Lord of the Rings Online(LOTRO) : The Gameplay

'Glonir steps into the Silvermine Deep, his trusty war axe in one hand, and war hammer in another, peers into the darkness of the mine. Dwarves, being accustomed to life underground, have heightened senses when in underground caverns and eyes that are able to perceive better than most humanoids in the darkness of a cave. All around him, even from above and below, he could hear sounds of activity, unnatural activity -- Caveclaws. Vile creatures of the deep, they are almost blind but have a high sense of hearing and vibrations to the air current movement, they are relentless hunters of any unlucky adventure who ventures into their lair.
With resolve of steel, Glonir grasp his weapons tight, aware that an ambush might land on him at any time. The once busy and properous Silvermine Deep, now taken over and ravaged by the Caveclaws, Glonir's people, the Dwarves of the Blue Mountain, have vowed to reclaim their territory, ending the Caveclaw threat once and for all.

With steady but wary steps, Glonir steps slowly, deeper into the caverns, seeking for his goal -- a dwarf, or the remnants of a missing dwarf called Duril. The condition of the surrounding area tells Glonir that Duril might have been long dead, being missing for 3 days, probably devoured by the vile creatures that inhabit the mine. Having made a promise to Duril's family, he will find out the whereabouts of the missing dwarf, his demise shall not go in vain but in turned be honored in courage. So are the way of the dwarves.

A sudden tremor shakes the ground beneath Glonir, disorientated from the sudden tremor, he gets caught offguard by a Caveclaw, emerging from the rocks right under his feet. Being a seasoned fighter, Glonir knocks back the creature. Tightening his grip on his weapons, He charges - '

Lord of Rings Online(LOTRO): Shadows of Angmar, is truly a game worth of praise. Being introduced to the game by a friend of mine, I fell in love with it the first few hours of gameplay. Although the character selection is limited to only Humans, Dwarf, Elf and Hobbit, other aspects of the game definitely compensate for it. With a diversity of specialised classes to choose from: Champion, Guardian, Captain, Minstrel, Hunter, Loremaster and Burglar; players are able to playout the rich storyline and history of Middle Earth, meeting characters like Gandalf, Gimli and other notable characters from JRR Tolkien's masterpiece.

What really attracts me personally are the in game graphics, especially the impressive background and as well as the awesome music score( sounds like an orchestra playing in the background everywhere you go!) . It really gives players the 'feel' of being one with the character, being in the environment, being in Middle Earth itself. As a Dwarven Champion, I was dual wielding all the way, dealing swift damage to my enemies, with great tankability, i could take on 3 mobs at a time(most of the time being left with 20-30% hp left after combat). The combat moves are impressive and realistic with lots of variety to choose from. Being a strong DPS class, Champions are great for fast levelling and survivability, being able to go from mob to mob without taking much rest to regen. Quite Similiar to an Arms Fury Warrior for World of Warcraft(WoW).

The game shares alot of common points with WoW, hotkeys, bag slots, combat style, action bars etc. But the best thing is, you get 5 bags with full slots in the start instead of just one! Having a profession crafting system, i.e. Armorer, Armsman, Explorer etc, players are able to create items and strenghthen themselves or ease the process of levelling. Instead of reputation, players gain titles through different task, i.e. Glonir the Undying and lots more. Players can also purchase and customize a surname to fit their character name. It also shares the same currency style as WoW and comes with a mailbox system. Their savepoints are called milestones.

Being a WoW player myself, getting familiar with this game was a breeeze. What sets the game different from WoW is the combat and graphics and as well as the great music score. The graphics are great, costume details are showed intricately with more realism, instead of the cartoonish graphics of WoW. Same goes for the background and combat.

I couldn't resist from falling in love with this game during first play. I activated my account straightaway with the Lord of the Rings Online CD-Key, and thanking my friend at the same time for sending me that buddy-key, it was truly a god-sent.

Lord of the Rings Online(LOTRO) : An Introduction

Being a fan of JRR Tolkien's for a long time, having read all his works, and now getting to play a MMORPG, an online game based on his works, it's totally amazing. I gota thank my friend James for letting me into this world, now not only i have read about Middle-Earth, I'm now part of it!

It all started a few days ago,I was checking my emails at work and received an email from my friend, stating Lord of the Ring Online Buddy Key( i had no idea what was it at that time, but the name caught my attention anyways), so i opened up and saw a jumbled up code, and thought it was a some sort of jigsaw puzzle! Lol, had to call up James to ask him what the heck was it. Getting to know that it was a access code for a Lord of the Ring Online game excited me alot, so I popped over his place over work to check it out.

Being a World of Warcraft(WoW) player myself, the interface seemed very similiar to it, sharing almost all the same hotkeys and layouts, getting to know the game was easy as I observed James playing it. Besides it being based on Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, what striked me the most was the graphics for the game, it was great. Unlike the cartoonish WoW, Lord of the Rings were more detailed and more to realism. The character detail was great as well, I noticed how intricate and outlandish the costume were, and to watch the character in action killing mobs was even bettter!.

I signed up my account on the spot and got the program from James. After a quick installation and a considerable amount of patching( it took quite long, but nonetheless, the wait was worth it), I got into the game immediately, being the impatient person that I always am. A quick google from the net brought me loads of information on this game, i read up on the classes available, and finally found the perfect one for me --- Dwarf Champion. Dwarf being the sturdy ones with high melee damage, i chose the Champion, as my WoW character was also a similiar class, an Arms Fury Orc Warrior.

Coming from the Blue Moutains, my Dwarf Champion, Glonir came from the Blue Mountains, with a gaze of steel and thick brown beard, he is the true representative of Thorin's people. Being more interested in the evil side, I was looking forward to the Uruk-hai, the Haradrim or maybe even Golbins but unfortunately, they did not have any, as there were only Men, Dwarves, Elves and Hobbits to choose from. The thought of working for Sauron with the Nazgul would be fun.

Eventually, Glonir stepped into the realm of Middle Earth, and the adventures begin...