Impressions: Mines of Moria is a PVE wonderland
While much attention has been paid World of WarCraft (Buy wow gold ) and Warhammer Online of late, another key title is often neglected in the MMO discussion: Lord of the Rings Online. Turbine’s epic-scale, story-centric, licensed MMO is a worthy contender that has also just recently seen an expansion in Mines of Moria. As a previous subscriber to the Tolkien-born MMORPG, it was with pleasure that I put aside my Warhammer character and returned to Middle-Earth to quest forth into the dangerous new realm of Moria.
If Warhammer Online is the master of PVP and WoW is the jack-of-all-trades king, it wouldn’t be entirely uncouth to say that Lord of the Rings Online is probably the victor of the PVE battle. The game has a PVP system—Monster Play lets players take on the role of the various cretins that populate the armies of Sauron—but the focus is clearly on letting players take part in the epic story. The game’s use of narrative and of interactive “cut-scenes” that showcase the story of the books from the perspectives of Middle-Earth’s inhabitants is worth experiencing. This is about as close as any MMORPG has come so far to having a fully fleshed-out story.
To that end, Mines of Moria reinforces Turbine’s high regard for the Tolkien content. As far as source texts and in-game lore go, Mines of Moria is in many ways a biblical recitation of everything that is Lord of the Rings. The expansion builds upon the original’s foundation by offering a ton of new quests and some genuinely exciting raid encounters which will have players encountering monsters like the Balrog and the Watcher that are ripped right from the original text of Tolkien’s high fantasy. And it does all this with the excellent artistic direction and beautiful environments which have made LOTRO one of the more visually-impressive MMOs around. Turbine claims that Moria is the single largest interior space ever designed for an MMO, and it’s certainly a sight to behold.
In truth, there is more than enough content in Moria to justify the price, and those who haven’t tried out LOTRO can do so now for the very fair price of $29.99 (which covers the complete edition and a month of play). While most of the PVE content is the standard fare as far as the actual quest mechanics go, the narrated main quests do a great job at integrating both small-group instances and character-specific narrative into the otherwise well-worn “quest-reward-repeat” system. Aside from the new setting and the addition of some lore, Moria follows a predictable though nonetheless enjoyable path from its predecessor, though, as with the books, the overarching story grows more interesting as the Fellowship moves through Moria towards Sauron’s armies.
And while the end-game content and the raised level cap found in Moria are two welcome boons for long-time players, the new “Legendary weapon” system is by far the most exciting feature for veterans. Legendary weapons are special, epic items that can be evolved over time. After going through the difficult process of piecing together one of these named items through various quests, these living weapons can be built upon by pursuing various quests and deeds related to the item. This system, in addition to offering a ton of content that involves both the new areas and items and older ones, does wonders for creating a bond between player and item that goes well beyond the ever-addictive drive for individualization. If there’s any one flaw in the system, it’s that it isn’t as retroactive as some of the other content—you’ll have to be level 50 and on Volume 2 before you can truly start to explore it.
But like any good expansion, there’s also a dose of fresh content to lure in new players. Two new classes have been added to the game, each with its own specific play mechanic that goes above and beyond the relatively simplistic classes the game shipped with. Thankfully, Turbine took care to ensure that parties composed entirely of these new classes were more than viable, so going through the old content again isn’t as painful as it usually is for MMORPGs this age.
The new tanking class, the spear-wielding Warden, combines the best of DPS classes with the ability to tank. The class can wear only medium armor, but enjoys improved survivability through rapid morale regeneration and large, class-specific shields befitting of the Spartan-like nature of the class. The class also totes the new Gambit system, which makes it slightly more interesting than some of the other melee classes in the game. The Gambit system requires inputting a string of specific low-level moves in order to build up to a big one. Different string combinations lead to different end effects, and learning which moves to use when is key to mastering the class.
More interesting, though, is the Rune-Keeper, the new “true magic” class. What’s so interesting about the Rune-Keeper is the extent to which the team has gone to make the class fit into the lore. As the story goes, there were only a few key magicians in the world of Middle-Earth, so Rune-Keepers use special incantations and stones that have powerful, magic-like effects. Given the spectacular visuals that accompany the class’ abilities, it’s clear though that this is most certainly a magic-oriented class regardless of the game’s justifications to keep the lore sound.
Rune-keepers simultaneously bring to the table strong spell-casting DPS abilities as well as heals, making the class one of the most dynamic in the game. However, like the Warden, there’s a neat spin on the standard hotbar gameplay that limits the class’ potential to be both an excellent DPS machine and a primary healer at the same time. Dubbed “Attunement,” a small meter effectively measures how your character is building up power: the more damage spells you use, the more you are attuned to damage and vice-versa for healing.
It’s very similar to the system for shamans that I detailed in our Warhammer coverage, except that here your character actually cannot cast certain spells of the one denomination if it is too attuned to the other. In practice, this makes the Rune-Keeper a surprisingly challenging, though none-the-less dynamic, class to play, though the lower armor prevents the class from soloing quickly early on. Buddy up with a Warden, though, and you’ll quickly find yourselves toppling early content with ease: these are powerful classes that will be a force to be reckoned with down the road. A friend and I have sunk about 60 hours into just that pair so far, and the combination is deadly even at level 30.
As far as expansions go, The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria seems to be a great one based on my time thus far. Moria adds more than enough new content to satisfy veterans, while spicing up the older content with new classes and an interesting quest system in the Legendary Weapons that actually reward going back to old places. If you didn’t like the game originally then your mind probably won’t be changed, but those looking for a storied, lore-filled PVE experience need look no further than the complete edition of The Lord of the Rings Online.
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