A brief review on the game.

kjemper

 
(This post references the official MMORPG review, if you can call it that, here: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setview/reviews/loadReview/53/gameID/45)

The official review seems to praise the game, yet the ratings do not reflect the views given.  Either the review is rating lower than other reviewers or is bias against the game for a reason not visible in the review.  Furthermore, while reading the review it seems more of a summary of the game rather than an analysis. A thorough review should allow a new player to understand the good and bad points of the game before trying it themselves.  This review lacks in this greatly.

 

Graphics (Mine 9, Reviewer 8)

The reviewer describes the graphics with non-stop praise including comments such as, "[...] the developers and artists have put together what was in the books along with their imaginations to come up with some stunning representations of what Tolkien put into his books."  There is no reason given as to why the reviewer only gave an 8 out of 10.  This rating is the highest from the players and I must agree with the players that it deserves such.  The graphics are unparalleled in any other MMORPG to date.  The only thing which bothered me is minor.  Your character never leaves footprints in the ground they tread, not even in the snowy hills of Ered Luin.  Also, the water seems at times a bit unnatural, but still very well done for an MMORPG.  While graphics are something that are held differently depending on the eye of the beholder, this is my view.

 

Role-Playing  (Mine 10, Reviewer 9)

While I will agree that this rating is fair and in-line with the review, I have to wonder if there is such a thing as a perfect score of 10 with MMORPG.com.  If this game does not deserve a 10 in role-playing then I have strong doubts any game ever will.  This game is built around the idea of creating an immersive world to role-play in.  The channels are even setup in such a way as to promote this idea with a specific channel for OOC chat (out of context).  They also carry a strict naming policy on all servers to further promote the idea of immersiveness in their game and thus further enhancing role-playability.  Without going in to a short novel, I will sum it up with the idea that everything that could be done in this game seems to have been done with the role-player in mind.  There is no under stating this.  It is unfortunate that the reviewer entirely skipped this is in her review without touching on it at all.  The only thing missing is a place to call home.  While not promised in a future patch to date, it has been under development.

 

Fun (Mine 8, Reviewer 8)

This rating is something that will vary with each person.  Because of this it is important to identify why this rating is what it is.  This is again lacking in the review as the writer fails to identify with the reasons for her scores at all.  In a broad category, such as "fun", it should be crucial to identify where the rating comes from.  A perhaps obvious example for MMOs would be to segment the players and what they seek.  Such as PvP, role-players, and traditional.  These have been identified by many companies and usually servers are separated to accommodate these three segments.  (ex: PvP servers, RP servers, and traditional servers)  Below I briefly analyze the experience for each and identify scores.  The average of which comes to 8.

*PvP: (5) The one thing that is lacking in this game over everything else is PvP.  Given the back ground to the LOTR series is that of war, some players might go into it expecting a very rich PvP experience, but this is not the case.  The only PvP to be had is through monster play.  This is briefly summarized in the review but fails to identify that it is only for those who are in the player identified "end-game."  This is to say, what players do after they reach the level cap and have little else to do.  It is not something players below L50 can participate in unless they are playing their monster character.  As such, it will be awhile before monster play is even fully used as there needs to be enough players at L50 and willing to go into the designated PvP area.

*Role-Playing: (10) This is done better than any other game to date as mentioned earlier.  Role players will find themselves amazed at their choices.  The only thing missing is a place for them to call their home.  This is likely to happen later as Turbine has been spending a good amount of their resources evaluating different housing options already.

*Traditional Players: (9) Whether you want to raid, grind, or quest there are options for all in this game for the traditional player.  To enrich it even more, there is plenty of well developed stories and bits of lore attached to nearly all quest that identify with the player a purpose to everything they are sent out to do.  For those who wish to grind in peace they may do so by finding large forests or fields in which quests are not involved and their are plenty of mobs to be slain.  Even group players will find things to quench their thirst as early as L13 by traveling into the Old Forest or completing their Epic Prologue and Chapter quests.

 

Performance and Lag (Mine 9, Reviewer 8)

Personally I experienced no lag or performance issues.  My wife has only a mediocre system and it appears great on her system as well.  Those with mediocre and low end systems need not worry even in bustling cities.  Turbine has offered an option that, when enabled, reduces graphics in crowded areas to help with the stuttering that plagues other games.  In additional all other features in general are performing at a high standard leaving LOTRO perhaps the most polished MMORPG to launch ever.  Given that you can base a lot about a game off their state when launched, I would say this game will be around for a while and is going quite well.

