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Tried the Trial....same old grind
jessian
Member Posts: 277
Okay i just finished a trial i had on LOTRO so i can test this game out before commiting my guild over to this game rather than play wow for another year.
First up, ever since getting my new video card (ATI 1650 pro) this game ran like the dogs bollocks across the carpet, slow and chunky. but when i upgraded to the new ati card, (had the nvcrappyida card, 6600gt) this game is beautiful.
So lets continue onto my own experiences. I will break this into 5 sections to describe my own experiences with LOTRO
(Gameplay)
So whats the gameplay really like, well this is done in 2 ways, pve and crafting. The crafting system is very nice, detailed and interesting, this got me excitied, so i went Prospector, metalsmithy, tailoring. Within Prospector and metalsmithy, you have the resources from both that helps you gain your precious build points that can let you tinker once you reach the highest levels. both worked well with each other, but the issue i had was Tailoring. Due to keep the game interacting with other players, Tailoring required lots of Boiled leather, medium boiled leather and sturdy ones later on at high levels.
Here my first issue arose, as i powered ahead in both prospector and metalsmithy, my tailoring suffered as i cant turn medium leather and light leather into Boiled. You are forced to either find a nice enough player to make it for you or pay over the odds on the auction house, 50 boiled light leather was selling between 500silver - 800 silver on that!
cant even sell normal unboiled leather to make it worth while. So my skills in tailoring really suffered. Now the other part of the gameplay is the quests...
I noticed some unique quests in the game, from delivering Mail and pies (hobbits) to delivering buckets of water. But heres where the crunch arises... most of the quests are copy & pasted from levels 1-50
Kill XX amount of bears, Kill XX amount of spiders, Kill XX amount of wargs, within these, you even gain xp for doing deeds within the regions, Again, Kill XX amount of mobs here and everywhere, But the mobs all look the same, no different models, no different skills, just the same old copy & pasted mobs, but at higher levels.
For the aim of the game, (Mordor has created massive amounts of Orcs and so forth) the game doesnt feel like being in Middle-earth
Can you honestly think Legolas has to go and kill XX amount of bears for furs, just to gain a level?
So in my view, the quests (some interesting others notso) are a weakpoint within this game, Lets not compare this with other mmorpgs, this review is about LOTRO not wow or etc...
Gameplay 5/10 Crafting 8/10
(Graphics)
This game is a nicely designed and beautful world. although there is not really an Eco-system inside it, the trees and rivers, towns all look very nice on fully high spec settings, there isnt really that much else to say, some innovations are in the game, like the fear element, the eye of mordor and so forth! So i cant fault this game on that
10/10
(Community)
So far my experiences on RP-Laurien has been first class, players all over it, actually want to help each other, expcept the gold farmers/sellers. These players will not even speak to your character, so you will know exactly who these are soon. So i give the community and in particular (Pavlik & Heno) these guys are a laugh a minute. Just a pity i will not be subbing
10/10
(Performace)
Again this game ran very smoothly on a Athlon 64 3500+ with 2 gig DDR 400 and ATI's 1650 pro 512mb computer, so dont despair if you have this kind of setup it will RUN smoothly at full specc.
10/10
(Customer support)
Had no option whatsoever to contact CS, only issue i might have regarding this, Codemasters are wanting to bring in a legal way of purchasing Gold in game. This will ruin MMORPGS forever.
Imagine, prepurchasing a level 70 fully specced epic mage on wow? or a fully specced champion here in LOTRO, their would be no point. None whatsoever. So watch as this game becomes the FIRST to legally purchase gold. (Well it isnt really as ROMA VICTOR already did this)
(My experience)
Due to purchasing the preorder pack over amazon.co.uk, i thought i had the option to subscribe to LOTRO via the website, but i cant, so i would need to go and repurchase this game, frustrated i got my Elf Guardian to level 26 (shows how easy this is) within a week, then i went mental on the forums and got banned. this as a customer has given me bitter taste in my mouth. Yet in every other aspect this game IS GREAT. it deserves its top spot. But it only takes one negative thing to really piss us off.
