party AT THE SAME TIME. It's nice to have that option as a healer, to be honest. I find it rather odd that I can equip one-handed swords and daggers but not staffs. Maybe it's just me being a typical-healer type, but wouldn't a healer want a weapon that amplifies their magic? I've also heard that (and this may be wrong) Minstrels can wear medium armor, but so far, I haven't been able to. I don't know if it's like WoW Paladins/etc who can wear mail armor and then at level 40 train a passive skill that allows them to wear plate armor but I have no evidence of that as of yet.

My overall thoughts of this game are very positive. It's one of the few games I'll actually KEEP playing to see how it goes. And that's saying something because most people who know me know that I probably try and get rid of most MMOs more than many other players. Most MMOs for me last about three days to a week. This will stay on my computer for a while and hopefully give me something to do when I'm bored with WoW, which is often. I would have probably raved about this game a lot more had I not just gotten off the RIFT-Open-Beta-High I experienced from last week, where a lot of other games just don't compare because RIFT was that good. At least I'll be able to add this to my list of still-played MMOs. If you're looking for a fun game that has an awesome textual background, is full of more lore than you can possibly read, and has some really innovative systems, I DEFINITELY recommend you try Lord of the Rings Online.

Have a game you want me to review? Have any comments, questions, or suggestions? Feel free to leave a comment on one of the posts or on Facebook. This is Little Miss Squish, logging off!

EDIT: Apparently my Wi-Fi at home gives me serious lag an DC's during MMOs, so this week I'll be discussing how I heal for various situations, how to heal for groups and raids, and things like that. Sorry about that, guys, but I hope my next post will make up for it! I'll have it up by Thursday. :)