Zonrith1
301,382
TA Score for this game: 1,512
Posted on 14 December 11 at 15:41, Edited on 07 April 13 at 04:49 |
This review has 39 positive votes and 2 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Description
Lord of the Rings: War in the North is an action-RPG set in Tolkien’s famous Middle Earth, at a time corresponding to the events in the Lord of the Rings (Fellowship through Return of the King). This game does not involve the player’s active participation in the famous fellowship, however. Instead, it explores a side story: the quest of a fellowship of three to thwart Agandaûr, an agent of Sauron’s who is advancing the Dark Lord’s agenda in the Northern lands.
As someone who has read Lord of the Rings, and is a big fan of the feature films, I was excited to try this game out. I had never played a game set in Tolkien’s world, so I had no comparison in mind on that score. Rather, I was curious about how the game would hold up play-wise and with its visual style (which emulates the films).
Graphics/Sound (9/10)
Graphically, I felt the developers did an excellent job with capturing the look and feel of the films. The orcs and goblins mirror their Peter Jackson counterparts, which went a long way on the immersion front. I felt like I was actually *in* the Middle Earth I saw on film. Graphical performance itself was pretty consistent. I saw the occasional clipping issue, and a few, slight lag spikes when heavy effects combat was underway, but overall I must say I was visually impressed. Especially nice touches were the subtle things like the animations while walking stairs, the details around the eagles’ eyes, and so forth.
Sound was similarly impressive, though I wish there was more music throughout the game. The movies have an iconic soundtrack, and the game’s music is not identical, but I think it captures the film feel quite well… when it’s playing. The use of music seemed judicious, and I’d have favored a more liberal application of the score. The sound effects were great; again, it gave me that feel of the movie, especially hearing the arrows buzzing past my head as I tried to charge a hill full of orcs.
Controls (7/10)
The controls are simple to understand and pretty intuitive. Each character (the dwarf, the ranger [human], and the elf [mage]) has their own, unique activated abilities, but there aren’t very many. So there isn’t any concern about having to hotkey particular skills (they all are). Melee combat, beyond activated abilities, just consists of the X and Y buttons. Unlike some action games, where you can (and need) to memorize combinations to pull off attacks, this is greatly simplified. You essentially just hit a button(s) to do a particular move, until the need to block or dodge. So, timing does matter, but your combat choices are limited. This simplification will be appreciated by some, and others will probably be bothered by the lack of a serious selection of combo moves (which seem like a natural fit in a game of this style).
My biggest control gripe involves character placement. It is difficult for multiple people to easily melee the same enemy, even when you are explicitly trying to do just that. I also ran into some problems where I’d be attacking one enemy and then I’d switch to another. A target-lock feature would have been appreciated (especially at times when I wanted to order the eagle to attack a powerful enemy and instead it’d rip apart a nearby archer…).
Story (8/10)
Overall, the story is decent, though it pales in comparison to Tolkien’s main tale. Your fellowship is on a mission of distraction. You get to tour a lot of famous locales from Tolkien’s world, and meet a lot of the characters from the novels, but I never could shake the fact that I was just a side-story. Perhaps it was because so many of the NPCs keep stressing to you that your mission is important, that it is helping Frodo. I’d almost prefer them not trying to frame the story in the context of the One Ring, and instead just on stopping a Northern invasion.
Another thing I’d like to note in the story section is the dialog. War in the North has taken a page from Bioware and uses the dialogue selection model made famous in Dragon Age and Mass Effect. However, your choices have absolutely no relevance. As in… ever. Not a single dialogue choice changes who you fight, where you go, or what loot you get. Choosing not to talk to someone may cost you a side-quest, but once you speak to them, the inevitable outcome will happen. As such, I lost interest in trying other dialogue options and rushed through discussions on later replays. Sometimes there is an “investigate” dialogue choice, which can be a nice way to find out more about the Tolkien world, but again, it offers no real value.
Replay Value (8/10)
Even though its dialogue tree is meaningless, War in the North does have a lot of replay value. This is due to the leveling system and the difficulty unlocks. Winning the game on Normal unlocks Hardcore, which in turn unlocks Legendary. You carry your character levels over (and need those levels to survive at the higher settings), so you get to experience growth throughout each go. I ended my legendary play at level 38, and the max is level 40, so the developers did a good job in keeping a level cap high enough that you don’t tap it out and become bored with no talents to allocate and skills to advance.
Those wanting to 100% the achievements will need to play the campaign three full times. Rushing through it, I’d say it can be done in around five hours, but things will go slower the first time with the cut scenes, dialogue participation, and focus on picking up side quests.
"Fun" Factor (9/10)
I really had a lot of fun with this. I was nervous at first; it took me a bit to get accustomed to the control scheme. Also, starting at level one, you are very limited in your abilities. Around level 20 is when I felt like I had a good command of my character, with the ability to make strategic combat choices. I really like that you can switch between the three fellowship members and retain your level, thereby allowing you to try and be each type of fighter without needing to level them up. They all are really quite different, too. In fact, I think it’s fair to say they aren’t balanced (at the upper levels the elf is a demi-god of power, the dwarf literally has trouble keeping up with the others when walking, etc.), but they do feel unique, and that was a plus. The inventory management was easy to handle (quick and easy to compare items, though they really needed a “repair all” option at blacksmiths to save some time on fixing your gear), and I often allocated stats with the specific goal of equipping particular items to help me out.
I really only ran into one negative that hurt my fun. There is a glitch in chapter 8, part 4, where if you load you cannot progress (the enemies stop spawning). Research indicated this is a problem on all platforms. I was very lucky in having a secondary save I could load instead, but basically (until a patch comes out) the instructions for that part were to be sure to kill everything and “don’t die or you’ll glitch.” It took me quite a while to restore my progress, and I was quite angry with the whole ordeal. Other than that, though, I had a great time in Middle Earth.
Overall, I recommend this title to fans of Tolkien’s books or Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. The game isn’t intimidating in its RPG elements or its combat, and while that simplicity will damper its appeal to hardcore fans of the genres, it does make the game very approachable for those who are less familiar. Outside of the Chapter 8 glitch the game’s bugs were a minimal issue for me and with a competent control scheme and decent story I had a lot of fun. I do recommend it in co-op more than single player, however.
I played through the game three times fully, on Normal (ranger), Hardcore (some dwarf, mostly ranger), and Legendary (elf). All three difficulties I cleared with one co-op partner and one AI player. I did play some levels with three-player co-op in Chapter 1. Did some Chapter 1 work (various difficulties) for achievement clean-up.
Overall score average: 8.2
Score-to-Star Translation Guide:
5 stars: 9.01 to 10 (out of 10)
4.5 stars: 8.01 to 9
4 stars: 7.01 to 8
3.5 stars: 6.01 to 7
3 stars: 5.01 to 6
2.5 stars: 4.01 to 5
2 stars: 3.01 to 4
1.5 stars: 2.01 to 3
1 star: 1.01 to 2
0.5 stars: 0 to 1
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