So I've been playing the Beta as part of the "Stress Test" this weekend.
The game certainly is not as smooth or polished as WoW, but its also only in Beta so I'm willing to cut them some slack.
In brief, I don't think WoW can be topped at doing what it does best, so the question becomes how does LOTRO rate as a Tolkien themed WoW.
Well, in addition to the usual "kill 5 groundsnappers" type missions there are many that have a more Tolkien feel. One of the nicest features is the instanced intorduction, even if it takes more than a few liberties with Tolkien. Before I continue with this it has to be said that you can't make a purist Tolkien game. If its purist, it has to stick to canon only, which leaves you nothing to make a game out of. As such, all you can hope for is that they won't contradict canon and that the additions feel right. Of course, thats going to depend on the player, so its impossible to keep everyone happy.
The storyline of the Dwarven introduction goes something like this. In the 75 years since Thorin left his halls in Ered Luin to follow the quest for Erebor, a faction of Dwarves known as the Dourhands took control of Thorins Halls. In the introductory quest you arrive as Dwalin and others of Thorins company are attempting to retake Thorins halls. In the final introductory quest we learn that the Dourhands have brokered a deal with the Witchking of Angmar to return one of their old Kings to life. In a nice purist/revisionint touch Dwalin tells you that although the Dwarves believe some of their ancestors are reborn this is a perversion of that, and that he believes the spirit that will be returned will be a barrow wight and not the spirit of the King. Its a clever mingling of "fact" and "fiction" if you'll pardon the terminology.
One of the other nice features is that this whole section is run as an "instance". So, all new players arrive in Thorins hall when the Dourhands are in charge, but by the time they finish the quest cycle the Dourhands have been driven out. This gives a nice persistent feel to the world and gives the illusion that your actions have consequences. After the introductory quests you return to Thorins halls in the "real world" where the Longfathers (Thorins people) are in power.
This is one of the real strencths of LOTRO so far. While WoW is essentially a quest to the next highest level, LOTRO has "Epic Quests" in addition to the standard quests. These Epic quests seem to be all about moving the story forward, so instead of questing for more money, or better gear, or your mount, you're actually questing to get to the next chapter of the story. Its working well so far, but how long they can sustain it will be the real test.
From a technical standpoint, the stress test was a dismal failure, as it took over a day to even get connected and even once on there was a lot of lag in populated areas. Still, given the nature of the test there was always going to be a lot of people in the same places rather than spread out as they would get over time. Also, every time a building or cave was entered, the door would show a Black opening then a loading screen. It makes you really appreciate the seamless nature of WoW, where all loading seems to be cached in the background. I hope this is something that is changed for launch. Graphics were fine, but nothing startling. I ran at the default settings of "medium quality 1024x768" with no problems on my Athlon 2800 with Radeon 9800 Pro.
I found the Tolkien "feel" to be ok, but not brilliant. Creatures like the Cavesnappers were very un-Tolkieny (good word huh), but the Architecture felt good. Accents are all British which helps a lot, although there are few enough of them. More voice acting would flesh this out dramatically (in both senses of the word).
One huge caveat! Only Eriador is covered at launch. Only when you zoom out the map do you realise how small an area that is. The opening area is not huge by any means and is only one of 8 or 9 areas in Eriador. An active player could probably get through all those areas in a month or so. Only time will tell.
Overall, I can certainly see myself playing more of the Beta and I'll definitely buy the game.
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These are my friends, see how they glisten...