User Reviews (1 - 11 of 101)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Disappointed

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 15
Date: May 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game reminded me of a cross between Guild Wars' restricted pathing and EQ1's stick-figure arm motions. The best thing I can say about it was the initial character creation screens were very in depth. So in depth, that you can expect to skip it altogether and choose a preconfigured character to get started in a timely fashion the first time out. It had the feel of a single player game with good narration and limited social interaction. If you're like me, playing WoW while you wait for the next interesting MMO to come out, you can rest easy choosing to save your money on this one.

Same Old engine, Same old Grind

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 33
Date: April 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Nothing too new if you've played any of the other Turbine games. Got so bored I didn't even play out the preview. Don't bother buying it based on shill reviews from Turbine insiders, wait for the inevitable free preview. A rehash of Stormreach with Hobbits filling in for halflings, funny how they move exactly the same. Oh and expect much less fun items compared to the D&D license

Not for Player Versus Player

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 11
Date: June 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game has some unique things for example the conjunctions. You can play against many Non Player Characters and use different tactics. Overall the story line is very interesting and it is great for its book like qualities.

The biggest issue with this game is that eventually, when you have completed the quests and built your character, you will want to try out some Player Versus Player, or in Lord of The Rings Online it is called Player versus Monster Player. It is horrible. There is no reward for loyalty, the only reward is for Players to switch to the side that is winning as fast as they can. Many of the battles degenerate into vast lopsided ganking teams. The Player Versus Player battle is like this typically.

Stealthed player traps you so you can not move from 15 to 30 seconds. Vast numbers of opposing players surround you and you are reduced to zero in about 5 seconds. The forums are filled with the major game breaking elements of PvP.

Play the game if you want to enjoy the story line and the Non Player Character fighting.

I am one who is rather bored with Non Player Character fighting and dont need to pay a monthly fee to do it. 1 Star. overall. But I did enjoy the story.

Dont waste your money on this...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 23
Date: January 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

...Unless you like endless hours of grinding for crafting materials and gold to pay the insane costs of everything. Or like being constantly under attack just traveling from point A to point B. Or like Boss fights where you're always fighting hordes of adds. Or like to be endlessly stunned, disarmed, crippled, snared, poisoned, bled, diseased or otherwise impeded whenever you fight anything. Did I mention the quests that have you running all over Eriador taking hours to do just for a few experience points and crappy rewards?

Getting to level 50 is long and frustrating because in order to level reasonably fast you need to do the quests and most of the quests require a 6 person group to do, and it's difficult to get such a group together. Leveling up solo is your only other option and that takes a tremendously long time to do.

So... If you like being frustrated and bored then this game is for YOU!

A shadow of the books .

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 29 / 45
Date: April 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I played this game for a number of months and am disappointed that in the end it lacked real substance in what it aimed to achieve. My personal opinion is that they never really succeeded in compromising the online fee paying MORPG part with a realistic Tolkien middle Earth. Take for example the small playing area. I was able by day 2 to go from the furthest east to west boundaries in 35 minutes. It is cheaper and easier play wise, to limit the content and size of the world. but it does not add to the atmosphere of being in LOTR. All the quests/monsters/locations therefore are jam packed to one another, with Bree, Hobbition and old man willow merely minutes apart. The cities are limited and cookie cutter in style. Compared to other MORPG metropolis's like in WOW/EQ2, they seem like mere villages.

The main quest starts off well and initially it is an interesting storyline. But then by chapter II it's hack and slash, kill 20 of these , 5 of these NPC's etc. And before you know it by the mid 20's level your farming for XP just like all the other MORPG's . The game at times tries to redeem itself with various "LOTR" restrictions, hence no wizards (their suppose to be rare) but you can be a Lore master instead. ( A poor substitute ) I had problems as well with the idea of Hobbit's getting to tank. It's not their fault as the game has no viable alternatives for advancement , no diplomacy or conversation skills. Hence the Pippins and Merry's of the world now become a main warrior class. Combat as well is dull,there's no real difference in which button you press and there is no combinations or real need for strategy. Mainly hack and slash

The graphics are good and the actual locations are very close to Tolkien's paintings. Hobbiton is nicely done. Music to is good, both listening and playing. Though having various folks constantly strumming guns'n'roses tunes isn't that great.

I played mainly as an Elf, but they weren't at all mystical or a unique magical race, more like a tall human. Crafting as well seemed pointless, I reached master level as a scholar and still didn't make anything really worthwhile.

