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Lord of the Rings: War in the North |OT| Not just another LotR game

Vazra

irresponsible vagina leak
IGN Summary

Great Graphics
Pretty good coop
Bland Story
Repetitive gameplay

Overall Score: 7/10
 
I wonder if the reviewer is a fan of loot games because their combat is usually very repetitive (see: Diablo). Finding items is what keeps you going. We'll see... I hope it doesn't get boring.
 

Akkad

Banned
Heavy said:
I wonder if the reviewer is a fan of loot games because their combat is usually very repetitive (see: Diablo). Finding items is what keeps you going. We'll see... I hope it doesn't get boring.

Yeah, how many games out there don't have repetitive combat.
 

Loxley

Member
Heavy said:
Got my GMG key and am pre-loading now.

BTW, IGN video review is up...got a 7.0, about what I expected (mostly 7s and low 8s):

http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/10/31/the-lord-of-the-rings-war-in-the-north-video-review

I didn't watch the vid due to possible spoilers and such so I'm not sure what were the pros and cons.

(without spoilers)

Pros:

+ Solid visual style inspired by the films (or "great graphics" as they put it :p)
+ 3-player co-op works well

Cons:

- Repetitive combat, fight a lot of same-looking Orcs throughout the game
- "Boring", one-dimensional characters
- Playing solo isn't seamless since you cannot switch characters on the fly and you have to wait until the end of each section order to switch.
- Can't give orders to your AI teammates when playing solo (as opposed to...other hack n' slash action RPG's where you can do that?)

The review sounds overly negative given the score the chose to give it. If I hadn't seen the 7/10 ahead of time I would have assumed it would have been 5/10 based on how the review sounded alone.
 

legbone

Member
Heavy said:
I wonder if the reviewer is a fan of loot games because their combat is usually very repetitive (see: Diablo). Finding items is what keeps you going. We'll see... I hope it doesn't get boring.

this was my first thought. as a loot whore i'm used to repetitive combat. i mean, come on, what do you expect. strange thing is (correct me if i'm wrong), didn't garnett say it was some of the best rhythm based combat he had ever played?
 
Thanks for the review summary.

why is steam saying 14 hours till unlock? that would be 4pm eastern tomorrow. If it's not unlocked by midnight I'm goin to bed
 

Salazar

Member
Loxley said:
- Playing solo isn't seamless since you cannot switch characters on the fly and you have to wait until the end of each section order to switch.

I wouldn't have expected to be able to do so. Not remotely. This seems like a stupid objection.
 
Salazar said:
I wouldn't have expected to be able to do so. Not remotely. This seems like a stupid objection.
I didn't know you could switch between them at all. So this is kindof good news ;P

How does it work?
 

AwRy108

Member
Man, judging by the GameSpot reviewer's comments on their forums, I would've expect his review to hit at exactly 12:01; but, alas, all we have is lousy old IGN's...
 

AwRy108

Member
legbone said:
this was my first thought. as a loot whore i'm used to repetitive combat. i mean, come on, what do you expect. strange thing is (correct me if i'm wrong), didn't garnett say it was some of the best rhythm based combat he had ever played?

My thoughts, too. IMHO, the Phantasy Star Portable series offers the pinnacle of combat in the action-RPG genre, and watching the videos of this game makes me believe it's combat to be in a similar vain.
 
What did the review say about loot? Don't they know that this type of game the most important thing is loot, followed by co-op?
 

AwRy108

Member
Last Hearth said:
What did the review say about loot? Don't they know that this type of game the most important thing is loot, followed by co-op?

Per the usual for IGN, the review itself was pretty shitty in that it lacked a lot of detail and glossed over some of the more important discussion points related to the genre. I'm going to ignore the IGN review for the simple fact that the reviewer didn't seem to be a fan of the genre AT ALL.
 

Echoplx

Member
2 week delay in Australia? How in the fuck does that even happen?

Oh well looks like you won't be getting my money.
 

Frostburn

Member
I'm excited! My copy shipped out today so it should arrive tomorrow in time for me to check it out when I get home from work! I plan on playing this with the girlfriend as she loves LOTR as much as I do and is a fan of the older PS2 action games.
 

Xander51

Member
It's live on OnLive and I checked out the trial...I'm impressed! The combat system is really fun and much more involved than I was expecting. The animation is incredibly smooth. The mouse and keyboard controls required a little more finger aerobics across the keyboard than I'm used to, but they seem to be mapped well and I'd adjust to them with some more time.

NullPointer - It works just fine with an Xbox controller on OnLive, so I think you're good to go.
 

Salazar

Member
3chopl0x said:
2 week delay in Australia? How in the fuck does that even happen?

