Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

Battle Royale

As a Players vs. Player solution, the developers came up with Monster Play--we obviously couldn't have the hero races fighting amongst themselves when there is evil to thwart. Once your regular character is level 10 you can use a Fell Scrying Pool to create one of five types of level 50 monsters (including Orcs and Spiders.) In other words, you don't pick a faction like you would in WoW, you automatically have the opportunity to play both sides. Monster characters hang out in the Ettenmoors, powering up by using Destiny points, waiting for regular characters level 40 and higher to come dispute territory. It's been tough to get a good feel for what fighting player vs. monster player feels like because there aren't too many high level characters around yet.

What's surprising, though, is the amount of depth on the monster side. It's really almost like another game. Monsters have their own quests and raids to go on, and their own skills to acquire. While you can use the Destiny points earned by your hero or monster to further either one's ends, it's a much better deal to spend them on your monster for actual upgrades, since regular characters can only buy temporary powers. That and it's just fun to be a big ugly monster hunting for Hobbit toes. It's easy to imagine someone spending nearly all their time in this mode, especially once the war starts raging with the high level heroes.

Hitting the Hardware Hard

Graphics-wise it helps to have a PC that can handle the higher settings. There are some really beautiful viewpoints that aren't quite as breath-taking without them. The overall look is more realistic than WoW, but less than that of, say, the LOTR films. The music (notably the festive acoustic Bree Town theme, cozy whistle tunes for the Shire, and threatening drums and horns in the Old Forest) adds a lot to the atmosphere without becoming annoying.

As for my own play experience, I took Hesfrid from start to part way through level 18 so far. Men start in the town of Archet, and Bree-Land plays out pretty similarly to the book as I quote here, "Besides Bree itself, there was Staddle on the other side of the hill, Combe in a deep valley a little further eastward, and Archet on the edge of the Chetwood." All of these locations became very familiar to me as I set about helping the residents of Archet after a brigand attack. The prologue segues seamlessly into the main epic quest in Bree where everyone meets up with Strider. I ended up putting off the epic stuff until I was more leveled from delivering groceries, collecting bear pelts, and defeating brigands, and then easily completed through Chapter 10 with a pick-up Fellowship in one go. Having the storyline is great motivation to do even the most typical quests.

There's no real end-game as of yet because, well, the story isn't anywhere near over. The first free content update is set for next month, covering the reforging of Aragorn's sword with 60 new quests in a new area. The plot will continue to unfold via expansions in Rhovanion, Rohan, Gondor and Mordor in the future, so the game is definitely going to be the type of long term commitment that MMO addicts appreciate.

Despite playing similarly, LOTRO is not WoW, and that's perfectly fine. If you are into LOTR, you'll probably find this a more engaging experience than other fantasy MMOs because of the meatiness of Tolkien's Middle Earth. Also keep in mind that even if you didn't pre-order to take advantage of the life-long subscription for $200, the ten dollars a month is still cheaper than WoW's fifteen. If Hobbits and Rings aren't your thing, there are plenty of players in chat who will tell you to go crying back to whatever game you defected from. Hesfrid, however, feels right at home.

Curious to see what we thought of other MMOs? Check out our reviews of World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

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