Quote Originally Posted by Martok View Post
(...regarding Lord of the Rings online...)What is it about the game that you like?
The core gameplay in LOTRO is very like WoW in many ways - the classes, the levelling, the crafting, the instances, the collecting gear etc. For some people, like Pevergreen, that's probably a bad thing but personally, I thought WoW was a pretty solid game. LOTRO has fewer instances than Wow and, as Menedil says, little PvP, but that suits me at the moment. I was looking for an RPG where I can quietly level up, rather like playing Morrowind or Fallout 3 but with more content and progression to avoid me burning out as do with most SP games.

I like the attempt made at staying true to the Tolkien lore. You are a supporting character at the time the fellowship is travelling from Bree to Lothlorien. You never hear of the ring, but you get to meet the fellowship, know they are on a very important secret quest and generally fight the war of the ring on other fronts. The best bits are often the instances that give you a peek into the Tolkien world (there's a nice one where you chase an unidentified Gollum, for example). The worst bits are the generic "kill 12 boars" quests. More generally, the world is rather attractive and true to Tolkien - it's fun to wander round the Misty Mountains, the Shire, Weathertop or Bree, for example. It's a pretty good recreation - more understated that the movies, but recognisable and nicely done. Levelling up by exploring the world is fun. I play on the English speaking EU roleplaying server and, if you log off the OOC channel, players play in a friendly, cooperative way and generally stay in character - much better than WoW, where even the RP servers are tainted by uncouth loudmouths. The server population seems reasonable - not enough to get in your way (stealing "your" quest items etc), but not deserted. It can be hard getting a group but I have not tried that too often and where I have put my mind to it, it's usually been possible. The game allows you to level without grouping, although the best story (epic) quests require periodic grouping.

Other things I like:

- the graphics: probably a notch above WoW.

- the combat: playing a tank class (guardian), I find it engaging - in essence, like WoW but relying on reactive moves rather than mindless repeating a rotation. The difficulty seems fairly well balanced to me - I seem to die more than in WoW (no paladin style heals or bubbles) and can typically only comfortably handle a couple of foes my level, maybe three at a pinch but typically four will do for me. It's easy to run into a fight you can't win and have to flee; likewise the wandering elites are sometimes winnable but sometimes too much.

- crafting: as a metalsmith, it's probably less of a time sink than blacksmithing in WoW but gives you better rewards; crafted gear is closer to reward and raid gear.

An 86% sounds like a reasonable rating for the game. The quests and writing are nowhere as good as say Bioware ones, so I wouldn't go overboard about it.