With the War in the North being featured in the Playstation Magazine, we’ve already seen a lot of first details roll out. However, we decided to make our own summary of the article. We feel its the most detailed one out there, but we’ll let you be the judge of that. Check it out below!
Game mechanics
- Choose to play as Elf, Man or Dwarf
- Dwarves have special bonusses when fighting underground – they can see “glowing rune-covered walls” that can be taken down, the room behind then offers special items to the players
- Classes “Mage”, “Scout” and “Warrior”
- RPG progression mechanics, learn new skills
- Thus, combat will be skill-based
- Mages will be more powerful, more offensive and stronger compared to mage class as featured in other RPG’s
- Classes will be mirrored, Evil characters will be one of the three aforementioned classes
- “Classic” RPG character creation options, with sliders for customisation
- Mentions of skills such as protective “bubbles” for Mages, “mending light” – a healing upgrade for the same class- , invisibility and sneak attacks for scouts, and the ability for warriors to turn attention away from their teammates and onto themselves
- “Ice-based” spells are mentioned
- Revival mechanism allows players to resurrect their fellows (probably similar to that in LotRO)
- Finishing moves for both good and evil characters
- Players can collect items
- Interaction with NPC’s is possible trough a “Mass-effect like wheel without the moral implications”
- Choices made in conversation with NPC’s will instead either progress the game, reveal details about the game world or open up side-quests
- Game world will not be totally open, mentions of “a tight path to travel” in Mirkwood
Graphics/Visual/Art (mostly our observations from screenshots in the article)
- Mirkwood looks dark and gloomy, with light filtering in trough the branches
- Skill effects are more reminiscent of ‘Lord of the Rings Online’ than Conquest
- Armour, weapons and environment are possibly the most detailed yet in a Lord of the Rings game
- Variations in enemy appearance are much greater than in Conquest
- Game is more mature then others, combat is more intense, monsters are scarier and blood galore. Mentions of a troll chewing on a head, spiders crawling over their victims and fist-fighting Dwarves
Co-op/Online
- Singleplayer with 2-AI players, or Co-op play in several combinations. A fellowship is always three characters, and any “gaps” will be filled by an AI player
- Drop-in/Drop-out co-op play is included – allows players to join a game at any time and leave again at any time
- “Scaling mechanism” to allow new players to match up with experienced players
- Item trade between players
- Other measures are being included to prevent “me-first” play
Story/Lore (Warning: SPOILERS!)
- Game takes place during the Fellowship’s journey to Mt. Doom
- Working with Saul Zaentz to preserve tolkien lore
- Mirkwood serves as an “anchor” – most prominent area in the game
- Underground locations will also be featured and a village in the mountains is hinted at.
- Players can meet up with characters from movies and books
- Game introduction starts of with a battle between a giant eagle named ‘Beleram’ and a fellbeast
- Beleram wins the battle and gives the player their first instructions
- Beleram tells the players they have to find a wizard
- Players soon face an assault of Wargs and Orcs
Poll
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Comments:
Bareandir:
Ahhh, MEC strikes again :).
Thanks for the sweet article, trust me on this one, there is no small WiTN story to print when there is so little information out there, keep it up!
Samus1111111:
personally, I'm getting kind of tired of the same old mage, warrior, scout.... plus, the only mages in Middle Earth were Miar, so that should not even be a class because if they try to follow the lore, the mage would be way OP. I do like that more and more of the new games are incorporating the "choices you make affect your game" part.
I wondering about the part where dwarves can see glowing rune walls underground. Will there be a bonus for humans and elves like this?
Also, one last thing. Since it says that there will be finishing moves for good and evil characters, does that mean that we can play an evil character? :D
Thanks for the article Freek, really informative :D.
Knight_Gambit:
cant wait for this yahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Freek:
zach:
Arctic Squirrel:
-from here, this, it sounds like mages will be support and support only
such as freezing spells, I doubt they will kill enemies. It will hurt them and make them stop moving
it also mentions that there will be healing and bubbles. those don't kill
so far I really like how the mages sound. Just don't go overboard on the "Support". Fireballs don't support, they steal kills. instead of support, they will be "Wizards of Doom".
