This is my first post on the forums, and I thought I share my initial impressions of the game.
I am an avid player; my genres are RPGs and turn-based strategies. I’ve been playing RPGs since early Might & Magic / Wizardry series, and consider myself well-educated in the field I’ve never played an MMO for longer than a couple of hours before – during the last few years I’ve tried WoW several times, but my problem is that I am too much of a soloist. It’s not that I am anti-social, I just prefer to do things at my own pace and mostly alone. My gaming hours are very uneven: I might have several days to spend almost exclusively on gaming, but then there might be only an hour or half-hour a day for a couple of weeks. This is why I felt that MMOs are just not my cup of tea.
Two weeks ago I tried LotRO, and I am very impressed.
I value atmosphere and immersion in games, I enjoy well-written and complicated lore, and I prefer great art direction over technical (graphical) superiority. I found all this in LotRO, while I never though these things and MMOs are even remotely compatible. The atmosphere in this game is simply amazing. Every location feels authentic. Location design in Shire is one of the best I’ve seen in any RPG (including single-player ones). Seriously, I can hardly recall so well-crafted locales with so much attention and love put into placing each object and making most of the vistas unique and memorable. And they are beautiful, too.
I don’t understand people who say that graphics in this game is bad, because it is not. Yes, it is also not the most technically-impressive game out there, but with DirectX11 and all the settings on the absolute maximum it looks amazing. Again, fantastic art direction helps a lot. I only wish that the character menu (paper-doll) looked a little different, maybe that it was larger with more detailed icons of objects etc. But it is minor issue for me, and only because I love messing around with my character’s clothing, gear etc.
Quests are great – you only have to read them. I suspect that without reading quest descriptions, this game feels like your average run-of-the-mill MMO, but when you take your time reading the quests, you realize how much time Turbine has put into crafting them and really appreciate that. Yes, these are not the complex moral choices-and-consequences of the Witcher or Planescape, but, hey, the quests are interesting enough to feature in a good single-player RPG, and as I see it, this is very uncommon for MMOs. My advice for people giving LotRO a try is: READ THE QUESTS. By not doing so, you are giving away the better part of fun in the game.
Generally I do not enjoy the MMO combat style, but so far I found burglar combat to be tactical and engaging in harder battles, and the burglar’s sneak ability allows to bypass the trash mobs, if you so desire. I cannot speak for other classes, but from what I’ve seen, the warden’s skills look very interesting, too.
I plan to play the game almost exclusively solo, for the reasons stated above. I tried grouping with a random person for one fellowship quest and it was fun (and RP was most definitely there!), but I just prefer it differently. However, I must say that from what I’ve witnessed so far the community (at least on Laurelin server) is very mature and friendly. I enjoy playing my character among such good folk. Maybe later I will try playing more complicated fellowship quests with my wife (if she enjoys the game, that is – she plans to give it a try as soon as we replace her old computer), but for those enjoying solo play style I can say: go for it! Most fellowship quests are easily soloable when you are few levels above them, and it is just such a good game all in all. Please, do yourself a favor and try it.
I cannot recommend the game enough. I subscribed as a VIP and I don’t plan to abandon my subscription any time soon. I am not the richest guy in the world, but I strongly believe that people who give me the gaming experience I enjoy so much really deserve their money.
I have one small question to the community here. I realize it has been answered many times before, but I really find the expansion system Turbine uses a little confusing.
Considering the fact that I am VIP, if I purchase Rise of Isengard Legendary I will have ALL the content the game can offer so far (except for 2 classes and additional character slots)? Is that correct? I don’t want to miss on ANY content, and I think that if I want two more classes, I can easily buy them for TPs in the online store.
Thank you for reading this.
I am really surprised to find such a gem of a game!
Last edited by stanthony; Jun 19 2012 at 07:48 AM.
I have one small question to the community here. I realize it has been answered many times before, but I really find the expansion system Turbine uses a little confusing.
Considering the fact that I am VIP, if I purchase Rise of Isengard Legendary I will have ALL the content the game can offer so far (except for 2 classes and additional character slots)? Is that correct? I don’t want to miss on ANY content, and I think that if I want two more classes, I can easily buy them for TPs in the online store.
Thank you for reading this.
I am really surprised to find such a gem of a game!
I think you may be missing Mirkwood even after that. In order to see what you are missing simply go to the ingame store and look under the Account section at the listed Expansions and Quest Packs that you can purchase. Go to expansions first as those contain more material at a cheaper price than buying the quest pack for the same region. If any are listed, then you don't have that access and all players must buy expansions. Then go to the quest pack section to see if any of those are listed (I think Mirkwood may be listed as a quest pack since it really did not give anything else).
I think you may be missing Mirkwood even after that. In order to see what you are missing simply go to the ingame store and look under the Account section at the listed Expansions and Quest Packs that you can purchase.
Thank you for the advice!
I will explore the ingame store, but regarding Mirkwood, I think it is included in the most expensive RoI offer, as the description for RoI Legendary on the official store page says: "Access to the Path of the Fellowship Quest Packs including Trollshaws, Eregion, Lothlórien and Moria plus the Mirkwood Quest Pack as a special bonus".
Yes the Legendary ROI is your best option to get everything up to this point. I'm highly disappointed that they didn't do this offer again with the new Rohan Expansion. Glad you like the game though, I've been playing off and on for since closed beta testing and have two accounts with all the expansions, its a great game whether your soloing or group play you have your options. Scaling Instances are great if your just playing with a friend as well unlike most games where you couldn't do much without a full group, there are some good things like this that just set Lotro apart from the rest.
And yes the world is indeed wonderful and immersive, even the starter area, Archet, when i started playing way back, i was blown away by the atmosphere/feel and look of it
And yes the world is indeed wonderful and immersive, even the starter area, Archet, when i started playing way back, i was blown away by the atmosphere/feel and look of it
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I’ve never played an MMO for longer than a couple of hours before – during the last few years I’ve tried WoW several times, but my problem is that I am too much of a soloist. It’s not that I am anti-social, I just prefer to do things at my own pace and mostly alone. My gaming hours are very uneven: I might have several days to spend almost exclusively on gaming, but then there might be only an hour or half-hour a day for a couple of weeks. This is why I felt that MMOs are just not my cup of tea.
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Originally Posted by stanthony
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