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

Lord Phol

Lord Phol

Member
User review I found at metacritic. Sounds promising, not the most well written piece, but the guy seems to know the genre well.
Gief more impressions!

Don't believe the negative hype... not a "perfect" game by today's standards, but then again, today's standards mean, take a genre, streamline the hell out of it, add shooting, action, a little puzzling and a dash of RPG and never make the gamer read anything...

This game reminds me a lot of the Baldur's gate dark alliance games snowblind made for the PS2. i love the game, yes it has some bugs and yeah i'm seeing lots of mediocre scores, but this is the first time i have played a game at launch from the time i picked it up until morning, since dragon age origins. the gear system is great, you see a nice visual treat every time you find gear and it does a real service to the LotR lore. all gear is crafted by either an area or a race. like dwarf armor has a certain style to it, or swords made by men of bree etc...

Again, very much like DAO here, it feels like a real world of artisans have been pumping out gear for your survival and enjoyment. and you never have too much to deal with, its the perfect amount of gear to sell and upgrade without ever feeling overwhelmed...and you never have so much gold that you can buy anything and everything you want, the game has a nice amount of difficulty and a great finesse combat system thats very rewarding. do yourself a favor and AT LEAST rent this. i can't wait to play some more tomorrow!!!…
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P

piratepwnsninja

Member
witness said:
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.
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Yeah. I know this is a long time ago now, but they also gave D2 an 8.3. Still has the most hilarious Lasting Appeal comment ever:

Lasting Appeal
I can't see wanting to play through the game by myself again. Battle.net will help out a little bit...when it gets fixed, but playing through this game in a slightly different way isn't very appealing
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C

cleveridea

Member
wow, went to best buy and they hadnt sold any copies yet so they found the statue thing in the back

Its huge! More impressive than the CE quiver thing IMO.

They didnt have the $15 off coupon though, I scanned the gamer mag every page and didnt find this game in there. The cover didnt match the one in the Sunday flyer, so I think its just a case of waiting for the right mag to come in. The wrong mag was in stacks next to the new copies of Uncharted 3 so er I dont know whats happening there.

They had regular copies of U3 but didnt get the CE of Uncharted 3 yet.

Ended up buying PC version for $50, perhaps can go back there and retoractively apply the coupon when it comes in, especially as I am keeping game sealed while I play my Target B1G1 haul.


2011-11-01_11-22-48_691.jpg
 
Diseased Yak

Diseased Yak

Gold Member
Picked up PS3 version from Best Buy.

The statue is one of the best I've seen for a game, excited I got it for free with the purchase:

O0ayY.jpg
 
C

cleveridea

Member
Diseased Yak said:
Picked up PS3 version from Best Buy.
The statue is one of the best I've seen for a game, excited I got it for free with the purchase:
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Plus better than the CE quiver right? They kinda jumped the shark there!
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
So people are saying this is a lot like Dark Alliance? Excellent co-op? Because I think that's enough to get me on board. Now I just need to convince a couple friends to join me.
 
F

Fine Ham Abounds

Member
Morgan Webb didn't like it, so that's a pretty good indication that it's smart and fun.

Rofl, check out her pros:

g4tv.com said:
The Pros

- Hanging out with your giant eagle friend will make you excited for The Last Guardian.
- Accurately represents the way spiders die - not upside down with their legs in the air like most insects, but right side up.
- It is a long game (maybe this is a con).
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A

Aaron

Member
Reviewers always play games alone, except brief stints. Never trust them in reviewing co-op games. One of the best co-op games I've played all year was FEAR 3 and that got lousy reviews.
 
K

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
Gametrailers gave this a 7.2 but their review sounded strange to me. Always sounded sketchy when a review comes out, gives a game a 7 or so and says "skip it."
 
A

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Aaron said:
Reviewers always play games alone, except brief stints. Never trust them in reviewing co-op games. One of the best co-op games I've played all year was FEAR 3 and that got lousy reviews.
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This is what I am thinking; that I might value the co-op more highly than many reviewers.
 
C

cleveridea

Member
I gave them the benefit of the doubt because of the amount of hours I put into their prior games like Dark Alliance. Still remember them fondly to this day and plan to replay.

Reviews sounded good enough that I would like, given that Action RPG >>>>>> any other genre in my mind.
 
M

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
Fine Ham Abounds said:
Morgan Webb didn't like it, so that's a pretty good indication that it's smart and fun.
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Trust me, it's not. But hey, if people want to convince themselves that dry mediocrity like LotR: Press X In The North is worth a buy in this season of amazing titles, more power to them.

Tsk. I expect better from someone with such a great KITH reference for a username.
 
S

Skilletor

Member
MattKeil said:
Trust me, it's not. But hey, if people want to convince themselves that dry mediocrity like LotR: Press X In The North is worth a buy in this season of amazing titles, more power to them.

Tsk. I expect better from someone with such a great KITH reference for a username.
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I pressed X thousands of times in Baldur's Gate and both Champions of Norrath games. That sounds like a silly criticism against the genre. Any real reasons to dislike it?
 
D

DaBuddaDa

Member
Aaron said:
Only to popular games. That's their stated policy. It's more a review of PR than anything else.
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Perhaps the score, but the text of the review describes the game, not the PR. None of it sounds promising, and it echos the technical complaints from other reviews.
 
B

bigdaddygamebot

Member
Playing as the ranger and REALLY enjoying this.

This game feels like the developers really, REALLY cared about the idea of the game and invested some love in it.

It`s fun.

There`s loot.

There`s secrets.

