The Lord of the Rings: War in the North - Form Your Own Fellowship
Why slay orcs on your own when you could do it with friends?
The Misty Mountains are a cold and desolate place. Snow blows in gusts across its craggy peaks, and the trek through its narrow, winding paths is a treacherous one. Mind you, it's made all the more dangerous by the presence of Sauron's forces, and as our fellowship made its way up over a rise, we came across a group of orcs and a troll, patrolling the only way forward. As if that wasn't enough, a lone sentry also stood on an outcrop, ever watchful of the paths leading to the mountain fortress.
Well, maybe not so watchful, given I was able to stand in clear sight, draw my bow and pop his head like a champagne cork with a well-placed arrow. Good thing too. If he'd spotted me, he'd call in reinforcements and the patrol slowly making its way back and forth along the path wouldn't be the only thing for us to worry about.
We move forward: elf, dwarf and ranger, ready to do battle and fight our way through this unforgiving environment. This is The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, a game that hopes to give players a window into an untold story in Tolkien's famous world. Specifically, the battles that were fought to prevent the armies led by Agandaur, one of Sauron's chief lieutenants, from coming south and crushing everything the fellowship were fighting so hard to achieve.
You know, from this height, you could really hock a loogie on someone.
What better way to save the fellowship, then, than to form your own? War in the North is designed to be played through in its entirety with two friends (or two AI companions if you so choose) and that's potentially a potent recipe for action RPG success.
The aim is to balance each character's abilities, so that they complement one another, bringing additional strategy to combat. The dwarf is more of a melee fighter, able to dish out – and take - heavy damage. The ranger is equally skilled with bow, arrow and sword, and also has a special ability that lets him turn temporarily invisible in order to sneak up on enemies. The elf/mage, on the other hand, can dish out magical damage, but is also the group protector, able to cast a protective bubble that the fighters can duck back inside if they're taking too much punishment.
Of course, each character also has plenty of scope for customisation. With each level gained players can assign stat points and unlock or upgrade skills. With 20 abilities (each of which has five levels) to choose from, players will be able to mould their characters as they see fit. In other words, the elf doesn't have to be a support class if you don't want her to be.
So how does that all play out in battle? To be honest, it's too early to tell, and my particular fellowship simply wasn't thrown into any situation that required us to work together. Instead, we mostly hacked and slashed our way through each battle without much strategy. It was good, chaotic fun, but definitely tuned to be easy.
Little did the fellowship know, but Brian the troll was just working for Sauron during winter break to pay his college tuition fees. Now he's dead
The scale of the battles may ramp up in other sections, but high up in the Misty Mountains we were generally fighting against five to ten enemies at a time; usually a range of orcs (both melee and ranged) and a troll or two. The trolls had some powerful attacks – picking players up and dashing them on the ground, or smashing its club down on top of you, but – provided you weren't in the middle of a combo – its attacks were signposted enough that it was easy enough to roll out of the way. It's also worth mentioning that if you shoot the troll from a distance before the group is alerted, it will sometimes go berserk and kill some of its own patrol in its rage to get to you.
Even without the need to work together, however, there's plenty to like about War in the North's combat. As the ranger, I had three special abilities on call – two vicious melee sword attacks and – as mentioned earlier – my invisible man impression. As you'd expect, each has a cooldown time associated with it. I was also skilled with a bow, so firing arrows was nice and simple: just bring up the aiming reticule and let loose. Switching to ranged attacks was perfect for long distance headshots, as well as for picking off stragglers or backing off from the fray. It also worked a treat with the over the shoulder camera.
The core of the combat, however, is the melee combo system, which rewards you for landing a number of consecutive attacks by opening up a finisher. Land that and you'll do double damage on any further attacks until you take a hit.
It's a decent system and means players will have to really pay attention to enemy animations and use evasive rolls to avoid their attacks. It's still pretty early days, however. In our session there were plenty of placeholder graphics associated with the combat system, and it all felt a little clunky. The game's still a fair way off, of course, so that's to be expected.
Funnily enough, "orc" was the sound this guy made when I punctured his lung with razor sharp steel.
So, aside from this whole 'saving Middle Earth from that bastard Sauron' thing, there's another very good reason to play War in the North, and that's loot. Hey, it may be viewed from over the shoulder, but this is still an action RPG! Needless to say, the world is full of treasure chests bursting at the seams with goodies, and – since this is a fellowship – there'll be no squabbling over the spoils: each member of the party gets his or her own stuff. Equipping new weapons and armour is straightforward enough – any new gear is clearly highlighted, as are any stat boosts or decreases while deciding.
How compelling playing the loot game is remains to be seen. Earlier in development the team mentioned that there would be weapon abilities – special moves assigned to specific weapons. It has now backed away from that concept, and probably for good reason: players would be less likely to equip new gear if they have something with a special they like. Instead, it'll be more about your fighting style. Do you want sword in one hand and a hammer in the other? Do you want a heavy two-handed longsword? How about an axe? With plenty of weapons to choose from, and the ability to really customise your character, War in the North has a lot to offer.
The game may still be a little rough around the edges, but the foundation is certainly there, and fans of the genre and the source material will be glad to hear War in the North isn't shying away from the violence of its world. Nope, this is a mature-rated title, so expect limbs to be lopped off, heads to sail through the air and liberal splashes of black orc blood to coat the ground during every battle. Huzzah for violence!
Assuming Snowblind can polish the combat up before release, it's looking like War in the North could be a compelling journey through Middle Earth. The gameplay's definitely on the right track, and co-op is shaping up to be a blast. There's still a lot to learn, however. We really only know the broad brush strokes of the story, for instance, and don't know much about the members of Fellowship II: Electric Boogaloo. Fingers crossed they're not just archetypes, but distinct and interesting characters, because the last thing I'd want is to play through a new story as an Aragorn wannabe, Legolas in a dress or a typically gruff Scottish dwarf.
What else do you want to know about The Lord of the Rings: War in the North? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: www.ign.com
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