The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar review - Book 1: The First 25 Levels

OK, when I said I'd be back "soon" in my last post, I obviously meant "in two months time". However, here I am at last with the first part of what will hopefully become at three part (or Books as I'm calling them) review of The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadow of Angmar sometime in the future. The first part will look at all the stuff I usefully cover in my reviews - graphics, sound, plot, game mechanics, innovation, and value. However, it will purely concentrate on the first 25 levels of gameplay. The second part will cover the other 25 levels, and part 3 will cover the "end game" material and possibly PvP if I can bring myself to try it. My opinions may change over time. For example when I first started playing World of Warcraft I was very impressed with the graphics. However, by the time I'd reached level 45 I started to notice how often the same buildings were repeated throughout the world which felt like lazy design. Anyway, we've got a lot to talk about so let's get started.

Format: PC DVD-ROM
Publisher: Codemasters
Developer: Turbine
Genre: MMORPG
Region: Europe
Price: £30 for the game, then £9 a month for subscription

Some five or six years ago, Sierra announced plans to bring Tolkien's world alive on the PC as an MMORPG, originally titled Middle-Earth Online. After a rather protracted and troubled gestation period Sierra eventually gave up on the idea, and developers Turbine took over the project. It eventually found a home under the wing of Codemasters in Europe, who were taking their first strides into the world of online gaming with games like Archlord and RF Online. Over the years the game has changed significantly - for example there were originally over 30 different character classes planned for the game, in the end there are only 7 in the final product. While some may see this as a disappointment I see it as good thing, as it meant that the finished game was more focused and honed. New character classes aren't completely ruled out anyway, they can always be introduced in future expansions.

Graphics: 9 out of 10
Considering I can only run my copy of the game at the "Medium" setting (there's High and Very High after that), the graphics are still very impressive. Turbine have done a tremendous job of bringing Tolkien's vision of Middle-Earth to live. Players can explore famous areas such as The Shire, with it's grassy fields, round doors and good, tilled earth. Or they can venture into spooky lands like The Old Forest or the Barrow-Downs, or downright evil and treacherous areas like the Ettenmoors or Angmar itself. The look of the game is definitely inspired by the film trilogy to a certain extent, but things look just different enough to avoid a law suit. But the beauty of the game is that it can go into far more detail than the films, or even the book trilogy could afford. Events in the game run parallel to Frodo's epic journey to Mount Doom and take to you to places that the Fellowship never went near, such as Lake Evendim and Ered Luin (the Blue Mountains). It is obvious that Turbine have done an incredible amount of research in order to create this game, not simply reading the trilogy but also the many back stories that flesh out the history of the world.

The land of The Shire is relatively peaceful and stress free, however you will have to travel to far worse places in your quest to aid Strider and the Rangers under his command.

Sound and Music: 8 out of 10
Music, much like the graphics, shares the style of the blockbuster film trilogy while managing not to directly steal from it out right. Many of the pieces written for the game would not feel out of place at all in Peter Jackson's opus. There are the quaint ditties of the Shire, the foreboding and unsettling tunes of The Great Barrow, and the pounding drum fuelled music that plays when you venture into Orc territory. It's all great stuff.

As well as the music composed specifically for the game Turbine also decided to enable players to play their own instruments in the game using various buttons on the keyboard. This is both a blessing and a curse, a for every person who hear playing a magnificent rendition of the theme from The Legend of Zelda, there will be three others making sounds that sound like somebody mangling a cat, or even worse, playing Mmmm-bop by Hanson!

Sound is alright but after a while you start to notice the same sounds appearing again and again, for example a disgusting flesh eating worm makes that same gurgling sound as a "cave claw" (nasty underground beasty) and the various lynxes you come across in the game.

It's also worth mentioning that the game has voice chat built in that you can use to talk to your Fellowship, however I haven't personally tried it so I don't know how well it works. If it's decent, it means you won't have to worry about using a third part application like Ventrilo or TeamSpeak while you play.

Plot and Character: 9 out of 10
Why do I have a rating for Plot and Character when this is an MMO, you ask? Simple - LOTRO uses instances to tell a story that only you and your party will experience. Not that there aren't hundreds of other people taking part as well, but they won't be able to interrupt or steal the item you're supposed to be looking for. At the time of me writing this review, there are currently 10 separate "Books" to play through each with multiple chapters, and they revolve around helping out Frodo and the Fellowship without them realising, by aiding the Rangers and keeping the Witch Lord of Angmar off their backs. The first 8 Books were included in the game at launch, and Books 9 and 10 have been added as expansions later on. These expansions brought with them more plot, as well as around 100 new quests per update and entire new areas such as Evendim.

