The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

E3 Preview 2005

When Turbine bought the publishing rights to Middle-earth Online and then promptly slid the release date a year to make the game the way, it stated, it felt the game should be made, there was some wonderment as to what Turbine had in mind.

One of the first things to fall by the wayside was the alignment system where players had to maintain a balance in favor of the path they wished to follow. Then the name changed to Lord of the Rings Online, or LOTRO as the folks at Turbine are calling it. But what else has changed and what direction has the game gone in since Turbine took control? For the answer to that, a trip to the Turbine booth at the Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3) in Los Angeles was in order.

Rather than follow and become involved with the actual passage of the Ring, players take on roles against the dark forces of Angmar during the same time as the Ring-bearer is making his journey. There are common lands, and players may actually arrive in Bree when Frodo is there, or maybe they cross paths during that vaunted journey, but the center of the action is the battle in Angmar, which was the home of the Witch King.

The game itself looks good, though perhaps time has altered the perspective from E3 2003 when graphically it was the star of the show. With the stellar achievements in the look of massively multiplayer games currently in release, LOTRO was solid but not a title that would set new standards. Is that a bad thing? Of course not, the graphics were still very good and the tension created by the gathering evil will bring this title to life in concert with the eye candy provided.

There will be four playable races, and seven classes. The first part of the game is largely linear, according to Turbine representatives on hand at the show, and 80-90% of the game will use shared zones with the rest occurring in instances zones. While the alignment system has been removed, there will still be moral choices and consequences to actions taken.

Skills can be built up and partnered with the skills of other players for cooperative combo attacks, which will have devastating results. These combo attacks are called “conjunctions” and players will have to work to perform then in concert for the big damage.

Players will be able to choose the class they wish to play but the specific class path will not be that customizable, and players of a certain class will boast mostly similar skills and traits.

But, players will have the opportunity to interact with some of the heroes of Middle-earth, such as Gandalf, Elrond and Tom Bombadil, and there will be unique weapons available that will evolve according to their use.

The gameplay looked fairly straightforward with the user interface easy to use, and the conjunctions all seemed easy to either begin or participate in. While the initial elements of the game, demonstrated, seemed linear, there was a sense of excitement and adventure attached, and how players moved from point A to point B was left to the discretion of the players.

The game may still be a year out, and many changes may yet occur, but Turbine seems hard at work to evolve this into a title that immerses players into the world of Middle-earth and makes time spent there viable in that it could affect the outcome of the world itself. This looks to be a tale of immersive adventure against challenging odds, of evolving tales and all that adds up to an enjoyable venture into a much-beloved land.