Lord of the Rings Online
Submitted Thursday, June 28, 2007 - 1:42:15 PM by Klaitu

It's called Lord of the Rings Online, but you can call it LOTRO.

You know, I really had no interest in LOTRO, but some of my Ultima Online friends were trying it out just for kicks, and I decided to check it out as well. LOTRO is essentially World of Warcraft hosed down with gallons and gallons of Tolkien juice.

For instance, the User inferface, control scheme, and default button assignments are exactly the same as World of Warcraft. The general idea of gameplay is the same as well.. go do quests to gain XP.

LOTRO does have some differences to offer though, perhaps the most strinking being that the graphics dont completely suck like those of World of Warcraft. Things looks alightly cartoony, but it fits just fine.

The music of LOTRO is decent. Unlike most MMO's, LOTRO went with very subdued background music that only takes the forefront in video cutscenes. There is battle music, for instance, but you don't really notice it unlesss you're listening for it.

One of my buddies described LOTRO as "Wow that should have been". It's hard to disagree with that assessment.

As a roleplay alternative to Ultima Online, LOTRO fails miserably. there is no player housing, and no chat bubbles.

It is, however, a good time with some friends.

Overall Score: 8 of 10