The view of Weathertop from the Lone Lands

Game Mechanics: 9 out of 10
LOTRO is built around a very similar template to World of Warcraft, and shares many of the same features that helped make that game so successful, such as "rest XP" (where you earn bonus experience points while you're logged out of your account, which helps infrequent players keep up with those who can afford to spend many hours a day in Middle-Earth).

It also brings quite a few minor innovations and improvements of its own to the table, which include not having to constantly buy arrows if you use a bow, and the Deeds, Titles and Traits. Deeds can be compared to Xbox 360 Achievements, for example killing 100 goblins in a certain area, completing a certain amount of quests, or achieving a certain rank in one of your three professions. By completing Deeds you also earn Titles, which are simply pieces of text that you can choose to display after your character name. For example, at the moment my character is known as "Davriel Dawnspire, Grand Master Farmer" but there are dozens of these to choose from and your repertoire is constantly expanding. Traits are also earned from completing Deeds, but are arguably more useful. They range from stat boosts to new abilities. For example finding every Elf ruin in Ered Luin may give you +1 Wisdom. The Traits are also divided in various types, from standard traits, class traits, race traits and eventually legendary traits if you can find the deeds that unlock them. You are only allowed to equip a certain amount of these depending on your level and they also cost money to equip, so you have to pick and choose them carefully.

Also new in LOTRO is the Hope/Dread system. In happy, sunny areas such as the Shire, you heart will be full of hope and your morale (HP) will increase slightly. When you visit a slightly scarier area like the Old Forest, you will suffer a slight dip in HP as your morale goes down a bit. When faced with the servants of Angmar such as the Nazgul, you will suffer from Dread and your morale with decrease even further. When you are defeated in combat you also gain some Dread, which will either dissipate after about 10 minutes or if you get defeated again before it wears off, will get even worse. When under the influence of Dread you will also experience certain visual effects such as the border of the screen becoming blurry and the sky becoming much darker.

I'm now going to attempt to take you through the first 25 levels of the game. Not in great detail or we'd be here all day, but just enough to give you a taste of what to expect. When you first start the game, you will be asked to choose your race from either Man, Elf, Dwarf or Hobbit, your characters sex, their appearance, their name, the area of origin, and finally their class. There are seven classes in all (Hunter, Burglar, Lore-master, Guardian, Champion, Captain and Minstrel), but some of them will be locked depending on the race your choose. Each class has its own benefits - for example I chose to be a Hunter, who is very good from a distance (being adept with the bow and arrow), can use traps, track animals and enemies, and also use wayfaring skills to instantly warp themselves and their entire party to various major locations in Middle-Earth. These skills are gradually dished out every time you level up and will cost you money to buy.

Anyway, your first level will be set in an instance (an area containing only you) and the scene will be set. This also varies depending on which race you choose. Personally, I started in the Elven sanctuary of Edhelion many years in the past, just before evil dwarf Skorgrim Dourhand destroyed it. After escaping with the help of Elrond, I left the instance and was in my character starting area near Thorin's Gate. I then did some fairly simple quests until I was around level 6, before being taken to another instance so I could finish my Introduction. After this instance was finished I was then moved to the town of Celondim and urged to visit the Hunter Trainer and the Vocation Trainer. At the Vocation trainer I chose which package of professions I wanted to take up. In this game, you can't choose your profession individually (like in WoW), you have to pick a group of three that are associated with each other in some way. As I am an Hunter, I chose to be a Woodsman, which includes the professions of Woodworker, Forester and Farmer. So I can chop, gather and treat wood with the Forester profession, then combine it with other materials and make wood based weapons with my Woodworking skills. The third profession, Farmer, allows me to grow my own vegetables, crops and pipeweed, which can be sold to other players (mainly Cooks). All of the Vocations are interdependent in some way - for example my Forestry profession also allows me to turn animal hides into leather. This is not really useful for myself, but other jobs such as armourers or tailors need the leather in order to do their jobs, so the leather becomes my main source of income when sold in the Auction House. Many of my woodworking recipes also need metal ingots which have to be dug up and smelted by Prospectors.