I haven`t even had a chance to play co-op next but man...it`s next on my list.

Thank you Snowblind!
 
J

jhawk6

Member
I bought 4 copies of this game :) One for me, and 3 for friends as early Christmas gifts ha. Thank you Target for buy 2 get 1 free!
 
B

bigdaddygamebot

Member
Although I can totally do without the whole "glowing symbol floating in the air" thing to tell me where to go next.

: /

Maybe I've been playing too much Dark Souls if I chafe under things such as this...
 
Diseased Yak

Diseased Yak

Gold Member
Heavy said:
Wow, the Snow Troll looks so good. How heavy is it?
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It's pretty weighty. The base is hollow, but the whole thing together has some heft to it. I'm a sucker for CE statues (I have tons of 'em) and this one ranks right up there with the best of the bunch (like Marcus from the GoW3 Epic).
 
M

mik

mik is unbeatable
MattKeil said:
LotR: Press X In The North
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This is sort of a hallmark of the genre. You could say the same thing about Torchlight, Diablo, et al. Not really a criticism that fans of those games are likely to balk at.
 
F

Fine Ham Abounds

Member
MattKeil said:
Trust me, it's not. But hey, if people want to convince themselves that dry mediocrity like LotR: Press X In The North is worth a buy in this season of amazing titles, more power to them.

Tsk. I expect better from someone with such a great KITH reference for a username.
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Sorry Morgan, don't hate me because you're beautiful.

In seriousness, maybe in your world I should be ashamed of loving Snowblind's style of hack and slash games, but playing fun and engaging loot-and-scoot couch co-op games with the lady of the house is my idea of fucking good ham.
 
M

Man God

Non-Canon Member
thread title is fairly amusing because if you think about it the modern movie licensed games began with crappy BG:DAesque simple button mashers.
 
J

jim-jam bongs

Member
mik said:
This is sort of a hallmark of the genre. You could say the same thing about Torchlight, Diablo, et al. Not really a criticism that fans of those games are likely to balk at.
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To be honest though, if that was someone's reaction to the game I'd like to hear it because it makes me less likely to seek out their advice in the future. I don't mean that in a negative way, it's just helpful to find reviewers who have a similar taste in games to you.
 
T

The Mana Legend

Banned
Goddammit, my gaming credit card isn't working (despite there being $76 on that account) and I want to play this so badly!

Dammit, gotta go to the bank. With how slow the internet is at my college, I expect this thing to take DAYS to download.
 
N

NullPointer

Member
Got this preloaded and waiting for me when I get home. So far the reviews haven't dampened my enthusiasm. Like others here I expect repetitious combat at some point (happens in every single combat focused game ever made), and if they've taken care to do the source material justice I'll love it even more.

I actually had a lot of fun with the simplistic licensed games that came out with the LOTR movies. They weren't deep games by any stretch, but they were still decent hack and slash fun. I'm looking for that kind of experience, only deeper and widened in scope.
 
S

Skilletor

Member
jim-jam bongs said:
To be honest though, if that was someone's reaction to the game I'd like to hear it because it makes me less likely to seek out their advice in the future. I don't mean that in a negative way, it's just helpful to find reviewers who have a similar taste in games to you.
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Very true. I'm less likely to listen to a person who thinks that is a negative when it's a staple of the games I've enjoyed from these developers.
 
A

ascii42

Member
The Mana Legend said:
Goddammit, my gaming credit card isn't working (despite there being $76 on that account) and I want to play this so badly!

Dammit, gotta go to the bank. With how slow the internet is at my college, I expect this thing to take DAYS to download.
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I think I would just say "Screw it!" and get the disc version.
 
G

garath

Member
The question on my mind is this:

If you liked Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2, do you like War in the north?

If that answer is yes, then it's a buy for me.
 
A

AdawgDaFAB

Member
garath said:
The question on my mind is this:

If you liked Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2, do you like War in the north?

If that answer is yes, then it's a buy for me.
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I would want to say yes, since it's the same idea of combat / loot systems (just with a more third person action game camera for WitN). However, BG DA2 was not made by Snowblind. It was made by Black Isle Studios. Snowblind made Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance1, Champions of Norrath and Champions: Return to Arms.

They also made Justice League Heroes but I've never played that one and thus can't say how close or not it resembles the previous 3 games I mentioned.
 
B

bababouille

Member
Totally gonna buy this one. I was pleasantly surprised and had a blast playing DS3 which was badly received by the press. I just think it's a genre that doesn't review well. Honestly, hack'n'slashes almost always have bad level design, horrible stories, bad graphics, easy difficulty, cheap reward system via loot, etc (for some reason, Diablo 3 will have all of those but still review 95+), so I can understand where all the criticism comes from. Yet I still find them immensely fun.

Snowblind has invented the couch co-op hack'n'slash experience so I have total trust in them, I have no doubt War in the North's co-op is at least as awesome as Dark Alliance's. Hopefully you guys aren't buying this on PC, are you? Because couch co-op is where it's at.
 
F

FoeHammer

Member
MattKeil said:
Trust me, it's not. But hey, if people want to convince themselves that dry mediocrity like LotR: Press X In The North is worth a buy in this season of amazing titles, more power to them.

Tsk. I expect better from someone with such a great KITH reference for a username.
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"Pressing X in The North" and "It's too long" are two of the worst criticisms ever leveraged against a game of this type.
 
R

R1CHO

Member
Played the demo on Onlive, dosnt seem nothing special... i guess in could be fun on coop, but not very sure.

PS: Not local coop on the pc version? Then its a no thanks.
 
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