Lestat
21st November 2006, 10:39
Okay its a New day and a new beta.
You enter the game in your own private instance. The first thing you notice is the atmosphere and man have they got that spot on. I actualy felt like I was in a tolkien town. The instance takes you through the controls and a mini adventure. where you get your first part of the epic quest to help the hobbits get the ring to morder.
http://img83.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot00000sn2.jpg
Once you have finished with that. you enter a town now depending on race, you can play as Dwarf, Elf, Man, Hobbit you basically start in there respective areas. I am currently playing a Man out of Bree.
Now you start doing some quests while some may find it a grind, those especially not intrested in reading or tolkien may not like the whole game, the quests have lose connections to tolkien books and they are a delight to do.
The Maps are pretty big and I have only explored about 1/5 of the current one I am on with about 10 Maps in all.
http://img297.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot00002oi9.jpg
http://img242.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot00003yn2.jpg
I hit Bree yesterday and immediately started for the prancing pony noticing the mix of hobbits and humans about the town. I immediately introduced myself to Barlyman who directed me to talk to strider in the back. Strider sent me on a quest to help another ranger kill a wannabe Nazgul.
On a great note this is probably the best quest I have ever taken part in any game ever. I got to talk to strider I had a Ranger help me defeat a Ranger who was slowly turning into a Nazgul. And I visited the old forest and met Tom bombadil. Truly if you have ever enjoyed the books or even the films, I m fairly sure you will love this game. Atm for the sheer atmosphere and magic of the game it is defiantly got the potentional for me to be the best mmo out there.
Now the interface yes like I said it has some wow elements because with over 5 million subscribers wow has obviously got something right. The UI is simple enough that is does nto have you constantly looking at it distracting from the incredible rich atmosphere. This is a good thing.
The music in the game adds a real menace, when I hit the old forest it immediately starting turning a little dark, and I immediately started worrying lots of wolves and bats about. A game that can do this to you at the early stage of beta is pretty amazing.
Grouping is made simple like in DDO you set your LFG flag or do searches on the LFG panel. Grouping also has a element of EQ2 with group chains, Basically each member of the group adds to the chain of attacks hopefully intitating a massive strike or heal.
As for other questions yes it will be pay monthly. there will be advancing storylines that the developers will be adding monthly content and quests to.
Sometimes when you complete a instance you will come out and see the world has changed around you. Someone has to pay for the work of the devs. Very little is instanced so there will be people around fighting with you to hold back the darkness. Also the devs are working on opening up other areas of middle earth.
As for release I am not sure when it will be released. It could be around march or possibly sooner. Turbine are fairly good at getting stuff out the door and have a good track record in making mmorpgs. Anyway I am off to the shire to make friends with some hobbits
You enter the game in your own private instance. The first thing you notice is the atmosphere and man have they got that spot on. I actualy felt like I was in a tolkien town. The instance takes you through the controls and a mini adventure. where you get your first part of the epic quest to help the hobbits get the ring to morder.
http://img83.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot00000sn2.jpg
Once you have finished with that. you enter a town now depending on race, you can play as Dwarf, Elf, Man, Hobbit you basically start in there respective areas. I am currently playing a Man out of Bree.
Now you start doing some quests while some may find it a grind, those especially not intrested in reading or tolkien may not like the whole game, the quests have lose connections to tolkien books and they are a delight to do.
The Maps are pretty big and I have only explored about 1/5 of the current one I am on with about 10 Maps in all.
http://img297.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot00002oi9.jpg
http://img242.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot00003yn2.jpg
I hit Bree yesterday and immediately started for the prancing pony noticing the mix of hobbits and humans about the town. I immediately introduced myself to Barlyman who directed me to talk to strider in the back. Strider sent me on a quest to help another ranger kill a wannabe Nazgul.
On a great note this is probably the best quest I have ever taken part in any game ever. I got to talk to strider I had a Ranger help me defeat a Ranger who was slowly turning into a Nazgul. And I visited the old forest and met Tom bombadil. Truly if you have ever enjoyed the books or even the films, I m fairly sure you will love this game. Atm for the sheer atmosphere and magic of the game it is defiantly got the potentional for me to be the best mmo out there.
Now the interface yes like I said it has some wow elements because with over 5 million subscribers wow has obviously got something right. The UI is simple enough that is does nto have you constantly looking at it distracting from the incredible rich atmosphere. This is a good thing.
The music in the game adds a real menace, when I hit the old forest it immediately starting turning a little dark, and I immediately started worrying lots of wolves and bats about. A game that can do this to you at the early stage of beta is pretty amazing.
Grouping is made simple like in DDO you set your LFG flag or do searches on the LFG panel. Grouping also has a element of EQ2 with group chains, Basically each member of the group adds to the chain of attacks hopefully intitating a massive strike or heal.
As for other questions yes it will be pay monthly. there will be advancing storylines that the developers will be adding monthly content and quests to.
Sometimes when you complete a instance you will come out and see the world has changed around you. Someone has to pay for the work of the devs. Very little is instanced so there will be people around fighting with you to hold back the darkness. Also the devs are working on opening up other areas of middle earth.
As for release I am not sure when it will be released. It could be around march or possibly sooner. Turbine are fairly good at getting stuff out the door and have a good track record in making mmorpgs. Anyway I am off to the shire to make friends with some hobbits