This was a game I wasn't expecting much out of. I mainly tried it out because it was considered one of the better games based on Lord of the Rings. Apart of me was expecting to drop it at some point due it to being a coop RPG but instead I had a blast with it atleast on easy mode playing as Farin. Would I call it amazing? No but as far as LOTR games I played before the Middle Earth titles, it's above the Two Towers and Lego Hobbit games and on par with Return of the King and Lego LOTR. To best describe War in the North it's a combination of Mass Effect with the dialogue wheel and two party members, the stories some of the various Star Wars games that run in conjunction with the movies, the loot and gear system that is come to be expected and the finishing moves of God of War.
Everything about this title felt like a bizarre precursor to the Middle Earth franchise minus the Nemesis system. You got a character who can use melee and ranged combat, brutal finishing moves and over the top violence, a skill tree and even sort of a gear system.
While the combat is a little on the simplistic and stiff side, the extremely satisfying and gory kill animations carries much of it. It also helps that beeline it to the next story mission will have the game be about 6-7 hours so it ends before the monotony really starts to set in.
It's a lot of fun to use War Cry, tank so much damage and then just seeing all the limbs of your enemies fly off and seeing the nice and brutal kill animations. It also helps that you get a lot of spell and healing potions and also Andriel will cast her healing shield whenever low on health. Some could argue there's too many safety nets here but considering I'm playing a coop RPG that is meant to be played with people on my own, I don't mind. I just have fun with the power fantasy especially when bosses could get tanky.
Level design is fine and serviceable, nothing complex but nothing that gets in the way of slaughtering hundreds of enemies either.
It's also funny to see to be able to summon the eagles at any time or them talking and playing an active role in the story.
If one criticism I can make is that there is are some super long and lengthy turret sections especially one later in the game where you defend Bruni and Nordi. That went on for so long I almost thought I was going to eventually get a game over and due the tedious enemy wave again. Turrets early game can also shred through your health on easy but this becomes less of a problem the more you level up.
The loot and gear systems can be hard to keep up with when so many are stacked and then becomes a game of stat checking but that's par for the course with games like this. The UI is at least easy to follow.
Frame rate can also can get into nasty dips on PS3 too.
The story is just kind of there. It feels like one of those filler arc stories where it can't interfere with the "main canon" so the heroes of this game have their own bad guys to fight while encountering the characters and locations from the movies. It's much like the gameplay, it's there, nothing overly exceptional but it's fun in the moment.
Overall, that's LOTR War in the North, it certainly isn't a great game but it is a fun and enjoyable romp and in some ways a decent change of pace up until that point with the amount LOTR games where you just relive the big set pieces of the movies. Wasn't expecting much it was a fun time.
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