The public Beta opened today and I gave it a shot.
First impressions: it's very obviously a WoW clone. The interface is almost identical, the hotkeys are almost all the same, and the gameplay is similar. The class and race differentiation is different, though, so I didn't feel like I was being offered the exact same options. The game offers useful movies for each race and class to help you get a general idea of what each is supposed to specialize in.
The game is very pretty. I'm running a 256 meg Geforce 7900GS, far from bleeding edge, and I can run the game at 1680 x 1050 resolution with all graphic settings turned to high without a problem (average 20-25 fps).
The quest system is more difficult to use than WoW's is: they don't make it as brutally easy. The quest tracker is a lot more useful, though, as it displays ALL kinds of objectives, not just "0/10 butterflies killed," etc.
In terms of immersion, this game beats any other I've played, hands down. I started an elf champion (a non-sneaky, offensive melee class) and the tutorial stage was me coming to the rescue of an elven outpost under siege. I fought goblins and a rogue dwarf and was about to get brutally killed by a snow troll when Elrond saved me. I had a delicious geek-out moment.
Anyone else playing, or planning on it? I'm on the Brandywine server. If you've tried the game, what're your thoughts?
[ April 09, 2007, 10:01 PM: Message edited by: erosomniac ]
Posted by ludosti (Member # 1772) on :
I'm excited to participate in the public Beta. I was part of the stress test a month ago, but due to the limited nature of the test and bugs I ran into, I only got a tiny taste for the game. It wasn't really enough for me to form an opinion on it.
It did remind me a lot of WoW but I'm interested in exploring the differences. An I'm really looking forward to enjoying the pretty. Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :
It was still down when I tried to log in this morning, I look forward to trying it tonight.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
I'll be trying out a Human Champion tonight - I just rolled him, so I'll reroll on the Brandywine Server.
He'll be named Kalmegil (Shining Sword in Sindarin) if possible.
I can't wait to crank my 8800XTS all the way up. *evil cackle*
Oh, wait, this is LOTR.
*good cackle*
Posted by GaalDornick (Member # 8880) on :
Do you need a CD to play it? And pay a monthly fee?
Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
Downloading it now. See you at the Brandywine.
Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :
I am thinking of paying the 200 dollars to be a Foundationer (I think that is the name). If you do that, then you are a member for life with no more fees.
Altho I don't have time to play it now, it would be nice to have a good MMORPG I could play off and on over the years without a monthly fee. I already have Guild Wars, but I would like a more traditional MMORPG.
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
Post your character names once you've got 'em! I'll try to maintain a list here, so we can at least party up and whatnot.
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
quote:Originally posted by GaalDornick: Do you need a CD to play it? And pay a monthly fee?
The Beta is happening right now, and you don't need to pay for it. You have to DL the software, but that doesn't take long, assuming you have a reasonably fast broadband connection.
I may check this out. I've heard that it's a solid, if not inspired, MMORPG.
I'm really waiting for Pirates of the Burning Sea, in June though. Pirates laugh at puny elves!
-Bok
Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
I'm so going to roll a dwarf minstrel.
Plan of attack: get drunk and sing inappropriate songs.
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
I tried it out for a couple of days, and was really unimpressed. I'd agree that it's a WoW clone, but I feel that the geek factor is the only thing it has going for it. I love LOTR mythology, but the game mechanics felt weak to me, and if it's a matter of wanting to play in the LOTR universe, there are better games out there.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
OK, I got to level 5. I like the instancing/lasting effects in the world, and the art is gorgeous. I'm not used to the combat yet - I'm reserving judgment.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Downloading it now...
Posted by Bob the Lawyer (Member # 3278) on :
I don't know how well my computer will be able to handle it (I'm betting not well), but I'm downloading it anyway to give and will give it a whirl.
Posted by Puppy (Member # 6721) on :
I'm downloading it now. Is the rule that we all have to pick names beginning with K?
If so, I'll be "Kwalm".
Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on :
Hey hey hey, what should I be?
Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
So I got my minstrel up to level 8. His name's Reiplinger.
It's probably because of over-population, but I feel like I'm running around a lot doing delivery quests and not engaging in combat very much. (Despite the insanely fast monster respawns.)
