The Lord of the Rings Online Impressions

Both GameSpy and Internode Games Network have put together some first impressions of Turbine’s The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. A snip from GameSpy’s article:

One of the game’s key elements is the emphasis on storytelling as an integral part of the play experience. Every player character starts their lives in one of four multi-layered instanced areas. Lilybo, my own Elven Lore-master, started in a short tutorial course that took place during the burning of Edhelion, an Elven city destroyed by renegade Dwarves called Dourhands. This tutorial area was designed to teach me the basics of movement, equipment, combat and questing, but far from being a one-off zone, the characters and story elements that I saw in that area would continue to come up even as my character leveled. In fact, much of my first 15 levels as an Elf was about questing to re-establish the bonds of trust between Elf and Dwarf that had been broken by the Dourhands. As befits a world based on such a prominent and beloved story, it’s the opportunity to participate in the War of the Ring more than the chance to get “phat loot” that drives the player forward in The Lord of the Rings Online.

And a snip from Internode Games Network’s article:

In addition to the questing portion of the game, there is quite a neat alternate progression system entitled “Deeds”. This is entirely optional, but does have its own benefits, in the form of titles that may be earned, skill upgrades and minor persistent buffs named “Traits”. Most entail achieving a repetition goal – use one of your character skills a few hundred times and you get a more powerful version of it; kill 30 wolves and earn the title “Wolf Slayer” (there’s that grind, but with a tangible result); discover all 6 farms in the Shire and receive a new trait (or upgrade an existing one), etc. I generally found that the deeds ticked over in the background without any real effort on my part and would be pleasantly surprised each time I was informed I had a new accomplishment. The traits you earn are reminiscent of the old days of Ultima IV, being named after various virtues (Compassion, Patience, Honour, etc) and essentially give minor buffs to select in-game stats. This allows a certain level of character customisation in that only 5 traits may be enabled at once (by visiting a Bard at one of the population centres, you are able to swap them in and out for a fee); conceivably one might switch traits depending on what an instance/quest might require.