How's LOTRO?

I

ivan_gromov

Gawd
Joined
Oct 6, 2006
Messages
973
Well, I am running off to work and downloading LOTRO as we speak, I am wondering who it is compared to WOW? I have just picked wow up month or so ago, but I do not like certain apspects of it, how is LOTRO? Is it fun, is it londer than GW, lol?
 
Wife and I are enjoying it quite a bit. It's the first MMO we have played in years that we actually both like.

Anyways, yes it is very similar to WOW. A lot of the game features will remind you of WOW, however that said, LOTRO definitely has it's own flare as well.
 
I love it.
I can't speak on how it compares to WoW nor Guild Wars, since I never played either one much (never appealed to me).

But as a stand-alone MMO... it's really good. This is only the third MMO to appeal to me (the first being Ultima Online, second being Star Wars Galaxies before the CR), with the storyline being integral to your progression through the world, crafting being similar to how UO did it, etc.

It's really good, though. I'm definitely pre-ordering it in a few days so I can keep my char. :D
 
I've been playing LOTRO for only a week now and have a little feel for it. I've only played up to level 7 though as a Burglar. People always say they ripped off WOW but I don't believe so. Here's the differences I see so far.


  • The PVP system is drastically different. At this point their is No world PVP. There is some kind of monster pvp that I don't know much about yet.
    The crafting system has much more depth to it.
    The graphics and movement seems more smooth and realistic to me.
    The game is fairly fluent but I see lots of things that need minor polishing such as adding options to certain windows and fine tuning cities to have the items that all cities should have such as a Anvil. A lot of those items were added to WOW as time went on. LOTRO seems to be more smooth for the stage its at than WOW was.

Hoping to hit lvl 10 tonight.
 
I tried it back in the beta stage and I cant say that I really liked it all that much. I played it for about a weeks time and just decided that there were too many aspects of the game that I didnt like. But its worth a try, dont take anyone elses word for it,if you can try it.
 
I haven't really liked any of the MMORPGs long term. I think I played WoW the longest, maybe a couple of 30ish level guys.

LotRO didn't really do it for my in the early beta, I just redownloaded it to see where they've gone with it. It has by far the best story telling of any MMORPG I've tried though. That much they got right anyway.
 
As a WoW player I don't think its enough to get me to switch, but I may pick it up as a secondary MMO. However, it has a wonderful music system! You can buy a lute, and actually play individual notes and compose your own songs. I'd love for WoW to bring in this functionality.
 
Level 15 Guardian on Brandywine server. Have a level 6 Champion as well. Great game, and thats coming from an ex WoW player of 1 1/2 years. The storytelling and flow of the game are really well done. We should get a few [H]ard foks here to start a guild. Would be sweet.
 
It's almost a complete retread of WoW in terms of UI and controls. Although that brings familiarity it also brings a certain kind of blandness. I love Tolkien but have not for even a moment felt like I was in that world. There's a huge disconnect between the story and your experience in the game. That's probably necessary to bend the story to what fits into an MMO, especially one copying WoW so shamelessly.

Granted they didn't make too many of the awful mistakes they made with DDO but some of them are still there, like player combat animations that seem disconnected from what's happening, little icons that provide little feedback, limited character customization, and a weird mix of dull and vibrant colors.

I understand why they went with the dull colors, but at one point I was rewarded with a pair of red pants so garish it looked like I was running around in a union suit. :) So far the armor I've seen has the same odd close-fitting look of DDO, more like a texture wrapped onto the character than pieces that are being worn. It's kind of the reverse of WoW: In WoW the armor is garish and cartoony and everyone looks the same... in LOTRO the armor is subdued and minimized and everyone looks the same.

With the Open Beta it's definitely worth a try but I get the feeling that like DDO they had a very basic idea in the beginning and have both the lack of skill and lack of desire to do anything innovative or interesting.
 
I just played for about five minutes after playing WoW for almost 2 years and already I like it better. The first level and right away it feels like your doing something rather than go kill 10 tigers. We will see what happens.
 
rbanzai said:
I understand why they went with the dull colors, but at one point I was rewarded with a pair of red pants so garish it looked like I was running around in a union suit. :) So far the armor I've seen has the same odd close-fitting look of DDO, more like a texture wrapped onto the character than pieces that are being worn. It's kind of the reverse of WoW: In WoW the armor is garish and cartoony and everyone looks the same... in LOTRO the armor is subdued and minimized and everyone looks the same.
Click to expand...