Somewhere between levels 10-20, you will be able to train your character to wear better armour, depending on how good the armour was when you started with. My Hunter could only wear light armour when I started, but upon reaching level 10 I was allowed to move up to medium armour. I don't know whether I'll also be able to wear heavy armour eventually, but I expect so. You also unlock more weapon proficiencies, so if you want to be a Hunter two can dual wield two swords instead of using a bow and arrow, then so be it.

Also during levels 10-20 I took part in the first of the 10 Books, which is where the main story line takes place. Book 1 consisted of 12 Chapters, most of which required assistance from other players and also took part in instances. Book 1 climaxes in a trip to the Great Barrow to face off against the dreaded Wight-Lord, but he's not too hard to see off as long as you bring friends and you're not all the same class. It's important to have a varied party, and strongly recommended to bring at least one Minstrel (the healing class) and one Champion (the tank). My role in parties is mostly to drop a trap, then go behind everyone else and fire arrows at our enemies. These arrows can inflict various status effects such as slowing them down to half speed.

At level 22 I earned my first major wayfaring skill, which allows me to instantly warp my entire party to Michel Delving in the Shire. As the game gradually goes on I will obtain more and more of these, with the more important places having quests associated with them before I can get the skill.

The next part will cover levels 26-50, but don't expect a full review next time, this is it. It will be more of an update. I know one thing I've got to look forward to is buying my mount at level 35, for the sum of 4 Gold and 250 Silver pieces. I'm already up to 3 gold thanks to my business in the Auction House, so I should have enough cash by the time I'm there.

Here he is boys and girls, the baddy of the story (so far) - the very naughty
Witch-King of Angmar.

Innovation and Cleverness: 7 out of 10
While LOTRO does indeed borrow a lot from WoW, it has undoubtedly improved upon the high standard set by Blizzard with the gameplay additions such as the Deeds, Titles, Traits, Hope/Dread, and in many other little ways. I can't give it full marks because after all it is based upon someone else's world. I can't imagine Tolkien would have ever imagined that people would be able to wander around a virtual Middle-Earth, or what he would have thought about the idea, but Turbine have done the best job possible in my opinion. They haven't just used the main book trilogy as their inspiration and source for material, it's obvious in the details they've put in that they're also very familiar with all of the back story as well, such as the The Silmarillion and the 12 volume History of Middle-Earth. This makes the world of LOTRO a very rich and exciting place to be, and while the lands that are currently unlocked aren't as big as the world in WoW there's actually more to do in that smaller space.

Value and Replayability: 8 out of 10
The high score in this category is mainly for how replayable the game is. There are hundreds of quests, four races and seven classes which all play very differently thanks to their unique abilities. Like WoW, you can have more than one character on the go (I think the maximum is 7) so if you wanted to you could play a little of each class before deciding which one to concentrate your efforts on.

Whether a subscription based MMO could ever be called good value for money is debatable. In the case of LOTRO, you pay around £30 for the game and get 30 days free, then you have to pay another £9 for every month you want to keep playing after that. On the plus side, extra content and tweaks to the game are being added all the time by a dedicated support team which isn't free to provide after all. Personally, I traded in another game when I bought this, and got £22 for it so the game only cost me £8. I'm going to review how I feel about the game at the end of every month and if I'm not enjoying it or not playing it any more I will walk away - just like I did with WoW and Final Fantasy XI. There is currently a 7 day free trial available - but I have to warn you the game is so addictive you'll probably end up buying it if you try it!

Overall (for the first 25 levels): 9 out of 10
Fans of Lord of the Rings, be it in book or film form, will get a lot out of this. Those who have played WoW for months and are starting to get a bit tired of it may feel refreshed after a visit to Middle-Earth. At the moment, I'm still enjoying it despite the occasional run-in with a complete idiot (you get this in every online game, but it doesn't seem quite as bad as most in LOTRO because a lot of the people playing are quite intelligent).

Albatross18: Realms of Pangya review

Hi once again and welcome to another review, this time for the relatively unknown game Albatross18: Realms of Pangya.

Format: PC

Developer: Ntreev Soft

Publisher: Hanbitsoft, GameFactory Inc

Genre: Massively Multiplayer Online Golf RPG

Region: US and Europe

Where to buy: Sign up and download for free at www.albatross18.com

There have been many quality golf games over the years, from Leaderboard back on the Commodore 64, through the Links series, to Mario Golf, Everybody's Golf (aka Hot Shots), The Tiger Woods PGA series and beyond. With the odd exception (such as EA's Tiger Woods games or Nintendo's Touch Golf on the DS) the basic controls and the way each game works has remained the same. Except this game melds the traditional golf game with ideas borrowed from Japanese RPGs. Intrigued? So was I...

