Apparently another LotR game?

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**Melissia**

Lord of the Rings: War in the North
http://store.steampowered.com/app/32800

"The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is a co-op Action RPG that immerses you and your friends in a brutal new chapter in the War of the Ring. Snowblind Studios is in the unique position of drawing inspiration from both the literary and film rights to world of Middle-earth, allowing players to bloody their axes on a wide range of deadly enemies and traverse both established and never-before-seen locations. The result is a journey that is both epic and intimate, familiar yet unexpected.

* Action Meets RPG - Intense, visceral, and satisfying combat. Rich, layered, and impactful character progression. In War in the North, you get both. Find and equip the best loot, upgrade your hero using a wide range of skills and items, and feel the intense satisfaction of rushing into real-time battles with friends by your side. Fight through the brutal realities of the war on all fronts that were brought to life in the lore. Immerse yourself and make your own mark on Middle-earth.

* Co-op at its Core - Build your own fellowship of three heroes to confront the growing army in the North. The survival of your group and all of Middle-earth depends upon your uniquely skilled heroes working together. You must fight together or you will die alone, and these high stakes make the experience of playing together both socially engaging and incredibly satisfying. The first time you rescue a friend who has been grabbed by a troll and is desperately yelling for help, you will understand what we mean.

* An Untold Story - While much attention and focus has been placed on the journey of the One Ring, the assault on Middle-earth hits all corners of the map. War in the North turns our attention towards an integral part of the storyline that is grounded in details within the books and various appendices. This is not someone else’s fight. This is your own effort to forage a way through the dark, dangerous, and unknown landscape, defending all that is yours. This is your war.

It sounds kinda interesting, but I want to know more about the game's character customization...

edit: Bleh, they're as cliche'd as they come, with no real customization aside from skills. Eradan, human ranger, Farin, dwarf champion, and Andriel, elven loremaster.

**MrDwhitey**

At the very least, it sounds like you wont be able to change gender or race for each class. They seem to have set characters, though I'm hoping at least armour can be made to look different.

**Iur_tae_mont**

I preordered the Collector's Edition from GameStop a few weeks ago.

Mostly for the Quiver, but the game looks fun. Nice to see a LotR game where you aren't stalking the Fellowship.

**Melissia**

I think you can change armor and gear, as I saw Andriel with two different styles of dresses.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

so yeah, there's probably different armor types. Looks like the former is meant for a melee build for the loremaster, while the latter is a caster build?

**MrDwhitey**

Probably, but this is looking like one I'll want to see in action more before I think of getting it.

Not really enjoyed many LotR games that have been made.

Co-op though is always a massive plus.

**Melissia**

I enjoyed the two RTSs, myself-- both of them in fact. But the action-rpgs... not so much. They're a rental at best, and since I don't have the most modern consoles anymore, that means I'd not likely get them right now cause I can't rent on PC obviously. The MMORPG was fun, if a bit grindier than I'd like.

**bombboy1252**

The last LoTR game I played was on the original xbox, and you were following the fellowship, it was a turn based RPG I believed...It was pretty fun

**djphranq**

Last LOTR game I played was The Two Towers on the PS2. I've never tried any of the RTS games.

**Macok**

The trailer was butt ugly. Totally not LotR like imho. I won't be holding my breath over this game.

**Toastedandy**

I see LOTR games the same way I see Dragonball z games, same crap regurgitated.

**Soladrin**

Toastedandy wrote:I see LOTR games the same way I see Dragonball z games, same crap regurgitated.

This.

**Ahtman**

Snowblind is the developer and they also made Baldur's Gate on the consoles as well as the Champions of Norrath games. I was disappointed to hear that it is online co-op only, as BG and CoN were great same room co-op games.

**Necroshea**

I like it so far. It looks like it has a decent co op system, and I haven't played a decent story co op game in a long time.

**Bromsy**

The two RTS games were the only ones I liked that I can remember. If I wanted to play something along the lines of this one, i'll just reinstall Dragon Age.

**Ahtman**

Bromsy wrote:The two RTS games were the only ones I liked that I can remember. If I wanted to play something along the lines of this one, i'll just reinstall Dragon Age.

It would be more accurate to say you would reinstall Diablo II or Torchlight. They are at least the same type of game.

**Bromsy**

Certainly looks like it plays very similar to Dragon Age to me, from the trailer. Lacking the free roaming/world map stuff, of course, but not an isometric dungeon crawler clickfest either.

**Ahtman**

Bromsy wrote:but not an isometric dungeon crawler clickfest either.

That is becuase they have moved beyond isometric. I imagine it requires a controller to play, much like the Batman games on PC, since it is designed primarily as a console title. It is also probably why there is no same system co-op.

**Melissia**

Ahtman wrote:I imagine it requires a controller to play, much like the Batman games on PC

... uhm... that doesn't require a controller at all.

I greatly enjoyed it just fine without any controller. My mouse buttons were more than enough for the task.

**Ahtman**

Require was to strong a word. You can still tell that it was designed with consoles in mind. Same goes with Oblivion and Mass Affect. If they had been designed with PC as their primary system the layout would have been different.

**Melissia**

Err, again, not really, especially for Oblivion, which had a very similar if not essentially the same control scheme as its predecessor, which wasn't (IIRC) a console game.

**Ahtman**

Melissia wrote:Err, again, not really, especially for Oblivion, which had a very similar if not essentially the same control scheme as its predecessor, which wasn't (IIRC) a console game.

It was.

There is also a GotY edition. Having played all the other games that weren't also on an Xbox, you can tell the difference. They controlled fine, my point was that they don't have to do mouse point and click (diablo) anymore for Action RPGs.

**Melissia**

Then that's what you should ahve said, instead of making the rather silly statement that they REQUIRE controllers.

**Ahtman**

Melissia wrote:Then that's what you should ahve said, instead of making the rather silly statement that they REQUIRE controllers.

Yes mom.

**rockerbikie**

I don't care about bland looks and classes. We are playing Lord of the Rings. One of the most cheesiest Game and Movie Franchises. I don't expect a huge customization in classes and skills, if we did we'll end up having a catapault Ninja Pirate as a class.

**Melissia**

Actually I was mostly bemoaning no customization in appearance, race, and gender, and so on.