You could be using the low-res client. When I used the high-res client the armor textures look 100% better
 
I'm installing it now... If i like it as much as OEM does i think me and him are gonna switch from WoW to this
 
This no PvP thing already has me worried. I'm DLing, I will give it a shot but dear lord do I get bored when nothing runs by that I can't gank and piss off. ;)
 
Rich Tate said:
This no PvP thing already has me worried. I'm DLing, I will give it a shot but dear lord do I get bored when nothing runs by that I can't gank and piss off. ;)
Click to expand...

At these low levels of the game that I'm in right now I'm glad there isn't any PvP. However, I did enjoy ambushing people in WoW. Kinda a double edge sword. But right now I am enjoying it.
 
been playing for 4 weeks and i love it. have been at the lvl 15 cap (hunter on Gladden) for a while so not gaining any XP until release, however I am still able to work on my crafting, get unique items, etc. and keep my char when it goes live since I preordered.

the game is gorgeous at 1680x1050 w/ AA on. i have a 7800GTX and it runs almost cranked at full res. beautiful. some of the best water i've seen in a game yet (until crysis - that water looks almost real). textures are really nice. Auction House UI needs a bit of work but definitely usuable so not a deal breaker. quests are fun and there are a SHIT TON of them everywhere. context sensitive music is quite well done, like WoW. very immersive - feels like i'm in the movie, especially in the old forest!
 
I dont have any personal experince with the game, but I do know my brother, who used to be a World of WarCrack addict, is now playing LOTR and loving it, Im thinking about downloading it myself ;)
 
will this game have a raid system similar to wow? As in the best stuff can only be obtained thru raids?
 
I just downloaded and played for about 30 minutes. Seems pretty decent at first glance. I like the native G15 support. I was playing and looked down and was like "hey there is stuff on my LCD!" Although I have to admit I haven't had much time for games lately so this could be commonplace for all I know.
 
well ill dl this and try. i played wow into naxx last fall before i quit because of time constraints. ill see how the early game of this compares to wow. i do really love tolkien, moreso than wow, because i never really played any warcraft games before wow.
 
Just DL'ed it and I'm gonna fire it up later.

It has an auction system correct? If so I'm sure I'll enjoy it.
 
prtzlboy said:
will this game have a raid system similar to wow? As in the best stuff can only be obtained thru raids?
Click to expand...

There is a raid tab, but I've only played maybe six or seven hours over two days so I don't exactly know how it works/will play into the game over all.


MetalX said:
Just DL'ed it and I'm gonna fire it up later.

It has an auction system correct? If so I'm sure I'll enjoy it.
Click to expand...

Yes, but again, with only six to seven hours of game play I haven't seen it, nor do I know how to use it.

I'm really pulling for this game and I hope I like it over the next couple of days until the beta closes. If I still like it then, I'll buy it. We will see.
 
if you like Wow then you will probably like this game. Still feels stale to me but I am a fps twitch.
 
Just got a few hours in. Collect stuff, go here, talk to this guy. Nothing new off the bat but I'm gonna see if it improves. I like the graphics so far.
 
IMO it has a better story than EQ2 and WoW.
I am not a huge LOTR fan, but I think that this game works.
I am enjoying playing it so far.

/off topic for one quick question directly related to this game
I am currently participating in the "World Tour" beta, no the pre-order beta. Does anyone know if I will get to keep my character, and how I will go about linking my beta acct to the pre-order beta key? (Since I already activated the world tour key and it is valid until launch)
Sorry to OP, not intending to hijack or threadcrap.. just curious about this is all.
 
hyt3k9 said:
/off topic for one quick question directly related to this game
I am currently participating in the "World Tour" beta, no the pre-order beta. Does anyone know if I will get to keep my character, and how I will go about linking my beta acct to the pre-order beta key? (Since I already activated the world tour key and it is valid until launch)
Sorry to OP, not intending to hijack or threadcrap.. just curious about this is all.
Click to expand...

If you pre-order you can keep your character into release and have the choice of $10/month $200/lifetime. Just enter preorder/founder code into your tubine account where you entered your beta code and it'll update.
 
