The Lord Of The Rings: Shadows Of Angmar
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar is an authentic recreation of Middle-Earth. In this massive multiplayer online game, you'll explore legendary lands & interact with famous characters like Gandalf and Aragorn. Create your own heroic story as the Fellowship embarks on their quest to destroy the One Ring. Defend the Free Peoples against Sauron's evil minion, the Nazgul Witch-King. Adventure solo or forge fellowships, battle hideous monsters and rise to fame in the most epic MMO ever launched.
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar puts you into the greatest fantasy of all time. For the first time, you can immerse yourself in the only authentic recreation of Middle-Earth to explore legendary lands, interact with famous characters like Gandalf and Aragorn, and create your own heroic story. The War of the Ring has commenced! As the Fellowship embarks on their quest to destroy the One Ring, you must defend the Free Peoples against Sauron's evil minion, the Nazgul Witch-King. Adventure solo or forge fellowships, battle hideous monsters and rise to fame in the most epic MMO ever launched. FEATURES - Epic Storyline - The Lord of the Rings Online is the only MMO based on the extensive and beloved fantasy universe of J.R.R. Tolkien, and the first MMO to provide a compelling story behind players' actions. It is the original epic world that serves as the source for all other "me too" fantasy games.
- Unique Combat and Advancement Systems - The Lord of the Rings Online implements unique game mechanics which surpass skills and levels to include accomplishment, traits and titles to help you gain experience in a variety of ways and to advance your character beyond traditional grinding.
- Monster Battles - Jump in as a monster and battle against other gamers in a fast, action-packed session of monster vs. player combat.
- Innovative Social Networking - The Lord of the Rings Online takes social networking tools to the next level. Besides in-game mail, chat, crafting and guild management tools, The Lord of the Rings Online uses next-generation features like integrated voice chat, instant messaging and automatically updated web pages with your characters' in-game stats. These innovative tools engage players, facilitate real-time communication and encourage community.
The Lord Of The Rings: Shadows Of Angmar Accessories
 The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (Prima Official Game Guide)
The Lord of the Rings Shadows of Angmar Prepaid 60-Day Game Time Card
The Children of Hurin
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack
Lord Of The Rings: Shadows Of Angmar Special Edition
World Of Warcraft Expansion: Burning Crusade
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
World of Warcraft
The Lord of the Rings: Mines of Moria
The Lord Of The Rings: Shadows Of Angmar Reviews
allowing you to take a few days off for other things (like life) and come back not feeling left behind. And speaking of content the recent expansion only takes you a little over 1/2 way through the first of the three main books, so there is room for PLENTY of future content. I got this for $9.99 and there is very easily a year's worth of content for me to go through and that doesn't even count the recent Mines of Moria expansion. The game is great and honestly the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because if you don't have a fairly recent (unless you have one of the maybe 3 AGP cards that meet the requirements you must have a PCI Express card) graphics card you will have a hard time with this game.
I've been wanting to get back into an MMO for the last year or so but didn't want to return to EQ and WoW just looked way too crowded to have fun with. An employee at a Gamestop recommended this game and I have to say I was pleased. There is no pressure to be on all the time (I put in at most about 15 hr./wk). That means if your machine is more than a couple years old you will have some upgrading to do.
But frankly I think its worth the money to upgrade.
I had my doubts about ordering software online, but after receiving exactly what I ordered, that was in on the store shelf condition. Great playability, unbelievable graphics, and if you loved the books/movies, you will love this game. I will make many more orders with Amazon
Two things mar the experience. Otoh, there did not seem to be any difference in the degree of difficulty of forming a group for a specific quest. You spend a fair amount of time just stumbling around the countryside trying to locate things, including things that, thanks to online databases, you have specific latitude and longitude for (and I generally don't use those aids except when I find I've spent an entire day trying to find a cabin that is "Northwest of Bree" - directions tend to lack specificity and NPCs never mark a point on your map). First, LOTRO has a poor mapping system compared to WoW - there is not the broad, user-generated add-on community. The second is that the LOTRO community seemed a bit odd - definitely into role-playing, which was fine, but not as interested in helping each other out (unless in the same kinship [guild]). Get into the habit of keeping a logbook as you cannot put notes on your maps. If you like Tolkien and can find a good kinship (check Wiki for server by server lists) and can handle a bit of frustration with the lack of good mapping utilities, you'll probably like this game.