Graphics: 8 out of 10
The graphics in Albatross18 are extremely impressive considering this is a free game. The courses are all very well designed and there's quite a bit of variety between them, including sunny tropical beaches, snowy festive landscapes, huge battleships and windy valleys. In Korea, where the game originated from, they have additional courses that haven't been released here, which include a desert region, an icy course and a hellish volcanic area. This will no doubt eventually make it to our version of the game, but Korea is already in Season 3 of the game and we only have Season 2, so we have some catching up to do.

Considering how good the graphics are it's surprising how little loading time there is, and lag is also noteable by its absence. This really is a slick package. Characters are all drawn in an anime style, featuring big eyes and other exaggerated features. They all look like something you'd find in a typical traditional Japanese console RPG (except of course this game was made in Korea).

Sound & Music: 7 out of 10
Now I must admit that when it comes to the music in Albatross18, you will either love it or hate it. It's very catchy, upbeat, cheerful and cute, not to mention bordering on annoying. I love certain tunes (including one of the ones that plays in the background of Blue Water, but I really can't stand others (the music of North Wiz comes to mind). You'll either be tolerant of it, or you'll turn it off straight away.

There's not a lot of sound effects, but what is there is decent enough. There's the shout of "PangYA!" whenever you pull of a perfect shot (which apparently means bang in Korean), the whistle off the ball as it flies through the air, the thwack as you hit it and other small, unobtusive sounds. Again, considering that this is a free download, the production values manage to outstrip expectations quite easily.

Game Mechanics: 9 out of 10
If you're familiar with other casual golf games such as Mario Golf, you will be able to pick up and play Albatross18 without any problems whatsoever. The same style in swing bar that has been featured in golf titles for close to two decades is in place. Basically, you have a bar at the bottom of the screen with the maximum yardage of your selected club displayed on it, and measurements in between. The first click of the left mouse button (or press of the space bar) starts a small bar moving from left to right. You then have to click again to decide how hard you hit the ball, and the bar will start heading back towards the left. Finally, you have to stop the bar as close to the middle of the pink section at the start as possible, to decide the accuracy of the shot. If you miss a little to the left or right your shot will go to the left or right respectively. If you miss by a lot the shot will be a complete mishit.

You all also have a small picture of the ball in the bottom left with a blue dot in it. You can move this dot to the top to put top spin on the ball, or to the bottom to apply backspin. You can also move it to the left or right to curve the ball, which is very useful if you have a tree directly in front of you which you need to avoid, for example. The controls don't end there, as special moves can also be pulled of by keying in various combinations of the arrow keys as the shot is taking place, including super topspin and backspin, the tomahawk shot and the cobra shot. While the game is very easy for newcomers to get used to, these extra moves and advanced features give the pros plenty of flexibility and depth.

Speaking of depth, you character starts off at the Rookie F level, and moves up to Rookie A where they will then become Beginner E. This pattern then carries on all the way through Junior, Senior, Amateur, Semi-Pro, Pro and National Pro, with the amount of experience needed to advance increasing exponentially from one level to the next. Moving up ranks gives both advantages and disadvantages. For example as a Rookie player you will have a special necklace that increases your accuracy, but as soon as you reach Beginner you won't be able to wear it anymore. Instead Beginner players get an additional Power slot to spend on their character.

Characters can be powered up in various categories, including power, control, spin and accuracy, usually by equipping certain items and sometimes when leveling up. There are two ways of powering up, the first increasing certain attributes by equipping an item, the effects of which are lost when you equip something else. However, some items also come with "slots" which you can spend Pang (the games main currency) to upgrade, which are then permanently part of your character (or at least until you downgrade them).

Pang is earned by playing skillfully, in a similar manner to the way that Kudos is earned in PGR3. You get certain amounts for completing a hole at par (typically 3 to 10 Pang depending on the difficulty of the course) with significantly higher amounts being awarded for Birdies, Eagles, Albatrosses and a Hole in One. You also get pang for hitting the ball further than the clubs typical range (either by using a slope, spin or the wind), very difficult chip-in shots, long putts and for pulling off the special moves. An extra 1000 Pang is awarded every time you beat your personal best on one of the courses, but considering that the really useful stuff in the Shop starts at 5100 Pang minimum and goes up to around 300000 for the really good stuff, expect to be saving for a while. Extra characters and caddies also have to be bought with pang, or with Cookies, which is the way that Hanbitsoft make their money.

