MrTeachwell
Member
Knew nothing about this and just jumped on it ($4 is pennies for some LOTR romping and stomping). Hopefully I come away a happy customer 
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Lord of the Rings: War in the North |OT| Not just another LotR game
- Thread starter Barack Lesnar
- Start date
Foliorum Viridum
Banned
My girlfriend and I just started playing this. It's nice to have a good split screen game as we wait for Borderlands 2!
We just finished the first level, I guess you could say, the Citadel, and we really had a tough time on the first boss. Do the other bosses get really hard as we progress? It took us like 30 mins to get the bastard, ha.
Other than that, a fun hack/slash/loot game!
We just finished the first level, I guess you could say, the Citadel, and we really had a tough time on the first boss. Do the other bosses get really hard as we progress? It took us like 30 mins to get the bastard, ha.
Other than that, a fun hack/slash/loot game!
Gucci Messiah
Banned
Sorry for the bump, I am a little LTTP with this game but there are some things I have to say:
War in the North is probably the cheapest and most frustrating video game I have played since Dante's Inferno. I understand that the game was built with co-op in mind but there are some design choices that are simply inexcusable in this day and age. For example, why when playing single player can I not switch between characters on the fly to level them up? It is a pain to have to look for a save point (game uses an infrequent autosave system which is stupid), exit out of the game, switch characters, and then reload the game to assign newly earned skills and upgrades.
Another problem I have with War in the North is the difficulty. I'm playing on normal and can safely say that WitN has some of the worst difficulty spikes I have ever seen in a game. To illustrate this point look at part 3 of chapter 7, known as Nordinbad. Here you are tasked with destroying two armored trolls, numerous dual wielding minions that swarm your small party with unstoppable attack animations unless you hit the block button at the right time, and have the obligation of protecting a door that the trolls run straight for and destroy within 20 seconds all while archers are firing arrows at you. Now come on, this is absolutely fucking ridiculous. I understand wanting to make a game challenging, but this is a downright cheap way of making the game artificially difficult. Skill doesn't dictate your chances of survival, luck does. This isn't an isolated incident either, you can see this shitty game design in the very first boss battle. The jerk-off you're tasked with fighting is aided by infinitely respawning minions and takes off about 1/4th of your life bar with each hit. Now keep in mind this is the VERY FIRST BOSS BATTLE. Needless to say, I was pissed off.
The thrill of pushing on to find new loot, or the fan service presented in the form of dialogue with characters from the books that did not appear in the movies falls flat. The combat is terrible as well. Basically you only have a light attack and a heavy attack. Fighting enemies consists of mashing the light attack button until an arrow prompt appears over an enemy. This visual cue prompts the user to hit the heavy attack button which makes the character go into a decapitation animation as they finish the opponent off in one bloody strike. Sure it looks cool, but that got boring after the first hour.
Honestly, I'm at the point where I just want to give up playing WitN. I know I am incredibly close to beating the game but it has gotten too frustrating. The further you go, the more you realize how the terrible game mechanics are holding back a great fundamental idea.
Sorry for the rant, just really needed to get this off my chest.
War in the North is probably the cheapest and most frustrating video game I have played since Dante's Inferno. I understand that the game was built with co-op in mind but there are some design choices that are simply inexcusable in this day and age. For example, why when playing single player can I not switch between characters on the fly to level them up? It is a pain to have to look for a save point (game uses an infrequent autosave system which is stupid), exit out of the game, switch characters, and then reload the game to assign newly earned skills and upgrades.