So even though the game is ideal for me, i decided that to sell preorder packs, and not providing another copy i feel mislead by codemasters and the guy selling me the copy. So without further ado, my own experiences give this game a minus 10 score.
So over all will i ask you to buy and play this, no, thats up to you to decide that.
Just i will not Purchase this game ever again. Too many better games on the Horizon,
Comments
You know, I love to fight players, but I heard a wide array of different opinions from the Monsters Game, all the way from "horrible" to "fantastic and innovative"...
So if you got some info on that, I'd appreciate it.
(For example Balance, is one Monster designed to be as strong as one Character? Quests there, the whole "becoming strogner as monster", how does it work? And new info released on this how Turbine Plans to change/improve it in the future?)
Monsters, at rank 1, are about equal to a level 42 PvE char ('freep'). Once upgraded fully, they are equal to a level 50 freep. You start off with some very basic skills (4 or 5), and you can buy a few more (4-5 tops) once you rank up. Ranking up is done by killing freeps and you buy new skills with so called Destiny Points. You get DP by killing freeps and by doing quests. However, even fully upgraded you will not be able to fill one entire skill bar with skills. There simply aren't that many. So in the end, you'll be button smashing a few buttons, and that's it.
However, the general game play is fun. Doing large raids to conquer back or defend keeps, and it's 24/7. Just a pitty that the details aren't as fun.
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Playing: Final Fantasy Online: ARR, Destiny
Most memorable games for me: UO, GW1, LoTRO
mostly agree with you,I do however think the biggest issue i had with the game is the quest repitition.
I enjoy quest driven MMOs,which is why i first wanted to try this. the first 20 or so levels are good,its easy as pie to get to level 10,which gets you past the usual kill 10 boars quests prevelant in loads of MMO starter regions.
they even had some good stuff here,like the whole jagger jack line,poisoning his wolves meat and killing him. And the part about getting rid of the wolf den mother,made it feel like you were really part of the bigger picture slowly dismantling these brigands schemes of taking over the local farms and breeding their wolves.
Then you move into the later parts of ered luin or into the bree fields for your next step,around 10-17 or so. Here you have stuff like the old forest (which is a great little challenge at those levels,maze like and full of elite trees),the brigand camps and in eredluin you get your first encounter with the undead and the huge goblin encampments(forget the name now).And of course the barrow downs,another great place where you meet your first proper instance,the great barrows.
All of this keeps you interested as you go on,your character is getting new skills to train,new passives and you begin moving into obtaining your first proper stat gear.
Lone lands i felt was where it began to get a bit samey.Theres loads of great stuff here too,the goblin infested ruins with elite weavers below,the goblin leader encounter,weathertop,the marshlands,your first encounter with trolls and of course this is where agamaur is which keeps you coming back until your 30s.
But among all of this we start to see the usual 10 kill x and bring me their hooves content. The lynx you may have fought in ered luin are back,as are the spiders,albiet slightly bigger and bolder. Theres newer mobs like the tarkrips and crows(more on this later),which isnt so bad.I didnt mind lone lands really.
now,north downs..although there is now extra content in the form of evendim,you at first eventually ended up in north downs after visiting tresslebridge. This is where i remeber being hugely dissapointed for the first time,after excitedly running over the bridge to see what kind of stuff i could expect to be fighting against...only to see the same boars,crows and wolves id been fighting 15 levels previously.
there were more orcs here,still fairly new,but they looked exactly like the ones in lone lands. anyway,as I progressed here,I encountered more lynx and bears,more crows,and more spiders.And more dourhands,ala ered luin and lone lands.
there were aurochs which are all elite,and at lower levels need a good group to kill. there was a swamp with sickleflies and frogs,but they served little purpose to your questing.
Theres also a large undead area,the fields of fornost,which intorduce oathbreakers,which was a refreshing change. The troll area and dol dinen are the saving grace,dol dinen in particular is very well done.a few different troll types can be found here too.
a lot of the fill in stuff here is kill 10 bears/pelts/shoes/10 wolves etc and it gets really tedious,the warg quests in particular were madness.if youve been to north downs ,youll understand what I mean by that...