On the other hand, I like that the interface gives the user a lot more information. Simple things like showing you how much loot is worth, for example. Also, I got to see Gandalf totally pwn a cave troll.
Most annoyingly, my quest log has at times simply given me incorrect information about my quest objectives. Issues like saying the dwarf I'm supposed to find is in the East side of Thorin's Hall, when he's actually in the West have happened more than once. This won't be as big a problem once I can go double-check on 3rd party websites, but for now it's just aggravating. I hope they get it fixed.
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
My champion's level 7. I'm loving it so far. More to come when I don't want to be gaming.
Posted by Bob the Lawyer (Member # 3278) on :
I'm now running around the game. Kasin.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
What time period does the game take place during? Or is it unspecified?
Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on :
Well, I got my Elf Hunter up to level 5, but I don't know that I enjoy being a ranged attacker. This is my first MMORPG, so I think I might try out some different things, especially now that I sort of have a feel for the game. I'll let ya'll know what character I decide on using (cant even remember my elfs name. That's what I get for staying up so late).
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
quote:What time period does the game take place during? Or is it unspecified?
It's basically during FotR. The storyline I'm involved in is the defense of Archet from bandits working for dark riders who are looking for Bagginses.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
STOP IT, ALL OF YOU!!!!
I can't be sucked into another game, I must come out of this semester with good grades!
Why must you all have fun without me?!
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
I'm going to be in as Kitshee. Don't know what Race or Class.
-Bok
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
where do I download the client and where do I sign up for the free trial?
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
What Blayne said.
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
quote:Originally posted by erosomniac:
quote:Originally posted by GaalDornick: Do you need a CD to play it? And pay a monthly fee?
The Beta is happening right now, and you don't need to pay for it. You have to DL the software, but that doesn't take long, assuming you have a reasonably fast broadband connection.
I dunno. I'm not all that impressed by the game. The combat skills don't seem particularly weighty, it can be tough to tell when they've gone off, and I feel like my character is floating above the landscape and sliding through it, rather than really being in it. The character animation just doesn't feel quite right to me.
Posted by Xavier (Member # 405) on :
I tried it for about 5 minutes, went back to play WoW.
(I'm about 2/3 of a level from 60 )
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
I can't get the stupid Turbine thing to work. It keeps telling me that the username and password I just made aren't valid.
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
I'm a female human captain. So far, some niceties from wow, and some annoyances. Sometimes in the same thing (like the UI)
-Bok
Posted by Dragon (Member # 3670) on :
Steve, I'm having the same problem. Of course, when I tried to download it my computer had no idea what was going on, so I guess it's okay that I never got an account anyway.
Does this not work on a Mac?
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
That might be my problem... Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
quote:Originally posted by Xavier: I tried it for about 5 minutes, went back to play WoW.
(I'm about 2/3 of a level from 60 )
Go for it! Tiffany is half way to 56 herself, playing Burning Crusade and leveling to 70 made the game twice as fun for me It was starting to be a drag being stuck at 60 for so long!
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
quote:Originally posted by Xavier: I tried it for about 5 minutes, went back to play WoW.
Well, I gave it two hours, but with the same end result.
LOTR lore is awesome, but the game is mostly, "Go take this letter to farmer Beebob, then kill 20 Angry Beavers. Hey, is that Gandalf buying a loaf of bread?" In the time I played, apart from the introductory battle, I never felt like I was in Middle Earth.
WoW's lore is entirely based on video games, so the whole place is loaded with unique monsters, battles, creatures and references. Plus, the game mechanics are better.
I had high hopes for LOTR Online, but it didn't impress me. Posted by GaalDornick (Member # 8880) on :
I'm Korondir, an Elvish Champion.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
quote:LOTR lore is awesome, but the game is mostly, "Go take this letter to farmer Beebob, then kill 20 Angry Beavers. Hey, is that Gandalf buying a loaf of bread?" In the time I played, apart from the introductory battle, I never felt like I was in Middle Earth.
I think there are three major types of quests:
1. carry stuff from here to there. 2. kill x things 3. find and kill a particular bad guy to prevent a particular bad thing from happening.