Another problem I have with War in the North is the difficulty. I'm playing on normal and can safely say that WitN has some of the worst difficulty spikes I have ever seen in a game. To illustrate this point look at part 3 of chapter 7, known as Nordinbad. Here you are tasked with destroying two armored trolls, numerous dual wielding minions that swarm your small party with unstoppable attack animations unless you hit the block button at the right time, and have the obligation of protecting a door that the trolls run straight for and destroy within 20 seconds all while archers are firing arrows at you. Now come on, this is absolutely fucking ridiculous. I understand wanting to make a game challenging, but this is a downright cheap way of making the game artificially difficult. Skill doesn't dictate your chances of survival, luck does. This isn't an isolated incident either, you can see this shitty game design in the very first boss battle. The jerk-off you're tasked with fighting is aided by infinitely respawning minions and takes off about 1/4th of your life bar with each hit. Now keep in mind this is the VERY FIRST BOSS BATTLE. Needless to say, I was pissed off.
The thrill of pushing on to find new loot, or the fan service presented in the form of dialogue with characters from the books that did not appear in the movies falls flat. The combat is terrible as well. Basically you only have a light attack and a heavy attack. Fighting enemies consists of mashing the light attack button until an arrow prompt appears over an enemy. This visual cue prompts the user to hit the heavy attack button which makes the character go into a decapitation animation as they finish the opponent off in one bloody strike. Sure it looks cool, but that got boring after the first hour.
Honestly, I'm at the point where I just want to give up playing WitN. I know I am incredibly close to beating the game but it has gotten too frustrating. The further you go, the more you realize how the terrible game mechanics are holding back a great fundamental idea.
Sorry for the rant, just really needed to get this off my chest.
NullPointer
Member
This is the exact spot where I quit playing.
I actually liked the game overall, but playing solo exposes the game's faults big time.
Gucci Messiah
Banned
I honestly don't see how it is possible to beat this section without luck coming into play. The producers say you need to use Farin and his war cry skill to draw the attention of the trolls but that assumes the player has been leveling Farin up in a very specific way. That's just bad game design, not everyone is going to focus on upgrading the same section of the skill tree. Even if you can pull this off and get the attention of the trolls, you now have to deal with fighting them, respawning dual wielding swordsmen, and archers that can only be attacked from range.
Whoever greenlit this section in production needs to be fired.
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
I think the whole studio is dead now, actually, or at least cannibalied by Warner.
Gucci Messiah
Banned
And not a single thing of value was lost
lastplayed
Member
Me too.
I would really like to play through again just to see it done. Is that section any better on easy setting? If so I might just go with that.
Jawmuncher
Member
Even on coop some of those difficulty spikes were really apparent.
It wasnt a bad game overall but could have been so much more.
It wasnt a bad game overall but could have been so much more.
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
I really think the game and Snowblind were thrown to the dogs. Something of value was lost, Snowblind may have borked a lot of this project, but this really is a fun co-op game when it works.
I'll always have a special place in my heart for them if just for Champions of Norrath.
I'll always have a special place in my heart for them if just for Champions of Norrath.
Gucci Messiah
Banned
You see, I can't just look at Snowblind through this nostalgic prism of collective memory. War in the North is just plain bad and the thing is, a lot of the problems could have been easily fixed. They need to be held accountable, I don't like brushing problems I have with the game off because I need to justify my purchase (not saying you do) or because I like what they've done in the past. We live in the present and right now this game is an atrocity. I don't write this out of anger or spite, but out of disappointment.
Very LTTP but playing this now with a friend (I'm a mage, he's a dwarf) - we're both level 11 having finished the second chapter, and we both feel quite under powered?
Levelling is very slow, and it's unclear which points will help with my magic. Also my spells seem incredibly weak and really ruin the flow in combat - even though I'm supposed to be a magic caster, I find it far easier just to run up to the enemies and hit them with my staff.
Does the game improve in this regard? At the moment it feels grindy, but we're getting less powerful rather than more. Any particular skills you'd recommend for Andriel? Thank you!
Levelling is very slow, and it's unclear which points will help with my magic. Also my spells seem incredibly weak and really ruin the flow in combat - even though I'm supposed to be a magic caster, I find it far easier just to run up to the enemies and hit them with my staff.
Does the game improve in this regard? At the moment it feels grindy, but we're getting less powerful rather than more. Any particular skills you'd recommend for Andriel? Thank you!