Anyway,content aside,i also thought it was odd how good the quest rewards were,to the point were crafting and world drops seem pretty worthless. You can get a pair of boots with say,10 will and 10 vitality on them,from doing a quest in your 30s,for an example,lets say 32. But a normal pair of level 32 boots you may find on a mob or see in the AH might only have 8 or 9 vitality,and no will on it. They might look loads beter than what you have on,but buying and equipping them means a downgrading. So you therefor see a lot of similar levelled poeple dressed almost the same.
I think the crafting is lacking a bit,but its ok.Id have liked to seen more on the crafting quests you have to do to gain tiers,would have been a nce way to progress yourself without needless hide collecting quests.
A lot of people say its too easy and linear;to a degree I agree with this,but its not as bad as its made out.Some quests as you get higher require you to be in an organised fellowship to be successful.Ivar the bloodhand is a good example of this. So you go from soloing 90% up until your 30s,and then require groups more and more. I dont like the idea of raiding too much in case it becomes another everquest or WoW situation
which i think a lot of MMO players would agree with.
It took me 2 months to get to 38,playing for between 2 and 4 hours a day,usually closer to 2,while in north downs I could hardly bring myself to log on more than 30 mins. Some people are in their late 40s already,and ive seen a fair few 50s,but again its exaggerated that half the server has already reached cap.theres a lot more up and coming 50s within the next month or so thats for sure,and I get the impression that the power leveller type of gamer will be disappointed when he gets there.
performance wise,the game is faultless,somep eople find bree a lagfest though.ive had only 1 or 2 crashes in my play time,and not seen too many game breaking bugs;most bugs are reasonably unimportant stuff like a mob or npc flittering up and down in mid air
.
I run a x1650 pro too like the OP,but I had no issues with it,and 1.5GB RAM was enough to make me lagfree in bree.
Thats a summary of my feelings anyway,in the time ive spent in lotro.
Im now level 38,and my account runs out in a few days.i may go back for another month,im not yet sure.
I can accept your review of the game, detailed and informative (even if I disagree with your opinion of the quests). What I don't understand is how your overall score is a minus 10 due to your difficulties with amazon.com.uk. Turbine makes the pre-orders available, but delivery of the product is the retailers domian. I can understand your issues with them, but it shouldn't bring your rating of the game down.
Don't get me wrong though, I am sorry you had issues and it's keeping you from playing a great game.
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Look in the LotRO Forum, a Thread is stickied there.
Your views on the quests are right on - I found exactly the same thing.
You don't have 400 quests - what you have is 30 or so quests repeated over and over again about every 8-12 levels.
Ah well, I don't much care any more, my sub is up in a couple more days, on the 28th. I might log in to give some junk away to random noobies, but otherwise I am done with this game.
Well i have to say this game is not the same old grind as every other game. I mean u have ur few quests that u kill x mob or have to kill x mobs for so many drops. That is normal ur going to get that in every MMOG. What this games does that is diffrent is that u dont have to go out and kill x mob to gain lv's. Like eq2 and wow u kill mobs over and over for fast xp to lv up. I been palying since day one got my toon around lv 45ish and alt in teh low 20's never once went out nad just grined mobs. I spent all my time on quests and lved up off quests. The ownlly thing u have to grind for is kill counts for traints. Like 240 for a extra skill. This stuff u dont have to do unless u want to. Also if u help out other players ur going to get ur kill counts over time any way. So by far this game has the best quest system there is. ALot of new things and the story books are way better then any other game i have played.
The monster play have not done to much of but from the looks and sounds of it this is going to turn out to be a very sweet thing over time. WIth expansions and new zones there is going to be mroe time spent on monster play. There is quests and storys there u can do and also just fun to get raid group together and go kill players of middle earth.
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WoW: Lamere, 70 Paladin on Jaedenar (retired)
DAoC: Cadore Ironmace, 50 Cleric (retired)
SWG: Dolthin Erid, Master CH/Master Pistoleer (NGE'd)
Waiting for: Warhammer Online/Age of Conan