Only 3 advances the story. In my mind, 1 and 2 are there to provide a little extra xp boost while carrying on the normal storyline quests. Just keep several 1 & 2s active during general hunting/storyline questing and you'll boost xp by quite a bit.
I've liked the main story arcs so far - the initial prologue in Archet was very good, and wolves/redemption of the traitorous wolf breeder is pretty good.
Posted by DarkKnight (Member # 7536) on :
I've played on Windfola, Level 15 Hunter and I am really liking it so far, I even got to meet Strider. This is my first MMO so I might not be the best judge. I can't believe how much stuff I have missed and how many sidequests there are. Don't forget you max at level 15 for now
Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on :
Kintair, Elf Hunter (almost level 7 right now)
Posted by T_Smith (Member # 3734) on :
I'm a Hobbit named Darungo.
Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
quote:I had high hopes for LOTR Online, but it didn't impress me.
I have a few complaints with the game too, but let's not forget it IS a beta. WoW had problems starting out too, or so I've heard.
While I'm not ecstatic over it, I'm holding out hope that it will become a great MMO.
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dagonee:
quote:LOTR lore is awesome, but the game is mostly, "Go take this letter to farmer Beebob, then kill 20 Angry Beavers. Hey, is that Gandalf buying a loaf of bread?" In the time I played, apart from the introductory battle, I never felt like I was in Middle Earth.
I think there are three major types of quests:
1. carry stuff from here to there. 2. kill x things 3. find and kill a particular bad guy to prevent a particular bad thing from happening.
And this is essentially what WoW has.
I have to say, in a lot of ways, LotRO is a polished WoW, at least at the start. I wish the UI were a bit more customizable, but their built-in quest tracker is better, The info provided about stuff is better too. The game looks suitably nice for Middle Earth, though at 1920x1200/very high graphics setting, some of the more animated areas cause the game to slow down (the most notable in the 6 levels of play was the flower field outside of Archet.
Too bad I'm a bit bored of High Fantasy settings. I hold out more hope for Pirates of the Burning Sea, and Age of Conan. If you haven't played an MMORPG before, I highly recommend checking out LotRO. So far it seems solid. Of course, WoW is a solid game too.
-Bok
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
I downloaded it and activated it; I'll try it out tonight...
Posted by Frisco (Member # 3765) on :
Never played an MMORPG before, but I gave it a shot yesterday. It's pretty fun and addicting. We'll see in the days ahead if it's my thing.
I'm Fristan, a Captain.
I'm surprised I didn't have giant spider dreams last night.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Logging on for the first time right now, on Brandywine.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Lirinan-elven lore-master
Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :
Kelric on Brandywine.
Fun, so far.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
It is fun.
Posted by Magson (Member # 2300) on :
It's Alliance only-WoW in my opinion. It's okay, but I'm not terribly impressed. I have a couple of toons on Brandywine from the closed beta, but I'm not planning on signing in again. Perhaps at some point in the future, but for now I'm still enjoying my EQ2.
Posted by GaalDornick (Member # 8880) on :
I finally finished the Introduction quest. Does every race do the same one? In the last part of the intro quest I went with Dwalin into this cave and we fought our way to the end where we had a confrontation with some resurrected dwarf king dude. It was cool.
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
Grr. I tried logging in, but couldn't get to the authentication server.
Grr.
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
I just have one question.
Is this another EQ clone? So far, I see that at least the class names are different. What's the skill tree like?
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
It's more WoW than EQ.
-Bok
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Thrice-cursed DSL is taking forever to download this.
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
quote:Originally posted by Bokonon: It's more WoW than EQ.
-Bok
See, I consider Wow to basically be a somewhat more polished EQ. Classes about the same. Stuff you do about the same. It's just often more user friendly in the way it does it.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
As if level 8, there are no choices to be made regarding skill ups. (Other than the initial race/class selection, of course.)
It plays very differently to me than EQ, though. More like City of Heroes. I haven't played WoW, so I can't compare.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
I like it so far...I am level 6 now.
I don't know if I would like it as a melee player though. How is the combat as a fighter?
