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March 27, 2008

In a hole in the ground…

I’ve played my fair share of MMORPGs in the past, and I like to think I have a fairly good idea of what’s out there. My experiences began back in 1999 with Everquest. It was the first game of its type that we - my brothers and I - had seen, with amazing 3D graphics and a huge world to explore.

The game held my interest for a year or so, and waned with the release of Diablo II, which offered gameplay built around immediate gratification - a relief at the time, after languishing for hours on EQ’s long camps. Eventually I gave up EQ for good and moved on to other games and other genres. I occasionally dipped my toe back in the pool to try others like Asheron’s Call, Anarchy Online, Shadowbane, Ultima Online, etc, but never made it past the trial phase.

My brother was in to Star Wars Galaxies for a while, but I had been pretty much burned out by the genre as a whole at the time and let it pass. The next big fish was, of course, World of Warcraft which - for myself - lasted a year or two, with the occasional relapse, but eventually befell the same fate as its predecessors.

The lures of the genre itself are many; persistent character advancement, a shared world with many players, numerous adventures to be seen and experienced. In the end however, for me at least, they all succumbed to the same faults. The adventures felt more like chores, compounded by the fact that quests usually fell into the same routine of “Go kill me X of these” and “Go fetch me Y of those.” These early-game tasks were weathered easily enough, and the promise of better loot and more exciting adventures perpetually over the next horizon didn’t hurt.

Eventually, however, there are no more horizons to cross — unless you are willing to shell out 40$ for the next expansion, but even that is a temporary solution — and I realized that the road I took to get there was somewhat insubstantial. To be sure, I had fun on the trip and more so because there were friends to share it with. But looking back on the experience, I realized that the games themselves didn’t hold much of interest to me. It was the people I played with that made it exciting; that same shared experience that draws me to offline games like Dungeons & Dragons or Arkham Horror.

With that realization, I once again pulled back from the MMO genre and for the next few months I reallocated to my spare time to other creative endeavors.

…there lived a Hobbit

Recently however, I have started playing Lord of the Rings Online with my buddy Mike. I got into the game after reading about it on the PA forums and, fond memories of reading the books in hand, I took the plunge. The trial can be downloaded for free in 4 and 6 GB versions, depending on how pretty you like your graphics, and purchased online for 10$ with the ring4ten promotion code. Afterwards, subscription is 15$ per month, or 10$ if you can land an invite from a “Founder”. There is also a lifetime subscription option, but I am not going to mention it except to say that “I am not going to mention it”, because I really didn’t consider it as an option, and I doubt you will either.

I’ve been playing for a little over a week now, and I have to say that I’m really impressed. Graphically, the game presents what I would expect from a game of the past few years - maybe even a bit more. The mechanics of the game are straight-forward enough for anyone who has played one of its type and the interface, while not groundbreaking is far from problematic and still fully functional.

Following the theme of the novel, the game offers 4 playable races; Man, Elf, Hobbit and Dwarf and 6 classes; Burglar, Captain, Champion, Guardian, Hunter, Lore-Master and Minstrel. Like other games of its type, there are skills and professions for players to learn, and a music system where you can compose your own tunes for others to hear. More information about these subjects can be found in the game’s lorebook.

Mechanics aside, what I really enjoy (besides hunting down filthy orckind with my buddy) are the stories. Sure the quests mechanics are the same ones we’ve seen before, but the stories behind the tasks and the way they flow from one to another, building a larger story in the process, is really impressive.

There are also many cinematic interludes during the main story which add to the sense of accomplishment when you complete a particularly crucial plot point. It’s hard to describe, but you’ll understand it when you see it. What is also nice is that instead of just plunking us down in leafy_green_zone_x and saying “Hey you’re in Middle Earth now! Have fun!”, we get to see all of the places and characters from the original story, and even help the Fellowship in their quest. Sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly, but you always feel like you are making a valuable contribution to something important.

For a Tolkien fan like myself, this total immersion into the fantasy world of my boyhood dreams is a welcome reprieve from what I had come to expect from the MMORPG genre. I have no delusions that this game will not suffer the same fate as its those that came before it - but for now my mind is filled with heady thoughts of exploring the hills and paths of the Shire, and scaling the treacherous cliffs of Weathertop, and I invite you to come along

Here are some more screenshots for you to enjoy, borrowed from the PA forum thread.

Posted by Aaron on March 27, 2008, 4:57 pm permalink top | general

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