The Lord of The Rings Online: Volume I and II Compilation (PC)

NB: As a crucial first point, the official review is just for Mines of Moria expansion. THIS PRODUCT IS BOTH THE ORIGINAL GAME AND THE EXPANSION. You can play the whole thing from this one box.

******

I have to admit that I'm a Tolkien fanatic and have been since I was 13. That aside, I'll try to be objective when reviewing this so it's as fair a representation as possible. I'll also not linger on too much of the stuff you can look up on the official website like class descriptions and how bits of the game work.

******

It's great to see such a good value combo pack of one of the market bench-marks in online games (MMO's). No doubt if you are looking at this product you've heard of World of Warcraft, or WoW as it's better known. I've played both and there's no question about where I shall spend any of my game-playing time.

There's some reasonably simple ways of telling if you or whoever you're buying for is going to like LoTRO rather than WoW:

i) If you/they are upset with the atmosphere and frequent unfairness of WoW, then this will make them/you smile.

This game's atmosphere is just astonishing in terms of both the look and feel of Middle Earth, and the community of gamers. Not once have I had abuse from other gamers, and only a few others I know have, and the perpetrator had their account suspended almost immediately by an in-game officer.

Also, any player versus player combat (PvP) is limited to one region which it is not compulsory to enter, either for questing or for advancement. Having said that, the unique way that you can play as the legions of evil is fantastic and offers great entertainment if you like that sort of thing!

ii) If you/they love The Elder Scrolls or other fantasy roleplaying games (RP), then this will make you/them grin from ear to ear.

As far as RP games go, this is the daddy in my opinion. The combination of a great community, fantastic graphics, and great character customisation mechanics mean you really can immerse yourself in the game without strange occurrences, unpleasant gamers, and one hundred other identical characters spoiling your fun.

iii) If you are a fan of the LoTR films, or love Tolkien's Middle Earth then this will put a warm fuzzy feeling in your heart.

I am a huge fan of the books, don't get me wrong, but don't expect LoTRO to be 100% accurate. That's just not practical in a game as massive as this. There have got to be enough monsters and enemies to make places feel unique and not just a repeat of previous stuff in different locations.

Having said that, the detail put into the scenery, locations from the books, enemy characters, and care taken to stick wherever possible to Tolkien's actual work (commonly referred to as 'Lore') means that there is enough here for any level of aficionado to see an object or place, and think fondly of the developer who sat working so hard to recreate on screen.

iv) If you/they hate the fact that you have to keep paying out every month, even though you've been playing for well over a year, you're laughing your way to the bank!

Yes... there's a lifetime subscription option. It's not cheap to look at on paper (it varies between £120-£140ish depending on whether there's a promotion) but if you consider that it equates to only just over a year's monthly subscriptions, that's incredibly good value for money. Especially as that includes access to all the regular updates, plus additional Volumes - like MoM - once you've bought the actual disc/download.

Anyway, a quick bit about the content:

Volume 1: Shadows of Angmar (SoA) is not a giant game world like WoW, nor do they claim it is, but as the first installment of what is clearly going to run for a long while, this is a stupidly good opening gambit. It's pretty darn big, and the mechanics of actually playing the game are really easy to master on one of the 'simple' character class types.

Hunters, Guardians, Champions, Lore-Masters, Captains, and Burglars (think back to The Hobbit and smile!) are the main classes in SoA, with Volume 2: Mines of Moria (MoM) adding two more in the form of Wardens and Rune-Keepers (rather more dubious in my opinion but they certainly don't upset the balance).

The world is simply beautiful and the quests are well paced on the whole and lead you through all the more complex parts of the game (Traits, Skills, Crafting etc.) in easy steps even though when you try and show someone new later on, it is actually a hugely complicated system with everything interlinking and threatens to make them run away screaming about how horribly their friend's life has gone wrong.

Volume 2: MoM is quite simply the most incredible add-on pack I've seen for any game. When you consider how cheap the pair have become, the sheer quantity and quality of extra game you get here is phenomenal. Moria is jaw-dropping in it's size, especially when you pause to stair at some beautifully decorated pillar that rises right out of sight, and remember the entire place (almost) is an interior set of locations!

One of the most impressive things about this game is that there are regular updates adding content. Not just quests and extra items, but entire regions and new areas to explore, all within your subscription costs. In the time since release, the world size had increased by at least a third (that's an estimate though) by the time Volume 2 was released.

In addition to the crazy amount of game hours in the ordinary questing in this one box, there's certainly little chance that anyone will run out of things to do before they add a new update. The traits, deeds, crafting, and new legendary item systems will have people screaming that they haven't had enough time to complete the existing content by the time they bring out Part 3! Imagine any part of your character and there's a million things to do to change it, be that their appearance, their title (what other players see, e.g. Bilbo Baggins: 'Burglar of Dragons'), how their abilities are enhanced by traits, and the list goes on and on.

I'll stop now as no one likes a huge review (EDIT: Oops!), and just say that for both fans of Tolkien, and of roleplaying games in general, this is a beautiful game with immersion to rival that of many many single player games like Oblivion, Witcher, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic etc.

I'm not going anywhere else for RP gaming in the foreseeable future.

Having played Warcraft for 4 years I was becoming bored with the dumbing down of the game. So I decided to try Lotro.

Instalation was ok although as is often the case a massive update patch had to be downloaded before I could play.

The 1st thing I noticed was how much better the in game graphics were. Everything was more realistic and alive.

Im now level 32 and I can honestly say its much more fun and engrossing to level than any other MMO ive played. The Epic questline really makes the difference and phasing technology is used a lot. I play a lot less hours per week now (good thing) and feel I could level pretty much all the classes to max level and learn all the Crafting without getting bored. This is without even thinking about end game.

I'll assume anyone reading this is someone who has played 'mmo' games before, most likely Warcraft. So, if you're this type of person and the sort of WoW player who always wanted to get more into the plot rather than the 'pew pew' then this game is very probably for you (If you /role your eyes quietly in despair every time you see words like 'pew pew' then don't bother reading anything else, press add to basket now, you'll be in heaven)

LOTR online has what most MMOs lack: Atmosphere. The very moment you hear the music you will know what I mean, it's gorgeous, both in looks and sounds, even on a relatively poor machine the results are amazing, I mean it. It's got a nice laid back feel to it, with time to read the quests rather than the heartless race to level on some other games.

It even has a system put in where you can play instruments just for fun, complete with it's own little system of notes and scales. It's that kind of attention to detail that makes this a winner.

Some of the starting zones can be a little weak, with a gentle introduction to combat - you'll be fighting nothing more heroic than the odd wolf and goblin for the first few days but the drama soon builds up as you level and enter more dangerous zones. It 'will' be wondering the shires and forests for the first few levels but dam they are some beautiful landscapes. If this bothers you and you need non stop action and lazer effects constantly then you'd probably be better off with something else.

Who this game is NOT for: People 'heavily' into PVP and non stop action. There is a PVP zone for high level characters to run about in, but it is not meant to be the focus for this game. If there was more PvP this would have 5 stars from me with no hesitation. And if you regularly type words like 'lulz' and 'nub' into local chat on whatever you currently play: well save your money.