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
A slower City of Heroes.
-Bok
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
I don't think my laptop's really equipped to handle this (not enough RAM, I think-- things get really choppy in town).
So Esadril is going to gracefully take a ship to Morrowind.
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
quote:Originally posted by Storm Saxon:
quote:Originally posted by Bokonon: It's more WoW than EQ.
-Bok
See, I consider Wow to basically be a somewhat more polished EQ. Classes about the same. Stuff you do about the same. It's just often more user friendly in the way it does it.
Out of curiousity, do you then consider most commercially released MMORPGs since the release of EQ to be clones?
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Yes.
Logging in now.
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
quote:Originally posted by erosomniac:
quote:Originally posted by Storm Saxon:
quote:Originally posted by Bokonon: It's more WoW than EQ.
-Bok
See, I consider Wow to basically be a somewhat more polished EQ. Classes about the same. Stuff you do about the same. It's just often more user friendly in the way it does it.
Out of curiousity, do you then consider most commercially released MMORPGs since the release of EQ to be clones?
Well, keeping in mind I haven't played anything like all of them, some of them moreso than others, but a lot of them seem to like to follow the EQ formula of class tree and quests.
I'm not saying WoW is a carbon copy by any means, but there's nothing in it that wasn't in EQ, and the classes are very similiar to EQ's. It's just they've polished EQ and made it into more of a fast FPS. I do think the writing is ten times better, though.
Sure, EQ wasn't by any stretch of the imagination original. I think we might've had this conversation before, where I called most mmorpgs glorified diku muds and you scoffed at that idea. I still basically think the same thing.
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
I think you're right about us having the conversation before. I think our definitions of "different," uh, differ.
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
On a complete tangent, I am really digging City of Heroes right now. I'm having a blast playing my cyborg Mastermind from a war-torn future, Colonel Korloff!
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
I really liked CoH. I just have a problem paying per month.
Although I may have to for this one......it's LotR! Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
I may have to take a look at it at some point.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
It's free for two weeks if you join before launch.
Launch is in a few weeks, so don't delay. Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Logging on now, for about an hour or two before bed. Posted by DarkKnight (Member # 7536) on :
If you have reached level 10 you should go look for the scrying pool in Breetown. You get to play as a monster which is pretty fun and a little different. You start as a level 50 monster and you get to attack the free people.
Posted by Lupus (Member # 6516) on :
does anyone find it hard to control the character?
He sometimes turns to far when I try to turn him...and won't face the same way. I wish you could just click where you want to go like games like Diablo.
I've got a burgler named Athalus and a champion named Gladior
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Logging on for a bit now...anyone in for it tonight?
Posted by Lupus (Member # 6516) on :
I was on...but I didn't see you (lirinan) being listed as online. I'm off now though...stuff to do.
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
I'll likely be on later tonight, Kwea, but I'm on Pacific time and it's time for dinner here. Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Another time, I ahve to be up too early tommorrow.
I am working on a Champion now. I wanted to see how the combat system worked for them.
Posted by Lupus (Member # 6516) on :
whats your champion's name?
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Randel.
He is level 6 now, and just bought some decent equipment.
I just finished the intro quest as a human Champion.
Posted by Lupus (Member # 6516) on :
My champion is level 5. I still have the very least intro quest do do. I teamed up with a guardian to do the rest of the intro quests. Things are much easier/more fun with a fellowship.
so do any of you think you might preorder? I'm really thinking about it.
[ April 14, 2007, 03:25 AM: Message edited by: Lupus ]
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
I might...I will probably decide in the next day or two.
Posted by Frisco (Member # 3765) on :
I'm enjoying it so far, though things seem too easy with a fellowship. Of course, I'm a lone wolf by nature, so I only go the fellowship route when absolutely necessary--like for Jasper Mudbottom.
Of course, after spending an hour getting lost in the Old Forest looking for wolves and instead getting stomped by giant Angry Oak trees, it would've been nice to take one of those sunlight-eating, bark covered buttholes down.
Anyone know where the Barrow Downs are, or the Sunken Stones area of the marsh?
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It was starting to be a drag being stuck at 60 for so long!
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