A visual tour of LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood
by Shawn Schuster 
Nov 17th 2009 at 11:00AM
Filed under: At a glance, Betas, Fantasy, Video, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Hands-on
If you haven't had a chance to see Turbine's latest creation, check out our video tour of the expansion just after the jump below. Also, be sure to watch Massively for more coverage on Siege of Mirkwood from now to December 1st and beyond!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sage|NVOS said on 11:07AM 11-17-2009
Its not that I hate LOTRO, but I love Dragon Age that much more ....
=(
Reply
pogger said on 11:32AM 11-17-2009
Say what you want about end game... I'm having more fun getting to max-level in LotRO than I have in any other MMO. Plus, the graphics in LotRO make most other MMOs look like cartoony clown paintings.
Reply
THAC0 said on 12:05PM 11-17-2009
Until you look at lotro's character models; then you fall down laughing at how cartoons are running around in this pretty landscape and how wrong it looks.
Hub said on 12:45PM 11-17-2009
@Thaco
You are changing your graphics settings there aren't you? Apologies if you are, but with the default settings turned up even the most modest system can get some pretty amazing results .
I keep seeing these type comments about the character models and I felt the same when I first logged in, but with with a little adjustment I don't think I've seen a better game as a whole. Maybe AoC in places but that needs a monster rig.
As for the skirmish system mentioned further down (While I'm here): from what I've read of the devs comments and so on, it's another bizarre attempt to introduce easy, quick console play to MMos, "pop corn bites" was it they called it... which is just....well good look with that... .. I'm sure those PS3s and X boxes are going straight in the trash...
One praise and one flame, dunno if that counts as a balanced view :)
THAC0 said on 1:18PM 11-17-2009
@Hub
I have run lotro cranked on Max everything with the high rez client and the models and armor still look silly to me. The landscapes are very pretty but I do not like the characters at all they look like weird Barbie dolls with funny ugly clothes. I will agree that AoC looks amazing turned up to max though.
Hub said on 1:43PM 11-17-2009
Fair enough then, maybe it's just a question of personal taste :)
Mr Angry said on 11:57AM 11-17-2009
So they lifted the NDA.....
Good.... the skirmish system is horribly disappointing and just not fun, it feels grindy, it feels like a version of double dragon to be honest, where predetermined groups of mobs come at you in waves. I don't know why the hell Turbine though the LOTRO needed to be another game, they just needed to work harder to get more content out more regularly, and I feel they wasted resources re-inventing the wheel, indulging their own vanity, rather than expanding middle earth.
Mirkwood is a bit small, and basically it's Moria in the forest, a directed theme park of quests.
On initially buying the pre-order we were told that there would be new skills available to each class, there is just one new skill per class, and on the whole, horribly underwhelming..
I used to be one of LOTRO's biggest fans on these boards, but the new work feels very claustrophobic and doesn't excuse the lack of decent content for the last 9 months.
Sure there are going to be the old school LOTRO fans out there, who will defend the game, but this is the best IP for fantasy role playing out there, and it could be so much better, and it was a whole lot better 18 months ago. A few nice quests and story help (which this game does have), but when they just go ahead and try to the 'that other game', the hard work and polish applied to the SOA zones starts to wear thin.
Reply
Degu said on 9:08PM 11-17-2009
Haven't tried SoM (finally retired from Lord of the Radiance Online), but I must agree with Mr. Angry's general sentiments on the direction of the game. Enjoyed the game back when they just gave us some new stuff to explore (Forochel, Tal Bruinen, High Pass, Rift etc) now and then instead of constantly tinkering with shiny new gimmicks like radgrinding, the LI system and whatnot. I know Turbine has had to cut staff because of the economy and all, but it's still disappointing to see how things have gone.
That's just me, though; I understand how many folks still enjoy the game, and I wish y'all well in Mirkwood.
Talk to Strider said on 1:34PM 11-17-2009
Mirkwood seems small to me, I think its just Southern Mirkwood i hope.
I bought it but im dissapointed. Mirkwood is about the size of Lothorian.
They need to get away from the chain quests to let you get into a new area quests.
Me and a bud ran through Mirkwood in beta and got all the Horse travel spots on the first day the beta opened and i never logged in after that.
Forcing Rad gear /thumbs down
Maybe it will be better once they get to Mordor but i dont know and after they get to Mordor then what.
Reply
John said on 2:44PM 11-17-2009
The new area in this expansion, which is just the southwest corner of Mirkwood, is a lot larger than Lothlorien. Of course it could be even larger, but then they'd probably have to expand way beyond Dol Guldur, which if you look at any of Tolkien's actual maps show DG being very close to the southwest edge of the forest. Here DG takes up the eastern end of the map, and is where the Volume 2 story ends, so it makes sense that our exploration of the forest ends there too... for now anyway.
The level 62 skills are completely underwhelming, but one thing that's rather encouraging about this expansion is that Turbine has left itself room to grow with the upcoming book releases. When SoA launched, we only had skills up about the mid-30s, with a level cap of 50. As we progressed, Turbine gave us more goodies and everyone was pretty happy. With MoM we had teal gear sets and all our skills laid out from the beginning. Without a good boss raid, things were just really grindy. Now with SoM, we're starting slow with room to expand again.
Positives:
The forest is really incredible to wander through. Skirmishes are fun (with the potential to get old, but enough variety that it should take a long time). DG has a good bunch of instances. Lots of barter rewards and customized soldier companions. Improvements to multiple systems and areas of the game. Fantastic epic story.
Negatives:
Lackluster new skills and equipment. All new legendary grind. Soldiers have more development options than player avatars.
Overall, I think Turbine has done a good job with this mini-expansion, and the price is appropriate for the content. My number one hope is that they're about finished with the modifications to the core systems, because then they can focus on fleshing out the rest of Middle-earth.
the1growl said on 11:22AM 11-24-2009
the leveling in this game could use more work, wardens and loremasters were my favorite classes but once you reach level 40 there are damage issues. not enough. im wearing the best gear for the level due to the kindness of others but its more like a job to try to kill anything then a game. on the loremaster for example it takes forever to kill anything, and by the time the mob im killing dies theres a respawn so i end up not having enough resources to kill the next one and i die often. the warden class is a little better but its still lacking. this game could be better in the leveling dept simply by increasing the dps for the classes before reaching maximum level and then leveling the dps out at the end for raiding. the point system for the most damaging affects could be made available a little earlier in the leveling process and that could help the leveling. id suggest people be one of the new classes if they play anything simply because the older ones expecially the clothies aren't up to par with what the new ones can do. the games pretty but im not in a game to stand still and look at everything while im being killed constantly.
Reply