Oh well looks like you won't be getting my money.

I bought when it was $44 and due tomorrow.

The upside is that I got in before they idiotically jacked up the price. The downside is this retarded delay.
 
Salazar said:
I bought when it was $44 and due tomorrow.

The upside is that I got in before they idiotically jacked up the price. The downside is this retarded delay.

The bits have to travel further man. That's expensive and takes longer.
 

Lord Phol

Member
Really wish I could get my hands on this today, but will have to wait until the 9th when it releases over here Dx.
 

legend166

Member
The retail PC market in Australia must be absolutely miniscule so it's really so stupid.

I won't buy the game until it's $10 on sale now.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
Thanks, for the title, Heavy. I wouldn't pay attention to this game but it's on my radar now.
 

witness

Member
Loxley said:
(without spoilers)

Pros:

+ Solid visual style inspired by the films (or "great graphics" as they put it :p)
+ 3-player co-op works well

Cons:

- Repetitive combat, fight a lot of same-looking Orcs throughout the game
- "Boring", one-dimensional characters
- Playing solo isn't seamless since you cannot switch characters on the fly and you have to wait until the end of each section order to switch.
- Can't give orders to your AI teammates when playing solo (as opposed to...other hack n' slash action RPG's where you
can do that?)

The review sounds overly negative given the score the chose to give it. If I hadn't seen the 7/10 ahead of time I would have assumed it would have been 5/10 based on how the review sounded alone.

WTF! Are you kidding me? Could they have found a reviewer who possibly knew even less about the genre? Awful, just awful. Not even considering this terrible reviewers opinion.

The only review I need to read is Garnett's over on Shacknews. Huge fan of the genre and he's already said over twitter than he absolutely recommends it to people who love these kind of games.
 
I haven't played too many loot games, but this one seems like it could be interesting. The Loremaster seems like the most fun.

I think I'll wait on a sale. I'll keep an eye on the thread for impressions as well, so post, post, post, please!
 

Loxley

Member
Gametrailers' review is up. - 7.2/10

They've got some minor spoilers in their review, FYI.

Despite having the same score as the IGN review, GT seemed a lot more positive about the game. They actually compliment the combat quite a bit, but do say that it's a multitude of smaller things that bring the experience down (mostly dealing with the combat, oddly enough).

"If you've been hard-up for a cooperative loot-bonanza, War in the North is worth sinking a weekend into. Its lack of variety and polish however, makes it hard to imagine it will have any sort of longevity. Unless you're thrilled by the idea of exploring Snowblind's take on this corner of Middle-Earth, you should approach with caution."

Story - 7.8
Design - 7.2
Gameplay - 7.3
Presentation - 7.0
 
"worth sinking a weekend into"?
"no longevity"?

That's a bummer. I dunno, for a loot whore I can't see how the game doesn't have longevity... takes 2-3 play-throughs to reach the level cap, and each play-through/difficulty level has better quality items. Unless the combat is so utterly boring that it's a chore to replay it...

Anyway, why the heck can't I play yet...unlocks in 6 hours :/
 

AwRy108

Member
Loxley said:
Gametrailers' review is up. - 7.2/10

They've got some minor spoilers in their review, FYI.

Despite having the same score as the IGN review, GT seemed a lot more positive about the game. They actually compliment the combat quite a bit, but do say that it's a multitude of smaller things that bring the experience down (mostly dealing with the combat, oddly enough).

"If you've been hard-up for a cooperative loot-bonanza, War in the North is worth sinking a weekend into. Its lack of variety and polish however, makes it hard to imagine it will have any sort of longevity. Unless you're thrilled by the idea of exploring Snowblind's take on this corner of Middle-Earth, you should approach with caution."

Story - 7.8
Design - 7.2
Gameplay - 7.3
Presentation - 7.0

Beaten by 8 hrs. or so: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=32312046&postcount=268
 
Does this support the use of a controller? I am not a big fan of using keyboard/mouse for third-person hack 'n slashes (unless they have the Diablo-styled camera).

Also, what are the PC recommendations?
 

GQman2121

Banned
Fine Ham Abounds said:
Picking up this puppy at Kmart at lunch for $20~
I have the $10 off coupon that came with Batman if anyone here is interested. You get another $20 coupon for buying at Kmart and keeping the coupon train chugging along.

PM me and I'll email you the scan.
 

ironcreed

Banned
More times than not, games that I have been anticipating that come in at around 7.0-8.0 usually end up being games I love to death. Got this on the way from Gamefly and am really looking forward to it.
 

Meier

Member
I loved the games for GameCube and was looking forward to this but I'm pretty nervous that metacritic has one review total at this point. Doesn't lead me to believe it's very good. :\
 
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