 

Sound (Mine 8, Reviewer 7)

This is perhaps the only place in the whole review where the writer identifies what she finds as a negative point of view rather than simply summarize the game.  She claims "While engaged in a fight you will make sounds appropriate to your actions; a grunt here, a yell there. If you're doing a lot of hunting these sounds could easily get boring and repetitive, but if you mix up what you're doing you shouldn't have any problems."  Unfortunately this is a bane of games regardless of the genre.  I would challenge the author to give an example that is not so.  Each game will have set sounds to actions that may vary only slightly at times.  To do so in a game is extremely rare.  As with any game if you repeat your actions you will hear the same sounds with those actions.  This is self-explanatory and obvious.  To hold such a thing against a game is nothing short of silly and is almost insulting to the reader to mention in a review of a game. 

Another thing that is not mentioned at al in the review is the options for sound.  If you are someone with a poor on-board sound system you will be in luck in this game.  It offers a software based surround sound option to enhance your experience in the game.  It may not be as good as it gets, but it is nice that they made the effort to increase the experience for those with low-end systems.  They have done well in doing so.  For those with higher end systems that may have nice systems, EAX is an option as well as being able to turn all sound control over to your hardware.  It is obvious that they put a great deal of thought in the control they wanted their users to have over their experiences in this category. 

I do not give any higher than an 8 due to some low quality sound clips in the game.  This is especially true with animals as they sound unnatural most of the time.  Perhaps I am being overly picky, but this is how I hear it.

 

Value (Mine 9, Reviewer 8)

This rating is very vague.  I honestly think it should be taken out as a rating altogether as it seems to only be a summary rating of everything else or perhaps a user bias feel of the value they received from the game.  Either way, the reviewer does not identify her view of this rating or why she gave the game an 8 at all as with all her other ratings.    Personally I interpret this rating on a business sense as dollar to value.  As such I give it a 9.  The founders, those who pre-ordered, were given the gracious opportunity to subscribe for either a $200 life time subscription or $9.99 a month options.  This to me added a great value to pre-ordering the game.  The Game boxes themselves are well designed and when purchased come with ultra high textures that were not available during the open beta.  In addition, the collectors’ is adequately priced at $10 more with a good amount of extras for those collectors out there.  Overall a great value.

 

Community (Mine 8, Reviewer 7)

Again, this is another category the review seems to skip entirely!  Way to go!   Yes, I know I am starting to get a little over frustrated, but I would expect a little more from a site such as this.  I can't help but get the feel that this rating is based off those that were playing in the open world tour rather than after release.  As with any open beta, or free trial period (open beta), the player base is usually full of a less attractive crowd.  This is a well known fact.

The game itself seems to have attracted a very mature audience as compared to several other games.  Perhaps it is because of the intellectual property used (LOTR series) or, as others have claimed, perhaps it is from the lack of PvP.  I myself believe it is because of the IP used, but each person will have their own theory.  Regardless, the player base is genuinely helpful and a user seems to always find a helpful hand when asking questions in the "/advice" channel.  You read it correctly, there is a "/advice" channel. 

Grouping with others also seems much less painful than in other games.  I cannot figure out why yet, but I can attribute it to a few things.  The voice chat available for all groups, the group mechanics of the game, and the laid back nature of most players.  I have yet to experience a poor group due to a leader being overly aggressive or a single poor player holding a whole group back. 

 

Service (Mine 8, Reviewer 7)

Yet again another rating which is not reflected in the review by the writer in any form.  Each time I have opened a ticket in the game it has been answered within half an hour, usually within 10 minutes for most the tickets!  When answered, the GMs have been mostly helpful with the occasional stickler here and there.  Most of them give the impression of wanting to do anything possible to help the player.  This is great and not something commonly found in games.  Unfortunately service should extend past in-game tickets.  The support site at Turbine is lacking for servicing yourself when it comes to client bugs and support on the forums is little.  Thankfully the wait time should you call Turbine is kept short and answers are given quickly.  In other words, you can get through to a person without much effort.

 

Conclusions: 

Overall this is perhaps the worst "review" I have read to date on this website.  It reads more like a summary of the game rather than a review.  As such it does not give an un bias feel to the player of the good and bad points allowing them to assess if it is a game worth buying.  Furthermore, the ratings are not reflected at all in the review by the author and only serve to confuse the end reader.  This review should be given to someone else on the staff and re-written. 

I do not mind low ratings, but I do mind incomplete and confusing reviews.  /endrant, for now.

 As for the game, it has great overall value for the typical and role-playing players.  Those who wish for a PvP driven environment will be left wanting more.  Unfortunately there are no separate RP and regular servers so everyone will have to simply get along, if it is possible.   Great game, great value.  It adds a new twist and a higher standard of quality to a genre that is quickly approaching maturity. 

EDIT: Overall the score which I gave this game came to an 8.6