-Scouts so far I also like. I doubt there will be multilayer fighting, so it's not going to be like conquest. So scouts go invisable and take out one grunt of an army... big whoopdi doo.
Personally, I hope the scout will work such as a siren would in borderlands. You go invisible for like, 15 seconds. and if you do your skills corectly, then you can make it so that your melee does 100% more damage after attacking.
-and Warriors still sound beast. Being able to tank will be a sure way to have fun. Seeing a huge clump of orcs trying to attack you, then you just do a spinning attack of death. :D
So far, I APPROVE THIS GAME!
guilemaster:
This is shaping up to be a good game. I just hope that the mage isn't a mage in the traditional sense. I like to keep to my lore.
kylej13:
I hope this is more of a 3rd person, open world, action RPG, and not like Marvel Ultimate Alliance.
LOTR PO:
can't wait to see some gameplay :D hopefully on E3 :)
zach:
E3 isn't too far away, so we wont have to wait too long.
LOTR PO:
Are the pictures from the magazine of the game online anyplace? Would love to see those :)
Freek:
We do have scans but unfortunately we can't post them because doing so would be illegal (eg. we'd get in trouble :P) If you can't get the magazine I guess you'll have to make due until E3.
Bareandir:
Someone, might be you or somebody else reading this message, need to mail me those pictures asap, leave the rest to me ;).
MSN?
PM?
PSN?
LOTR PO:
TokyoBlade:
The game sounds good. Maybe we'll finally get the great LOTR game we've been waiting so long for :P
Samus1111111:
It sounds like it might just be a LotR version of Dragon Age though... which would be cool, but unoriginal :D
Freek:
That's because Dragon Age is already inspired by LotR :P But I dont think it'll be free roam.
Samus1111111:
oh, lol, guess I should have figured that out... :P
I hope it'll be free roam, but ya, I'm not expecting it.
Ilaras of The Dunedain:
I was really hoping for a free roam... and combat like Oblivion. But I'm still anxious for this game. Thanks for the excellent news!!! :)
Cheeky Hobbit:
Hmm, I dunno. I'm sceptical at this point.
Will be good to (hopefully) see the game in action at E3.
zach:
Yep E3 is coming around pretty soon!
LOTR PO:
The pictures in the magazine, are those arts or are they actual gameplay?
ElveHaldir:
It looks like actual gameplay, but it definitly needs more polishing in this phase :)
Conquest looked a lot worse before it was polished :P
zach:
Yea they are actual gameplay pics.
Cheeky Hobbit:
They're pretty hit and miss visually... mostly miss.
Good thing it's still a year or so away.
Freek:
Good thing it's still a year or so away.
Cheeky Hobbit:
Well Snowblind did boast 'oustanding visuals' when announcing the game. I'd like for them to stick to their word! :P
They look okay, to be fair. Just nothing spesh.
Bareandir:
Thanks to a user, lets call him "darkwarg", here are some pictures he "found" on the internet:
http://s883.photobucket.com/albums/a...mBoxV102/LOTR/
Freek:
They look okay, to be fair. Just nothing spesh.
zach:
Well there are large images in the magazine but they are so enlarged they honestly look horrible. The first page spread with the title is large but the image is of horrible quality.
Cheeky Hobbit:
Yeah, fair enough. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Mithrandir7:
Certainly we must wait until the game is farther along in development to really pass judgement on the graphics. I'm still just as excited :)
olaf bloodaxe:
.
lol
Samus1111111:
lol, true :D
ASAGIROCK:
i know it's illegal but, please if someone has those scans of war in the north message me! my mail is ASAGIROCK@GMAIL.COM
Esparado87:
Mages and invicble scouts again....CMON!!!!
Whats wrong with Guardian (defense/shield), Warrior (2 1h/2h/bezerker/trow weapons) and Archers (bow/xbow/light melee weapons)?????
If they rly need magic, just give Elfs good healing, Men mediocre healing and Dwarfs something else...
would't mind some kind of alchemy/forging element...