I've been playing it lately, and so far I have not been impressed. Like was said by someone already, I don't feel immersed in the game world at all. They have definitely ripped-off WoW as far as the interface goes. But overall, I'm just not really feeling all that interested.

One thing I really liked that's different from any other mmo's is the hunter's ability to shoot at point-blank range. I love that about the game. I also really like the fact that shouts from players are actually heard as a shout, instead of a generic "ring" or "buzz."
 
I was playing a minstrel and guardian combo during the open beta and got them both to 15. I got a quest to go into the North Barrow Downs. I made it there ok as there were only yellows and oranges on the way, but when I got in the dungeon ALL of the mobs were Elite. They were only orange con to me, but they had over 2k life, vs 400ish life of a non-elite.

That was the point I pretty much stopped playing because I didn't want to have to find a group just to do the quest, even though I'm positive that's where all the good items are. One reason I don't like grouping is that it always ends up being more time consuming than it should be. Once you make some friends in the game and/or join a guild, you will always be asked to help out with things. I always felt obligated to help them and guilty if I didn't. If you do help them, it takes up way too much of your time because there's always another grind someone needs help with. It makes it hard to casually play unless you're a hermit, but then if you are a hermit you won't get good loot because you'd have to go on a raid.

I think raids will be frustrating in this game as the minstrel has no way to resurrect anyone, at least by level 15 he doesn't. If you die, you'd have to run all the way back. There could possibly be a res spell later, but I was capped at level 15 and didn't bother to look it up.

It's just my opinion, but I don't like being dependent on a bunch of people to be competitive in the game. I wouldn't mind hard quests requiring two people, but the people are needed the bigger the circus gets IMO. Personally I have more fun playing as a duo with someone else than bigger groups. Much easier to coordinate things and less bickering over stupid stuff, especially if you know and trust the person. It's a lot easier to casually play at the same time as one other person, than it is to casually play at the same time as a bunch of people. Organizing things seems to take exponentially more time, the larger the number of people that are involved.

I also don't like the fact that to be competitive you are must do activities that are just time sinks, like crafting. Crafting is one of the reasons people macro, because it is boring, pointless and time consuming, but necessary to be competitive. A suggested solution to this is make it so you can pick a skill to train and it takes x hours to train it to the next skill, but it would only train it while you are logged off. That would eliminate people macroing crafting and give the casual gamer a fair chance to up their skills, and allow people to spend more time playing and less time clicking buttons.

Anyways, that's my 2 cents and it applies to more MMO's that just LotRO. I didn't read this twice to check for errors, so if you can't figure out what I meant to say ask.

 
I really wanted to like this game. Played beta one up to level 32 burglar, and beta 2 up to a level 50 burglar. The end-game is just like wow, you try to get another point of power on your shoes. There is no skills to train after level 37... ?
It looks amazing though. Though the landscape isnt really made for wandering around.
I havent played open beta- will not be buying it.
 
The game runs well and looks pretty good, I have it at 1920x1200 on my 2 year old laptop and it isn't half bad performance wise. I'm playing an Elf Champion on the Brandywine server.

One question, I haven't really read much about this game yet. Will it or does it have PvP? Will I be able to play as a bad guy sometime later on?
 
IcedEmotion said:
One question, I haven't really read much about this game yet. Will it or does it have PvP? Will I be able to play as a bad guy sometime later on?
Click to expand...

Yes, MPvP.

While there is some (but very little) precedent for PvP in the lore, it doesn't fit into Tolkien's world in the usual way that PvP fits into MMORPG's. In light of this, the development team has designed a PvP alternative - monster play - to satisfy those who enjoy competitive play, while preventing scenarios such as Elves "ganking" Hobbits in the Shire. The current PvP systems included in LOTRO are sparring and monster play (PvMP).
Click to expand...
 
Is there no icon on the mini-map for active quests? I have quests in the tracker but haven't seen anything indicating where to go. If this is intentional I like the idea as it makes me explore more, but if it's in there and I'm just clueless then I would like to enable it.
 
If you see a female human with silver hair named "EstimatedProphet" on the Brandywine introduction area be sure to say what up.
 
I was doing one of the quests that involved killing some plants and shouted 'Die evil weed' and it censored the 'weed' part! What's up with that?
 
I have a level 11 Guardian of Firefoot. Name is Hill, if anyone cares.

Fun game, still trying to decide whether to buy it or not. $10 bucks a month isn't that bad..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top