Cookies can only be gained by buying them with real money on the web site, with prices ranging from about $10 to $50. Certain items of clothing in the shop, or extra charters can only be bought with Cookies. Now, I know what you're thinking, what's to stop rich kids from just buying tons of Cookies and then just buying all the good stuff?

Well, they can... but in most cases the Cookie versions of clothing and items are only a little bit better than the Pang equivalents. Plus if you buy an item of clothing with slots on it you still need to pay out a load of pang in order to upgrade them. So while you gain a slight advantage buy paying out some cash, it isn't really that much of a big deal. If you don't want to spend your money on this game, don't bother. Chances are however you'll find yourself enjoying yourself so much you'll actually want to support the developers by reinvesting some cash into the game.

There are several modes of play. To start with you will only have access to the VS room, where you can play Stroke or Match games with 2-4 people, with each person taking turns. This is the best way to earn experience and to have a more personal game with just a few people. Once you advance past the first level, you will unlock access to the Tournament server. Here, up to 30 people play a full 18 hole round of golf at the same time, with a maximum time limit (usuallly between 30-40 minutes) for everyone to complete the course. Scores are updated in real time and the wind and weather are hard to predict, giving a different experience every time. Then we have the new Pang Battle mode, which is basically like Skins in traditional golf where you put a certain amount of Pang on the line per hole and the winner takes the pot. Finally, there's Family mode - which lets you and other real life friends or family play on the same computer.

Innovation and Cleverness: 7 out of 10
While casual golf games have been around for a long time, and even a golf RPG has been done before (the Game Boy Color version of Mario Golf) the way that Albatross18 fuses the two genres together makes it a rather unique playing experience. When I've mentioned the idea of a golf RPG to some of my friends they have been both confused and a bit disgusted by the idea, but you really should give the game a chance. There is practically no risk involved seeing as the game costs nothing to download and runs smoothly on modest PC's - in fact I'd say the only risk is that you will become addicted to the game and spend the next few months of your life playing golf with strangers on fantasy islands. There are those who will never "get it" and will remain content to just waste away their lives playing Halo 2 until the end of time - their loss in my opinion. If you fancy something different then don't be afraid of giving it a try.

I would also like to mention the Clubstar Calendar system as something I found particularly innovative. On your account page on the Albatross18 web site, you will find your very own Clubstar Calendar page. For every day that you play a full game and then log out, you will earn a sticker on the calendar. Prizes are then awarded for those that manage to play on 7 days, 15 days and full month, with the prize getting better each time. Furthermore, there are 5 additional randomly selected days where you will also earn an item just for playing that day. This gives you an incentive to keep coming back, and the better prizes are really worthwhile. At the moment you can earn a special ball for playing everyday in a month - the Golden Phoenix, which is only available this way and can't be bought with Pang or Cookies, although this could change at any time. It's really not that difficult to play everyday, because a 3 hole, 2 player VS game only take about 15 minutes at the most.

Value and Replayability: 10 out of 10
Being a free game, Albatross18 is of course exceptional value, but there's a ton of things to do in the game as well. To start with there's 8 courses in the game at the moment, all of which have their own little quirks, so these will take a fair bit of time just to get used to and improve your score. Then there's the leveling up system, which will take you a fair old while to get all the way to the top. It takes most people an average of 30 hours just to get from Rookie to Beginner, so you can imagine how long it will take to get to National Pro. There's also the items, character upgrades and random variables such as the wind and weather that ensure you never experience the same game twice, even on the same course. This guarantees things will never become boring. Finally, you have all the real people that you will meet and talk to as you play, which have to be one of the nicest on line communities I've yet come across. Golf is a much more gentle game than an FPS and I can't help thinking that this has some effect on the attitude of the people on the servers, there much less aggressive and less likely to swear at you. There's also a fairly high percentage of female players which makes a refreshing change.

Overall: 9 out of 10
At first I only downloaded this game out of curiosity because I heard that a version of it was coming to the Nintendo Wii (Super Swing Golf PANGYA) but it didn't take long for me to be hooked. Now it has become one of the best games I have played all year and I sincerely recommend it to anyone who isn't afraid to try something a little different, or is strapped for cash and want a good new game to play. With Albatross18, Ntreev have scored a hole in one!