The Lord of the Rings Online Preview

IGN PC has kicked up a new two-page preview of Turbine’s The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, based on some recent time with the game’s open beta test.

Hobbits are tossed out to Michel Delving, the Shire’s main metropolis, where they’ll undertake quests in Brockenborings, Frogmorton, and Hobbiton-Bywater for characters like Gaffer Gamgee and Farmer Maggot. For both races, you’re free to pursue the continuing Introduction story lines, which involve a handful of villains, or embark on the myriad side quests in each area. For the most part we found these side quests to be worthwhile, even if they were mostly kill and fetch quests, since they often rewarded us with useful armor and weapons and occasionally had some entertaining associated fiction. For instance, one rather lengthy quest line in the Shire had us running all over gathering ingredients. In order to acquire each one, we had to do a kill quest for an NPC before they’d be willing to hand over the requested item. Then, for the last item, the NPC just gave us what we needed, calling us stupid for expecting him to put us through a tedious ordeal for a simple favor. Refreshing twists such as this work to shake you from the zombie-like stupor easily brought on by too many consecutive kill quests.