I hate mentioning bugs, as they can be patched, but I did encounter one severe glitch that ruined an entire playthrough. The AI partners seem capable of absorbing immense amounts of punishment, whereas my times playing co-op with fellow journalists saw us all constantly dying around each other in the same areas of the game. I also noticed that single-player is significantly easier than co-op. If you have to go solo, the AI is smart enough not to be a pain and equips itself with new gear, allocates its own stat points, and learns its own skills-but it’s just not as fun as getting three people together and screaming at each other over what to attack and who needs reviving. Like any co-op game of this nature, War in the North is best played with friends. Without a lock-on system, there’s also the tendency to lose sight of… well, almost everything if you get backed up against a wall because the camera is too dumb to adjust itself. This isn’t helped by the fact that enemy and ally alike have large collision detection boxes, causing them to often get in the way of your intended target right when you’re about to land that sweet critical hit. If you get overwhelmed by a horde of orcs, you’re likely to lose your target as you get jostled around by all the bodies. The only real problem with the combat is that there’s no lock-on system in place. In this way the characters are very customizable one Eradan player could make him a master marksman while another could make him a stealthy dual-wielding melee specialist, and likewise Andriel could be built up as a powerful mage or as a stalwart healer for the group. As you level up, you’ll distribute points into the stats of your choosing and also get skill points which you can use in traditional talent tree format. If you land it, you enter “hero mode”, which makes all your attacks stronger, staggers enemies, and gives you XP bonuses for combos.Įach character also has ranged attacks Eradan and Farin use bows and crossbows while Andriel fires energy from her staff. Melee combat involves stringing together hits with light attacks until you get a triangle over an enemy’s head, which signals your chance for a critical strike. There isn’t anything especially innovative about it, but it’s all solid. The gameplay works by and large, offering a good 20 to 30-hour adventure that is well-paced and engaging enough to keep you playing. Don’t expect the friendly rivalry between Gimli and Legolas or the misguided ambitions of Boromir with these guys-they just work cohesively and never have interesting things like personalities or character flaws to get in the way of that. The protagonists are bland and have nothing really to distinguish them from any other human, elf, or dwarf. If you’re not into LotR, you’ll no doubt have trouble keeping up with the bombardment of names and stories that get thrown your way, but fans will be kept nice and happy with the attention to detail.īut unfortunately the same care that was taken with bringing the world of Middle-Earth to life hasn’t been applied to the characters. Snowblind clearly did their homework, offering up plenty of Middle-Earth history through NPC conversations and sidequests. The lore is one of the strong points of War in the North. LotR nerds will be happy to run into several familiar places, such as Rivendell, where you can briefly chat with the Fellowship before they go off on their own quest. The conflict with Agandaur leads the team through ruins, undead tombs, enchanted forests, snowy peaks, and fortified enemy strongholds. That army is led by a huge creepy guy named Agandaur, who turns out to be Sauron’s right-hand man in the North, charged with conquering those lands while the big kahuna focuses on battle down south. Aragorn sends them to Fornost to distract the gathering army of orcs and goblins, so the Hobbits can make their way to Rivendell relatively unhindered. The story kicks off in Bree with our three heroes-the ranger Eradan, the dwarf Farin, and the Elf Andriel-meeting with Aragorn at the Inn of the Prancing Pony shortly before the Hobbits arrive. Can't leave epic content on the table like that.Ĭhronologically, War in the North occurs concurrently with the War of the Ring that we all know and love. Enter Snowblind Studios, who have created The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, so that we may experience this side-story for ourselves. If you pay attention to the narrative in LotR, you may notice small mentions here and there of the war in the North, which was actually a significant crisis of its own.
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