The Lord of the Rings Online Reviews

Several more enthusiastic reviews of Turbine’s The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar have been posted to the web. The first is at GameSpy with an overall score of 4.5/5:

The Lord of the Rings Online had a difficult journey to make it to launch day. Never mind the impossible expectations of legions of Tolkien fans who probably know the lore better than Tolkien himself did, the game also had to be a fun MMO in its own right. That The Lord of the Rings Online could whether the storm of player expectations and its development troubles and still be a decent game is an achievement in itself. That it could go through all that and come out the other side as an exceptional entry into the genre is nothing short of miraculous. Oh, the game has some shakedown issues it needs to deal with — particularly the economy — but all told, The Lord of the Rings is off to a great start and its future looks boundless.

The second is at Ace Gamez with an overall score of 9/10:

For a game that could have been a disastrous use of one of the greatest fantasy worlds ever written, it’s nice to see how much of a triumph The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar actually is. Its ideas may be borrowed, but they’ve been vastly improved upon, showing just how adept Turbine are at understanding what it was that made World of Warcraft the success it has become, while also improving on some of the gameplay that even WoW has yet to tackle. It’s a game that lovingly recreates its source material with a passion than fans of Tolkien’s works will be very pleased with, but most importantly it’s a game that’s easily accessible and fun to play, which was always the one thing that made WoW triumph over all those that had come before it. The dedicated World of Warcraft masses may find it difficult to abandon their chosen game for something new, but those escaping its clutches to find a new place to call home, or anyone simply seeking to explore the genre, will easily find LOTR Online a more than worthy successor, a game that is perhaps the closest rival Blizzard has had for the past three years.

The third is at The New York Times with no overall score:

And so it turns out in the game that you, the player, become a part of Aragorn’s secret task force that has been protecting these peasants and hobbits all along. Tolkien always makes clear that there are other battles happening all over the place while the Fellowship makes its way to Mordor, and in the game you get to go fight them, mostly against the remnants of the realm of the witch-king in Angmar (the witch-king himself, of course, is off chasing the ring).

The fourth is at GameTrailers with an overall score of 8.5/10:

Despite belonging to a playing field overrun by fantasy geeks and diehard online-RPG veterans, LOTRO reverses the trend of alienating casual gamers making the experience enticing and accessible to all. With a plenitude of adventures to undertake, crisp variations of time-tested MMORPG traditions, and a host of social and creative possibilities within the Lord of the Rings universe, LOTRO is undeniably hobbit-forming.

And the fifth is at Allakhazam with no overall score:

After all the considerations on gameplay and presentation, the age old question must be asked: is it fun? The game certainly is! Combat is thorough and exciting; instances are thrilling with great turns; the world is beautiful to look at; and player versus player is dynamic. The contrast to all those alone shows the options available to any player. One could further look at the grand scope of this article and see there is something for everyone. Do you want a new world to explore and experience? Do you want solo combat? Do you want epic group encounters? Do you want to war against your fellow players? Do you want to craft and make a lot of money? There is certainly no one that could say no to all of them. That is exactly what this game does: it has something for everyone.