I found LOTRO superior to WoW in graphics and overall game play - while it has a number of "yo-yo" missions (take message from A to B, take the response back to A, go get some materials, deliver to B, take item to A, take it back to B, etc)., grinding in the WoW sense (gather 12 feathers from creatures from whom only 1 out of 5 will drop the needed feather) is minimal. I'm guessing that the yo-yos and stumbling were the cost of minimizing the grinding - like all MMOs I've encountered, stretching out the time needed to get anything done is one of the ways of keeping players in the game and paying. Many times I saw players fighting for their lives and other players would run on past - in WoW I know it happened but in my months (I made level 70) I almost never saw it. In Guild Wars the initial game has an interesting story line but the rest of the game's expansions lacked that same epic sweep; WoW can be played without regard to any story - the story for LOTRO hovers in the background but does not seem, until relatively late, to play much of a role.
(Raid items being the exception). (the first one is being released in a few weeks). My favorite things about the game. The regular updates to the game make it enjoyable. It's rare when I end up playing with people who have the maturity of a 11 year old. I'm looking forward to the expansion since I recently finished the main quests and am looking forward to fresh material and newer instances.
Speaking as a veteran mmorpg'er and a player of LOTRO since the closed beta, many of the misgivings players had with the game during beta have been addressed. If you think you'll end up playing the game for more than 20 months. There are regular updates to the storyline outside of the expansions.
The mature audience. get the lifetime membership. The last thing I love about the game is the option for lifetime membership.
The crafting system, you can make items in game that are better than most quest items. ($199 right now) I love not having to pay month to month. Even the pvp has been improved somewhat.
My only gripe is that it's really not possible to play an evil character, except in the Monster Play zone, The Ettenmoors. And then you are only limited to one zone which is strictly a PvP area and you don't have to option to level up a character. I've played WoW and other popular MMO's, and in my opinion LOTRO is the most fun. But once again, this holds strong to Tolkien's lore.
So, RPG players are a very fickle breed, but I would hope that more people would give LOTRO a chance as it's really a well-designed game that a person of any age or demographic can immerse themselves in and get plenty of entertainment from. So it's definitely not just for Tolkien buffs. I'll be honest, I actually only started playing this game because I'm a big fan of the Middle-Earth universe so I'm definitely very biased, but in the fantasy RPG (MMO or single player) community, who isn't a Tolkien fan. It's a PvE game, although they did include a PvP feature, Monster Play, which is actually really fun. LOTRO is actually closer to a WoW clone (only in GUI and player/world interaction methods) than any other MMO that I've seen, which is a good thing because the WoW template is fantastic. There's nothing more exciting than battling a full army of player controlled Orcs, Uruks, Spiders and Wargs.
Leveling up doesn't feel like a grind unless a player forces that feeling by just killing mobs over and over again to level up or rushing through quests without immersing themselves in the lore or story. I wouldn't expect that this game or any other MMO would be able to get close to WoW's subscription numbers, I really feel like a lot of people are missing out on a great game. But no player will be penalized if they decide to spend all their time solo. . The game is one of the most beautiful MMO's out there and Turbine has done a fantastic job of recreating Tolkien's universe. Although the game is doing pretty well subscriber-wise, I still don't understand why it's not more popular.
There is plenty to do and character development and customization is tops with the deed/trait system and the new changes coming up with MoM. :) I know those people are out there and I actually personally know a couple people who aren't really into The Lord of the Rings but really love this game.
If you prefer to venture alone you will still have a lot of fun, but personally I feel a game like this is much more enjoyable with a Fellowship. And obviously I'd like to see bigger numbers because that means more money for the developers to put into the game and expand it and keep it running as long as possible. The game is pretty lacking in the PvP area, but it doesn't claim to be a PvP game.
Casual or hardcore MMO players should find something to love about LOTRO. The game is also suitable for either solo players or players who like to group up.
And you definitely feel this when you play along the Epic Quest line. The game was designed around the idea that the player-base would be fighting for the salvation of Middle-Earth and aiding the fellowship in their quest to destroy the one ring.
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