Lord of the Rings: War in the North

On 03/13/2013 at 04:52 PM by asrealasitgets

I have to say that I haven't picked up a game that I just couldn't bring myself to put down, for quite a while now. So, I was pleasantly surprised that this happened to me while I was playing this game, LOTR:War in the North, which I picked up the other day for $15. Once I started playing it I found myself playing for several hours and I lost track of time.

This game has been well reviewed and mentioned as being a decent game in the past. So actually, I wasn't that surprised to find myself enjoying it. It's not a "hardcore" RPG, more like a RPG-Lite with emphasis on combat. The game fits somewhere between Dragons Dogma's party system and world, and God of War's linear clear-stage-of-all-enemis before proceeding level design. It is very hack-n-slash oriented. You can only choose between three classes offering a few skill trees to unlock. There is no customization whatsoever. You are playing the same three characters throughout the game, but you can switch between them at the beginning of the game or start of a new mission. Your party is made up of human ranger, elven loremaster, and dwarf champion. Aragorn, Gimli, and Arwyn dopplegangers basically.

The game is impressive and overall, enjoyable. If you want an RPG Lite which doesn't require too much management and a lot of button mashing, well you will need to master dodging and blocking for boss fights. Speaking of boss fights, they are a nightmare. This game has really hard boss fights like older games. No hand holding here. So if you like older hard games with linear progression but fun combat then you will probably like this game.This game isn't old by he way. It war released in 2011 but feels like an older style game.

The Lord of the Rings theme plays a big part in the game as the plot of the movies serves as a background to the games story. You actually meet up with Aragorn in the beginning of the game and he tasks you with creating a diversion while he waits for Frodo, just like in The Fellowship. You mostly play a role behind the scenes to the movie's main events. Now I'm off to Rivendale!

A very epic trailer.

Jamie Alston Staff Writer

03/13/2013 at 05:02 PM

The game looks pretty epic. Especially the scene with the projecticle crashing into the structure and the bird flying overhead. Seems like it could be very enjoyable.

asrealasitgets

03/13/2013 at 05:09 PM

I just started the game, but some of the architecture in the environments look really nice. I want to see more of it. You can summon the eagle to attack orks a few times during the first few levels. He's pretty awesome.

Coolsetzer

03/13/2013 at 05:55 PM

Cool. I was always interested in checking out, but didn't know if I would be wasting my time or not. I would really like to have the movie tie in games in a collection on the PS3. That would be pretty great.

03/13/2013 at 06:23 PM

From what I've seen so far, it's probably the closest game to the movies I've played. If you've played LOTR games in the past, this has to be one of the best ones.

Super Step Contributing Writer

03/13/2013 at 06:00 PM

Looks good. I like both LotR and hack-and-slash, so seems like a good game to me.

03/13/2013 at 06:24 PM

I accept any kind of RPG, but I like this game world.

Aboboisdaman

03/13/2013 at 08:21 PM

One of my friends on psn has been playing this quite a bit. Are there a lot of different moves that you can pull off? I might get it if there's some variety in the combat.

03/13/2013 at 09:05 PM

Well there's combos and super moves you can unlock. So far I've only unlocked a couple of abilities for the ranger. I need to play more of it.

angelfaceband42

03/14/2013 at 03:58 AM

I played this a little when i found it used. I enjoyed what I played of it and found the story/lord of the rings setup for hack n slash very fun. I just got distracted after and hour of play with another game.

03/14/2013 at 04:41 AM

Then you probably didn't notice the steep difficulty spike after the first hour. Game is hard.

Ranger1

03/14/2013 at 10:39 AM

I love the books, but really didn't care for the movies. I might be OK with this game, though. A warning, there is apparently a glitch toward the end if you're playing co-op that won't let you go up some hill.

03/14/2013 at 10:01 PM

I'm a solo gamer. I will save middle earth... again...alone.

daftman

03/16/2013 at 02:37 PM

My wife and I played through this. It's a great co-op game. You can play with just two people locally (like we did) or three online. I think it would be awfully repetitive to play solo but the magic of co-op really gives this game some legs.

Temperance

03/18/2013 at 08:16 PM

I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this game despite the crippling load glitch. I'm not sure which version you're playing, but the PS3 version required me to load my save and then immediately quit. After that, the game would properly load the quest log upon loading the save again (the glitch would randomly drop a quest, including the main quest line).

That said, War in the North's combat system was very satisfying. The characters had a nice heft to them, and the ability to instantly kill a downed enemy or land a high-damage headshot never got old (especially against the bosses). It was also nice to see that the game valued your playing skill, instead of relying too much on your stats.

The game's brisk pace was greatly appreciated, too. Even though I played this game in full co-op across the three difficulty modes, it went by very quickly. There's never any moments where you need to grind levels to press forward, and the game is very generous in handing out gear. The game gives you plenty of opportunities to strengthen your character (those skill cool-down abilities can make the game very easy for the lore-master) and there are very few useless skill paths to choose from.

Anyway, I hope you continue to both enjoy the game and avoid that nasty glitch.

PixlBit