Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar E3 Preview

Throughout the week at E3, I found myself stopping by West Hall a few times. Why? To check out Turbine's booth and Lord of the Rings Online (LoTRO). I had gotten a small glimpse of the game last year's E3 and was really looking forward to seeing the changes over the last year. To my surprise they were numerous and all for the better.

While checking out the booth, Delioness and I had the chance to get a tour of the game by Harry Teasley, Lead Senior Artist, and by Nikolaus Davidson, Lead Designer, for LoTRO. Harry gave us the world view by showing us the massive amount of landscape there was to travel while viewing the incredible scenery. I have to say this alone was like night and day over last year. The land was breathtaking, and the rivers absolutely were inviting you in for a swim. Harry also showed us some of the quality work his team has been doing on the monsters and the NPCs. Yeah Tom Bombadil, looks just like he is supposed to right down to his blue jacket and yellow boots.

So we thought that was all of Tom Bombadil we would see. Nope, Nik took us on a story arc quest that Tom assists on. Tom goes skipping ahead of the party. It was very funny to watch, but just as you would expect him to do. Nik made a comment about that being the only movement he has. As most Tolkien fans know that is the only way Tom walks. Later we some of the power of Tom in the mission and I just have to say "I am not going to mess with him".

Nik continues us on our journey showing the combat system and several types of monsters. Most quests can be completed solo, but many of the story arc quests are designed for fellowships. It was refreshing to learn about the amount of land we are able to explore and side quests. One thing of interest here was how they note the different quests. Story arc quests are signified with well "the ring", while smaller side quests are like a small envelope overhead. From what we learned instancing is only used for areas that need to have specific touch and feel each time the quest is run. As much as I enjoy DDO, it was good to hear this. While combat "magic" was not flashy as in what we are used to in other games, the mechanics and look for it fit well with the overall theme for Middle-Earth. I can't only remember one or two times where Gandalf cast a spell that was really flashy. Nik's comment here was that when the occasion for a flashy type of spell is needed it will be show up.

I asked Nik a little about the world setting. He explained that the game at launch takes place during the course of the first book "The Fellowship of the Ring"; content updates will expand on this area and time frame. Major expansions would obviously take us farther down the path of the Lord of the Rings, but not necessarily as Book 1, 2, and 3. Content updates apparently will follow the regular interval of the DDO modules instead of the monthly updates of Asheron's Call. The lands we will be able to traverse include Weathertop in the Bree-land, the Shire, the Ered Luin, and the North Downs. So as you can see quite a bit of area to wander and even more areas to appear down the road.

The game really has a solid look to it and the game mechanics really were smooth to work with. I definitely think they have the game in a good position for beta testing, which was also announced this week at E3 and on the official website. So what was Turbine doing to kick the start of beta? Well they were giving away slots on beta, with one minor hitch. You had to finish the quest in Weathertop. Yeah as many people from DDO might remainder the Inevitable last year squishing you into the crowd, they didn't make it any easier on LoTRO fans. Meghan "Patience" Rodberg, the Online Community Manager, for LoTRO was kind enough to set Delioness and I up on the game with a few other people to see if we had what it took to get into beta. Well we didn't just to let you know, but we sure had fun trying. Meghan offered lots of cheers and the occasional guidance to the fellowships that tried there hand at beta slots. I found it very interesting that like the DDO beta trials last year people started off early in the week trying to solve the quest by themselves, but then realized that well you needed a fellowship to solve the quest.

Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar is one to watch closely this summer.