The Lord of the Rings: War in the North impressions and gameplay footage

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North hasn’t been getting the press it deserves.  This month’s release list has really overshadowed this hack and slash game action rpg.  I feel like War in the North is getting written off.  IGN gave it a 7, but it’s not a 7 game — it’s better — and they probably just rushed through it.  A 7 on IGN’s “6-10” scale is terrible.  You should listen to people actually playing the game.

This is a hack and slash game like Champions of Norrath and Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance.  In fact, it was made by the same studio. The game takes place during the well-known Lord of the Rings story — starting off slightly before the hobbits reach Bree.  Aragorn is giving the playable characters a mission, which is pretty much to fight some of the northern  human bad guys.  In many ways, you play as a distraction to keep the enemy away from the hobbits.

Characters are all fun and diverse.  The standard ranged, melee, and spell caster are all here.  The skill trees have nice variety, but I wish they were a little more indepth.  I’m glad that there is a lot of equipment and it changes the look of your character instead of just being a game where you put on gear and nothing changes.

War in the North doesn’t have the same perspective as other Snowblind games.  I was expecting more of a top-down view but the camera angle is quite different.  Surprisingly the graphics are great; I say surprisingly because usually graphics are just “okay” in a game like this.

Bottom line is this is a hack and slash action rpg with a really strong emphasis on co-op.  If you’re going to complain about repetitive combat  then you’re probably not a fan of the genre.  War in the North has all of the qualities I want in a hack and slash rpg, and it’s definitely worth buying.  I’m trying to convince Keen to buy a copy.

Gameplay video of me playing after the jump.

 

 

  • Early footage of this game impressed me but I was put off by a big, talking heads publicity spot I saw in which very little of the game was shown or even discussed – a worrying sign in my view.

    How does it fare as a solo game and which platform suits it best?

  • I have it on the Xbox 360, and it looks and plays great. I haven’t researched if its better on any specific platform, but I imagine it’s close to the same on the consoles. I don’t know if PC is a port or not or if the online works well, whereas I know it works well on consoles.

    I’ve been playing solo and it’s great.

  • @Anjin: You’d think that, but as anyone who frequents IGN knows, their review scale functions on a 6-10 despite officially being 1-10, so a 7 is fairly low. They also rip the game several times in their “good” review. That’s IGN, though.

    @Intruder313: Cool looking troll!

  • Keen and Graev, i would really appreciate if you talked, like talked to each other while livestreaming, it’s more entertaining and it feels more unique and less like like the “usual”. Just a thought.

  • @Valtray: In the past we’ve streamed together with commentary, and I always try to comment when playing. We’re planning to do that tomorrow. Graev was streaming today while I was at class. We live about 800 miles away right now in different time zones, so it’s tougher to coordinate. Graev also resists putting on headphones while playing console games, but I’m trying to convince him it’s worth it.

    Tomorrow we’re streaming co-op Lord of the Rings: War in the North with commentary.

  • @Valtray: Some friends just told me they got in, so invites must have gone out recently. That’s about all I can say for now. 🙂

  • Thanks for the coverage. Read some different things but this one is looking like a real sleeper now.

  • Keen
    Off subject, but going through some old boxes I found my copy of Wing Commander 4. Was their anything better at that time than the Mark Hamill cut scenes? And of course in the box was my trusty boot disc. Newbs today don’t know anything about boot discs. lol

  • @Jay P. Remember the days when installing a game was a crap shoot? Using DOS and getting the disks to be recognized required an act of god.

  • DOS and Disks? Luxury.

    Our first computer was a ZX81 and we had to program the “games” ourselves.
    Then my mates and I had machines like Amstrad CPC-464s and Acron Electrons with Tape Drives!
    I remember being impressed with my mate’s Vic-20 and the pile of 5.25″ disks required to load some games.

  • I’ll top that. I remember paying 200.00 for FOUR MEGS OF RAM……. Yes thats right 4 megs. Really made playing Wizardry on my IBM 386 so smooth. Yeah Right…