First Impressions ... and some questions

Comments

• virtuella Member UncommonPosts: 699

  February 2007

  Originally posted by aogvortex
  
  
  Well, I finally got into the beta.  Granted, I haven't played much, but I have some comments and subsequent questions regarding what I've seen so far.
  First impression was the downloader.  It just plain didn't work.  After two days of sporadic downloading I went with bitTorrent.
  Seems like the varios download sites has different quality.I had no problem downloading mine
  
  
  No female dwarves?  Okay, maybe by release...
  I created a hobbit burglar, as this is the most obvious IP class straight from Tolkein's work.  Nice intro movie for the race.  Finally a game where hobbits really don't wear shoes (well, at least in the movie, I found out).
  I started in a post office with a quest giver.  Got the quest and zoned out of the building.  At this point I changed my mind and decided to go back inside in case I missed anything.  Much to my surprise and disappointment there was no building behind me.  I felt immediately lost and disoriented.
  I explored what different keys do and found most to be intuitive and traditional.  I also discovered my hobbit started with shoes on.  What a disappointment.  I threw them away.
  There is an option in UI setting that allows you to hide shoes,helm and cloak
  I proceeded down the road with the idea I'd just do some random exploring.  I found I couldn't do anything other than what had been scripted for the area I was in.  Anything else lead to a dead end: a door that's non-functional, a cliff that can't be traversed, whatever.  It was impossible to stray from what was expected of me.  I felt like a puppet.
  All classes start in their own personal instance they have to solve first.When you have completed that and the newbie zone you can cancel those on future classes if you don't like to run thorugh them again.
  
  
  After a bit I arrived at a town (Archet?).  Nice!  Let's do some exploring! ... more "movie set" buildings that can't be entered.    Well, at least it looks good.
  I got a quest to fight some wolves that were my level.  I realised that I didn't have to interact with the game at all, other than select auto-attack, and I'd win the battle with only 10% of my health lost.  It would only take a few seconds of running to the next wolf to regain this.
  Don't worry that change later on.Mobs move around you so you have to face them again,they use special attacks and you're forced to use them too.Some mobs also runs away from you so you have to kill fast unless you want to pursue them and run into more aggro
  
  
  Okay, that's my first impressions, or at least the ones that concern me.  There were of course some positive impressions too, such as seeing the dark rider looking for Baggins.  Now for the questions:
  Does the game give any more freedom in the higher levels?  Will I always feel like a puppet on a string?
  When you have finished the newbie instance and the newbie closed archet zone you have free access to the entire world except for certain questinstances.So if you love to explore,then head out and explore,but get ready to die as a lowlevel when you reach certain areas
  
  
  Are there towns where the buildings aren't mostly decoration?  I love to explore, both in and out of town, and so far I can't.
  Yes,most building are closes except those with trainers,auctionhouse,quests and taverns
  
  
  Does combat get more challenging and involved?  This one's a big factor for me.  I could literally walk away from the computer during combat against something my level with no danger.
  Later on you can't but it's not as challeging as other games ,let's say Everquest I for example.
  
  
  What death penalties does the game implement?
  
  
  Your gear is damaged incl the gear in your backpack and you get a somewhat lame 10 minutes dread deathpenalty.Later on it can get pretty expensive repairing your gear.
  
  
  I'm REALLY wanting to like this game, but so far I'm just not.  Does it get any better?
  Give it a few weeks and make up your own mind.DAOC i had to play for a month before it started to get interesting.Hardcore players will not find a place in LOTRO IMO but i think casual players will simply love it.
  
  
  - Vortex
  

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• Charlizd Member UncommonPosts: 923

  February 2007

  My impressions on this game is that it is more an adventure then your typical grind fest  MMORPG.
  
  this game does get very interesting and is very party (fellowship) based, although you can solo but certain classes do handle situations better than others. The thing i love about this game is that nothing is over the top so even at lvl 15 your still using weapons that only deal a 17-25 dmg ratio making this feel like it is on the realistic side of things then being able to get some death defying super weapon. Game play can get a little frustrating at times especially seeing that mounts are only really player controllable when reaching a certain lvl thus making long journeys on foot very tedious or hopping on mounts and scooting from zone to zone to get the closest to where you have to go then going on foot again to your destination a minor glitch but still one that is a bit of a pain at times. Well i am overall very impressed with this game and it is one of the only games out on the market that i will pay for, it is not every ones cup of tea but it is certainly mine. (oh and for the WOW fans this is not really a PVP game but every other fascet of this game will give blizzard something to think about when they/if they make another MMORPG.)

  Andrew "Charlizd" Phippen | Lead World Builder | The Saga of Lucimia MMORPG