So after waiting an obscenely long time to actually get into the game. ( Read: After having to download gigs upon gigs… then patch… as Turbine seems to be unable to actually, I don’t know, update their base installation ) I have finally joined the world of “Lord of the Rings: Online”.  Not a bad game, not a good game either.  Thus far, it’s just, a game.  Then again in this world of online gaming how can any one company stand out from the other.  Not very many options unless you want to steer away from your typical hack and slash genre and well… fail to get a customer base.  Seems that games that hit ideas that are off the map of general cookie cutter ideas fail these days.  But enough of my view on the current online gaming industry, let’s get into the good, the bad, and the ugly shall we?  

Character Information:

·         Race: Man

·         Class: Champion

·         Name: Lucidith

·         City: Rohan

·         Server: Nimrodel

·         Current Level: 7

·         Play Time: 3 Hours

Let’s start out with the things I like about Lord of the Rings: Online first;

Quest Progression: They have done a good job with the quest design here, seems that the progression not only tells you a good storyline, but also places the quests within a nice generalized area.  Which I assume is to remove the “World of WalkingCraft” effect that pisses so many gamers off so badly.   Well, it might not piss them off, but it sure does me.  Nothing like walking for 8 hours to get 10 experience points and a dagger that couldn’t kill your grand-mother.  On the same path of questing, I really liked the “Finish Now/Finish Later” option.  This comes especially handy if you are in the middle of working on 10 quests as once and want to turn them in all at the same time, or if you are about to be forced out of any area and want to see what goodies you can get before having to leave it forever.

Loading Screen Movies: I really liked this actually.  Tells you a nice little story once you complete a large part of the game play while you are loading into the next zone.  Though it does horribly for my drinking habits.  How am I supposed to pay attention to a good story and pretty graphics while slamming alcohol at the same time?!  Rude I say!

Auto Attribute Gain:  From what I’ve seen, I cannot choose my attributes.  Now many of you would bitch about this, then again, many of you will bitch about anything just for the sake of bitching… which is why game developers such as myself look at you as nothing more than a integer in the bank account.  I like this, id personally rather be actually playing the game than doing the mathematics for six hours trying to figure out what the best build 50 levels down the road is going to be.  This creates: Balance.  Say it with me kids.. Baaalllllaaaaannnccceee.

Standard Features:  You might not know what I mean with this, but let me explain.  In today’s gaming industry, there should be some standard ideals that go into EVERY game before it’s ever released to that mythical “Gold” status.  Some of these features that Lord of the Rings: Online include are:

·         Mini-Map

·         Mini-Map Way-Points

·         Mini-Map Artifacts ( Quests, etc )

·         Auto-Run

This is just to name a few.  Features like this are nice, and I expect them in any good game being developed.  If it doesn’t have them, it’s nothing more than another zipper-head grind fest that doesn’t deserve my time.  Unless it’s an FPS/MMORPG of course.

Now to move on to what has bothered me about LotR:O.

Character Customization: In this day and age, every good game developer should know that we as human beings are vein.  We want choices, and in our games, we want MORE choices.  No matter how you swing it, there is no way in hell to make your character ( if he is of the “Man” race ) look anything other than your average high-school emo kid.  Want a mo-hawk?  Nope, sorry.  Want a face that DOESN’T look like it came from the cover of GQ? Go elsewhere.  If you are of the male race, you look like a cross between some Hollywood badass from Die-Hard 10,000 and a fan of Hawthorn-Heights.  This, annoys me to no end.

No Innocent Killings: When I mean “Innocents”, I am talking about chickens, rabbits, birds, sheep, etc.  For some reason, I am just that sadistic.  When I see some random none-aggro animal, I want to kill it.  This game does not allow you to do so!  FOR SHAME!  What if I wanted rabbit pancakes?!  Or sheep skin condoms?  Come on they have drinking and smoking in the game for fucks sake and I can’t kill a damn chicken?

MOB Animations:  While the animations for things like trees, your character, other humanoid NPC’s are acceptable.  I swear the animations for animals such as wolves?  Yeah… looks like a blind retard was in charge of that.  It is so bad that it literally ruins the game play.  Robo-Puppies anyone?

Death Curse: I know every game has its own version of what happens to you when you die, but Jesus Christ.  You are going to bump my stats for 10 minutes on a first death?  That’s obscene.  3-5 minutes?  Maybe.  1, would be more like it and stack the timer on top of the first minute.  Say, 1/3/5 etc.  I understand that most gamers are kids that live with mommy and daddy, but 10 minutes of lost game-play to someone that actually graduated from living with their guardians is a long time.  Not all of us get to sit at home all day suckling the teat you know.

The Choice To Display Items: Ever since I saw this in World of Warcraft I’ve hated it.  If your helmet looks stupid, you shouldn’t be able to hide it.  Look dumb, who cares?  If your gear is functional it shouldn’t matter what it looks like.  Yes, go scream hypocrite if you want, I just think this idea is absolutely asinine.  Some artist spent a lot of time on that gear for you to hide it so the in game world can see your stupid looking emo-die-hard face.

There are a few other things I might get to tomorrow if they continue to bug me such as quests that force you to party with other people.  Come on, if I wanted to deal with idiots that have a pulse… I wouldn’t play online games.