The Lord of the Rings: War in the North

Bland, buggy and uninspired hack-and-slash. If you're a LotR fan or planning to play this in co-op, you'll get at least some enjoyment out of it, otherwise avoid it.

its made by the people who did baulder's gate dark alliance so it should be playable and fun right? eh not really. it basically plays like a beat em' up game, with some light rpg mechanics. it's a pretty linear story progression, stage based levels. point A to B. button mash lock on enemy combat in between, with some bosses. to beat bosses you need to get good at dodge and rolling mechanics, and using your abilities. core gameplay doesn't feel that tight or satisfying, the loot is pretty much just always a direct upgrade with barely any stats. like going from +2 to +4 kind of stuff. completely uninteresting loot. 3 playable characters, and i don't like any of them. it was about 12 hours long and the fact that it was co op saved it a little.

6/10

War In The North is a hack-and-slash co-op game set in the Lord Of The Rings universe. There's three races elf, dwarf and human, so is up to three players, with the computer controlling the remaining characters.

The game begins with your characters talking to Aragorn in the Prancing Pony inn, who explains the plight of Frodo. He sends you North to do your part in the war and essentially create a distraction to take the enemies away from Frodo. It's cool that it is set at the same time as The Fellowship Of The Ring, and you have your own smaller and less significant partnership. There's not much character development though, so they are basically just bland stereotypes.

The story takes you through various scenery, so you will be battling along cliffs, forts, caves, forests etc, battling orcs, goblins, ogres, spiders etc. You will meet some familiar faces during the game, especially during your time at Rivendell.

Playing with a Xbox 360 controller, X performs light attacks, Y is for heavy, B dodges. Left Bumper blocks, Left Trigger is for ranged attacks, and Right Trigger brings up your skill menu. Your skills are unlocked using the skill tree when you level up. You'll also be given 3 points to assign to Strength (mêlée damage), Dexterity (Ranged damage), Willpower (Mana) and Constitution (Health).

I played as the Elf who is a mage character. Her staff can do decent mêlée damage, but it's best to attack from range which uses mana. She has a few attacking skills, and can place a healing dome (known as Sanctuary) which heals allies within the range.

The mêlée combat, relies on the quicker light attacks to deal damage enough for the prompt to appear, which is when you are supposed to use your stronger attack. This will do higher damage or perform a finisher. The combat can be pretty brutal, with the finishers often decapitating your enemy.

When enemies are defeated, they may drop coins or some loot. There are loads of places where you can also pick up loot, like chests, or piles of equipment. There are a few more hidden areas which are Secret Areas for you to find. Loot seems to appear differently to players, so it's not a rush to find them first; you are not competing.

Equipment will degrade with use, so need to be repaired or replaced. You can repair them by talking to the blacksmith characters when you reach the towns. The levels are often broken up by checkpoints which all allies must get to before proceeding. This point is a good place to stop and manage your inventory before proceeding. You can give loot to the other players.

Overall, War In The North is a competent game, but maybe relies on the strength of its licence. I think I did enjoy it more because I teamed up with a friend over online play.

When i was younger i was a really big fan of Lord of the Rings, so i have always wondered how this one was unnoticed by me. Until i played it. It feels and plays like a dungeon crawler but under the disguise of a third person melee action game. Think Dark Souls, but with a much higher focus on stats over skill, and a lot clunkiness in animations and control. There is a basic upgrade path and the loot system is nothing particularly memorable. It really cannot be overstated how clunky the game is, enemies are damage sponges at times and barely react to your attacks. This combined with the very repetitive, wave based mission structure can lead to boredom very quickly. There are some secrets to discover in the mostly linear levels, but for the most time they tend to be overlong and not very interesting.

Storywise its fairly cliche and obviously a quick add on to the Lord of the Rings universe. I couldnt get invested in the story at all, its just all too dull and plain. But its not badly acted.

Overal i somehow managed to reach the end, even if there were quite a lot of frustrating deaths. There is a great idea somewhere in here, but it got lost due to weak level design and core gameplay that needed a lot more polish.