I think the devs initially wanted to have an immersive Middle Earth type world, but when the money ran low or commercial considerations came into play, it was easier to tack on the usale MORPG XP advancement system. Maybe they just didn't have the ability or time to develop a simulation type game which could reflect Tolkien's world. IMHO it's not even a particularity good EQ type clone. Just because it has LOTR printed on the box , it doesn't mean it stays true to the Book's style.

After beta -The game is too small and offers nothing remotely new to genre

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 19
Date: March 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Just got done with closed beta and wow this game needs a lot of help. Too bad there is not enough time before launch. Search problems at auction, interface bugs, quest bugs, memory leaks, and graphics are meh for the power they take.

First of all the game is tiny. They say you can immerse yourself in middle earth. More like wading ankle deep to me. Nine areas total, each maybe twice as big as say a WoW zone. No replayability here. When and if they add new zones, they will all have to be high lvl zones which really makes no sense at all to me.

Some people say loot does nothing and thats good. Wrong! All characters become the same through traits that they can all get. Most traits do very little to enhance your character. A tree based system is always better as the players have to pick and follow different paths of specialization. In LoTR you just always get the best virtues,race traits(7 for 5 slots u do that math), and class traits. Later on in the game it is a grind to get the virtues as well(kill 100 elite gaunt men below your level). How this is better then having good loot is beyond me.

There are very few character class types and since stats do nothing to change your class the race seems to do little (except for race traits which are a nice touch, except everybody will have same ones equipped, read up). The three starting areas offer little replayability as after lvl 16-19 everyone moves on to barrow downs and lone lands anyways.

Finally crafting is terrible. No imagination here. Heavy leather gloves and superb heavy leather gloves for the win. Some items are not bound on use and so market is flooded even more so then other games.

There is however, one good thing. The chapter and book quest are nice and the streamlined storyline is fun. Too bad this is a tiny fraction of the game.

This game has been compared to WoW a lot and for good reason. The interface is exactly the same. The quest structure is similar as well. The land layout, crafting, classes, hell everything. The game looks, smells, and tastes like WoW. Except in almost all ways worse. Smaller, worse PvP, Less Classes, worse trait system. But more importantly, LoTR adds absolutely nothing new to the mmo market. Granted WoW and all other mmos have huge failings and that is why I no longer play any of them. But if they have failings and LoTR is worse, then what does that make LoTR?

I think they misspelled Warcraft on the box

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 17
Date: June 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you're looking for a review for LOTRO, you might as well just pop over to World of Warcraft and see what people have to say about that game. This is just WoW with a few skin changes and some names taken out of a couple of Tolkein books.

To be fair, they did expand it a bit. Now as you grind pointlessly through kill and gather quests that have absolutely nothing to do with the story, you can earn "Deeds" and "Titles" to show off or improve your character's abilities. But, otherwise, everything about this game feels exactly like WoW, from the character control right on up to the gameplay itself.

If you like WoW and you just want a change of scenery and a new story, go ahead and give it a shot. If you didn't like WoW, you might want to hold off and see how it holds together at higher levels. WoW wore out its welcome for me when my grind got me into Desolace at about level 44. Whether this game will sputter and fall falt on its face as well remains to be seen.

One final point: you might want to hold off briefly either way. While the whole thing is clearly nothing more than a direct copy of World of Warcraft, it's not nearly as polished yet. Some things don't work right, and it's easy to get yanked out of the game's environment when you go to open a door or access something and get a generic "General Error!" message.

Caveat emptor...

WoW lite

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 18
Date: April 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game, while fun, is basically WoW lite, the graphics are about on par with Everquest (the first one) controls are a little off, tap the left key and turn 45 degrees, the quests are fun and the tutorial was interesting but it reminds me of Horizons, a few mobs spread out and large areas of nothing, not to mention about 10 of a quest mob for 25+ players hunting them, so there is alot of running around and waiting, the gear is pretty lame tho the game is suppose to not be loot driven, but there isn't really much else to do other than build a rep for yourself by completing the little achievements you get for doing quests. All in all, there is potential here... I'd wait a year or so before buying it, too many bugs and not enough substance... another MMO rushed to the shelves before it was finished I am afraid.

Nothing new

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: May 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

While the eviroments are quite lovely the animal and player models are ugly and their animation is choppy. Nothing new in terms of game play and the quest lines are full of the old running back and forth between quest givers before you are actually given a quest other than "Talk to So-n-so".

dissapointed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: May 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

looking like an underdevolped WOW interface didnt help this lackluster game. For as long as it spent in development youd think a well polished piece of work woud have arrived but the class development as well as subpar quest story lines leave alot to be desired. As a huge LOTR fan i eagerly awaited this game but think it fell far short of bering the name of such a great work of fiction.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions