Low Level Beta Review

SKIPADI

First of all, I have played FFXI, DAOC, WOW, EQ2 and SWG (NGE only). I don't consider myself and expert on MMORPG's by any means, but I have experienced a wide variety of them.
My system is a very mediocre AMD Sempron 1.8 Ghz, with 1 Gbyte of Kingston Value ram, and an Nvidia 7300GT with 256 Mbytes of video ram.
Now about LOTRO.
PROs:
-- Beautiful Graphics, as many have already noted. I prefer them over any of the games I have previously played.
-- Performance is excellent on my system and I am able to run with setting on 'High', with only a few areas of lag.
-- The Game world is well constructed and seems to follow the geography of this area of Middle Earth well. In fact,
    I have been using the map of the Shire from the book to find my around that area.
-- Quests are many and varied from the standard type MMO fare, to quests which are very specific to the Middle Earth
    setting. I also note that even many of the normal quests have added details that make them feel fresh.
-- Monster play is a very innovative variation on PVP that Turbine would do well to expand on in future content releases.
-- Casual friendliness abounds in this game, with grouping (fellowship) quests being quite PUG friendly.
-- The community of players is one of the most mature and friendly that I have experienced in an online game.
-- Fun is the most important thing to any game. Nothing else matters if a game isn't fun, and I find LOTRO to be
   'Extremely Fun'.
CONs:
-- There is at least one area where low poly models detract from the overall beauty. This is Ered Luin, where the snow
   covered trees could use some work.
-- Hardcore gamers will find little of interest in the early levels of the game. I understand that this improves over time, however
   I feel that if a game wants to attract a particular demographic it needs to grab them early.
-- Some will find the number of classes too restrictive, though this is required by the Lore.
-- Some will find character customisation to be somewhat lacking in variety, though I was satisfied by it.
-- There are still some bugs, though nothing I have found to be a 'show stopper'. It is still in Beta testing after all.
 
My overall score for this game, using the time honored PC Gamer 1-100 system is:
85
 
 
 
 

Kyleran

Good review.... 80-85 seems about right..... mostly because I've never taken a character past 15.... and haven't experienced much of the later game.....

2hawks

Pretty decent review - I think your 85 is on target  ... only level 9 atm but so far very pleased.

It says a lot about the coding ability of the devs that you can run it an older system like that and still rank it as high as you did.