Over the past few years, The Lord of the Rings franchise has gone
silent. There was a time when the world of Middle Earth was on the
forefront of everyone's mind. The film franchise was doing gangbusters
in the theaters, and the books were at the top of the bestseller lists.
On the gaming front, LOTR was doing pretty well, with a variety of games
spanning genres from action to real-time strategy performing quite
well. However, once the films had ended, interest slowed to a crawl and
the games faded out of memory.
Now, it seems that Tolkien's
world has gotten some renewed vigor. Peter Jackson's films based on The
Hobbit are finally in production, and Warner Bros. Interactive and
Snowblind Studios have unleashed a brand new game set alongside the
books, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North.
War in the North
is an action-RPG built with a strong focus on co-op. As three warriors
placed in a new story set concurrently against the events in the LOTR
trilogy, War in the North adds in a brand new plot, as well as an M
rating due to some pretty brutal combat. All of the familiar trappings
of the action-RPG genre are here, from shops and loot to blacksmiths
that repair weakened or busted weaponry; as well as some combo-based
sword (and axe) play.
However, even with the significant carnage
and orcish dismemberment, there's something too safe in War in the
North. The gameplay doesn't take any real risks, as the combat is fairly
simple, the RPG features are par for the course, and the story doesn't
make any attempt to stand out in the backdrop of its established
universe.
In War in the North, you and your group of warriors
(no soloing here; if you don't have two friends to take control of the
other two fighters, the AI will pick up the slack) must embark on a
quest to (you guessed it) the North to defeat a new threat, Agandaur,
one of Sauron's most deadly lieutenants.
One of the main ways
that the original LOTR books and the recent films succeeded is that even
though they were filled with tons of characters, you still found
yourself caring about them. When Boromir was shot down by a hail of
Uruk-hai arrows, when Gandalf was pulled into the fiery depths while
fending off the Balrog, you found yourself invested in the characters
and heartbroken by the tragedy. There is no such attachment with the
characters in War in the North.
Your team of three, a human
ranger, an elven mage, and a dwarven warrior, are completely engrossed
on their mission, revealing very little in the way of any personality or
reason for their quest aside from sheer valor. They're almost grim in
their resolute focus, and any sense of levity that appears in the books
and subsequent films is all but absent in War of the North. The game's
conversation system is largely inconsequential, as you'll talk to people
only to learn some extended details of the tepid storyline.
The
combat is a blend of melee and ranged combat, each of which you'll
employ often, regardless of who you choose. Your ranger will obviously
be more adept at bow and arrow combat while your dwarf is pretty brutal
with an axe, but they'll each be able to lean the other way when
necessary. You'll pull off some fairly simplistic combos that result in
some pretty nasty kills, but there's nothing too extravagant as far as
swordplay is concerned.
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North
is the first M-rated game set in Middle Earth, a badge that the game
wears with distinction. While you won't see any naked elves running
around or hear your dwarven warrior drop an F-bomb, the game does have a
lot more blood and carnage than you might be expecting from a Lord of
the Rings game. As you string combos together, you'll be able to
dismember orcs with your final blows, lopping off arms, legs, and heads
and getting experience multipliers for the ensuing carnage. The visceral
feel is definitely welcome, and isn't a huge departure from the intense
battles featured in the Peter Jackson films and the books, both of
which featured their fair share of bloodletting.
Some of your
special abilities can be pretty awesome, namely a Great Eagle named
Beleram, who you can order to swoop in and pounce on a specific enemy,
taking them out in one go. Your characters also have some of their own
specific abilities. Your elven mage for example can utilize some handy
magic spells, the handiest of which being Sanctuary, which surrounds the
caster in a healing shell that protects against ranged attacks.
Unfortunately,
as fun as the combat can be at first, it soon becomes a bit too
repetitive. You'll be fighting through the same hordes of enemies again
and again, with the game relying on standard tropes like fixed turrets
and mobs of enemies that become shooting galleries fairly often. More
often than not you and your party will be cornered into an area with
enemies swarming you, and once you fight them all off, you'll be free to
move onto the next area; rinse, lather, repeat.
Additionally,
while the co-op is implemented well, some flaws begin to show up when
you play the game alone. While the game has an RPG system that lets you
equip new armor and weapons to your character, you can't change your
AI-controlled teammates' equipment. You can't switch between them on the
fly, and you'll have to wait until you complete specific sections
before you're given the chance to choose one of your other characters.
You can't level them up either until you have control over them, which
is another problem. There somewhat of a workaround, as you can exit out
of your game and select them from the menu, at which point you'll pick
up at your last checkpoint as the newly selected character. However,
this is far from an elegant solution and you'll be left wondering why
you can't just select between them on the fly in a single-player game.
Another
sore spot is your inability to issue specific orders your teammates.
While you can tell them to either "Attack" or "Defend", they'll still
often act on their own accord and leave you vulnerable to attacks while
they do their own thing. I noticed this quite a bit when I was manning a
turret and swarms of enemies were attacking our group.
As I was
on the turret trying to take out as many as I could, and I had tasked
the group to defend our position. However, they still managed to keep
their attack pattern of rushing at a foe and fighting separately from
the unit. Conversely, I had them "Attack" to see what changes they would
make to their strategy. Again, they seemed to keep up whatever attack
pattern they had been adhering to before. Trying to take control of my
group felt like I was pounding away at a crosswalk button and the light
wouldn't change.
However, for all the naysaying, there is still a
good game to be found in War in the North. The combat itself is well
done, and the RPG features, while fairly standard stuff for the genre,
are also pretty solid. There's plenty of loot to be had, with many
weapons, armor, and crafting items to be found, as well as items that
can be sold for more coin.
CLOSING COMMENTS
While it’s admirable
that the team had opted to create an original story set alongside the
events in the books, you’ll wish that they had attempted to take more
risks with the project. The characters are bland and lifeless, and the
combat, while fun at first, gets pretty repetitive before too long.
* OS: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
* CPU: Intel Core2 Duo 2.4 GHz / AMD 64 X2 4400
* RAM: 2 GB
* HDD: 10 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 512 MB Graphics Memory
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9
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