- #The lord of the rings war in the north pc 2 players full#
- #The lord of the rings war in the north pc 2 players series#
It's often up to luck whether your AI companions will save you or kick the bucket regardless of your performance up to that point, making War in the North a dreadful single-player experience. AI and players alike frequently get boxed into corners, all too easy due to terrible collision detection where characters occupy far more space than they appear to. They'll often stand next to your gasping avatar getting knocked about by cave trolls without bothering to defend themselves. In later stages, the resolutely reviving AI goes from being a boon to a curse, when your resurrection becomes their sole priority. Untrue to Tolkien form, hobbits are barely in the game. It's like your twig occasionally upgrades to a ruler. Even when you do get a chance to use these abilities, they're not that much more powerful than standard attacks. Such powers had the capacity to add depth to battles, but since their cost is so high you'll spend most of your time mashing the basic attack buttons. They're on a cooldown timer, which seems sensible, but also require willpower, which regenerates incredibly slowly. The opposition's numbers increase so drastically that your feeble block and dodge manoeuvres aren't up to task.īewilderingly, your special moves are given short shrift by a dismal system that discourages their use. Something is certainly wrong in the state of Mordor when a lowly sniper takes 10 arrows to kill. As the game goes on, enemies start taking loads of damage, making your massive hammer feel no more powerful than a wispy twig. While it starts off entertaining, things quickly take a turn for the tedious. Though unlike the ring that drove Sméagol to murder Déagol, there's loot enough for all and much of it is dictated by class, so there's no need to fight.
It's nothing you haven't seen before, but the steady drip of new gear mirrors Lord of the Ring's themes of greed and compulsion. New abilities and useful loot are frequently doled out and varied set-pieces require switching between melee and ranged combat, manning turrets that shoot explosive arrows, and blowing up snipers placed conspicuously next to the oldest of game clichés: explosive red containers. Ranged combat is handled with a zoomed-in, over-the-shoulder camera and switching between perspectives is swift and effortless.Īndriel, the Tolkien female of the group. Smartly, critical hits are context-sensitive, occurring when you use a strong attack as a yellow triangle appears over an enemy's head. Attacks convey a strong sense of brutality, with gruesome slow-mo animations fetishizing amputations every time you score a critical hit. You can swap characters between stages and your level remains consistent across the board, so if you decide that being a lore-master isn't for you, then you can switch to a ranger and assign all the skill points you would have acquired had you been a ranger all along.įor the first few hours, slashing through hordes of orcs feels satisfying. Andriel, the elven lore-master, can cast a large sphere that heals those standing inside it while providing protection from ranged attacks Eradan, the human ranger, can dual-wield weapons and Farin, the dwarf champion, specialises in all manner of melee attacks. Each character has their own skill tree and unique powers.
The story is merely a catalyst for a linear dungeon crawler with an emphasis on co-op. He's an eagle who can talk and occasionally kills thing for you.
#The lord of the rings war in the north pc 2 players series#
War in the North may crib Tolkien's genre-defining universe, but outside of a few cameos by awkwardly voiced, well-known characters, it has little to do with the series proper. There's a giant female spider, but she's not the infamous Shelob and the central villain, a high-ranking lieutenant of Sauron, seems awfully important for someone who's never been mentioned before. You play as a trio - a human, an elf and a dwarf - but they lack the charisma of their counterparts Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli.
#The lord of the rings war in the north pc 2 players full#
While this provides an ample excuse to explore Middle Earth, one can't shake the feeling that the game takes place in alternate dimension full of less interesting personalities. Unwilling to step on any literary toes, War in the North follows the story of three unsung heroes whose journey runs parallel to the fellowship we've all come to know. While I'd love to tell you that The Lord of the Rings: War in the North succeeds against the overwhelming odds of being a second-tier licensed game clashing against Bethesda's behemoth, the truth is that it's as gruelling as Frodo's journey, yet retains none of the satisfaction, wonder or excitement of its source material. Releasing a high-fantasy game a scant couple of weeks after Skyrim (in Europe) may be as foolhardy as entrusting a hobbit to hurl an all-powerful ring into a volcano, but everyone likes an underdog.
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