The Lord Of The Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar is exhaustive, but worth the effort.
There's a reason that games such as The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (LOTRO) don't get reviewed much – and it's not because of its nine-word title. Rather, it's because of its six-word genre: The massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or games in which a player creates a character that exists in a persistent online world constantly shaped by its virtual inhabitants. They're games that are never turned off.
Consequently, they're difficult to review. The measure of some of the most popular games of this genre – Everquest and World of Warcraft – is that countless dedicated players have become so engrossed that they've devoted hundreds of hours to building their characters. In this case, that wasn't possible – deadlines kept me from playing more than a handful of hours.
Truthfully, though, it wouldn't be a surprise if more than a few gamers ended up addicted to LOTRO. Like Star Wars Galaxies, LOTRO comes with a built-in fan base and mythology: At the game's start, you create your own character, selecting from four races (Dwarf, as well as male or female versions of Man, Hobbit and Elf) and up to seven classes (including Burglar, Captain, Guardian and Hunter).
Which race you select determines where in Middle-earth you begin the game. After a short introductory quest, you're thrust out into the world, where characters co-mingle with the game's permanent, non-playable inhabitants.
Here, you can take on quests, which start off as relatively simple tasks – slaying six wolves that are attacking a farmer's sheep, for example – but get progressively more difficult.
Fortunately, you can partner with others in what's called fellowships, which allow up to six players to team up to complete quest objectives. Communication between team members is handled by typing or by voice chat, for those whose computers have that capability. Moreover, groups of players can form longer-term alliances called "kinships," which allow them to pool resources (a helpful tool for new players who want to quickly get up to speed).
Of course, like most similar games, you can't play for free.
The program itself comes at a price, on top of a recurring subscription rate. The game comes with a 30-day free trial period; after that the user needs to subscribe.
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar comes with a teen rating and is available on the PC platform.
