Another Title to the List
stargrace 
Why I never picked up LoTRO before now is still a mystery to me. I’ve picked up pretty much every other title out there from EQ1 to WAR and gave them all at least the free month that came with the game. Since I don’t typically play console games myself spending the $40-50 every few months to test out a new game has become some what of the norm for me.
KTR was kind enough to toss a 10-day trial my way, which happens to be on a founders account. Before I even stepped into the game I was impressed. While other games do typically have some sort of ‘recruit a friend’ program these days having a reduced subscription and the offer of the life time subscription is a huge bonus. I was going to start downloading the client, but not being a huge fan of 2+ day downloads, I picked up the box at EBGames. Vlcan pointed out that Best Buy is going to have Mines of Moria (the complete edition) on sale for $19.99 so if you’ve been on the fence about this game get a hold of a founder and maybe think about picking it up. I didn’t mind paying the full price for it because I got a lot more then I bargained for – EBGames here in Ottawa happened to still have pre-order copies kicking around and I snagged one of those.
Not only was I already impressed before I logged in due to the recruit-a-friend (and a very smooth set up for that might I add, the interface to set up an account was really nice) but I love the goodies that came with the pre-order. What did we get with EQ2? Well, that pewter bear that collects dust on the top of my desk. What did I get with the LoTRO pre-order? A CD of all of the music, the ability to subscribe myself for $9.99 a month or get the life time for $199, and three unique in game items. A cloak, a title, and some in game tokens that I have no idea how to work yet but they were in my bags when I created.
When I upgraded my account from trial to a full member they didn’t just take away my 10 free days either, it was added to my account along with the free 30 days for purchasing the game so I have a bit of time before I’ll start to be charged for it. At $9.99 a month I won’t be complaining.
Installation went smooth, it took less then an hour to install the two DVD’s, patch the game, and create my first minstrel hobbit, Petites. After the advice of others on twitter, I created on the Landroval server which is where I believe a few CoW members are hanging out amongst others. I honestly don’t know enough about the servers to have a secure preference yet.
The introduction videos were a lot of fun to watch, I’ve always enjoyed them the first time through no matter what the game. I didn’t get to play a whole lot since by the time I got everything settled, (yesterday was another day of family stuff) installed, patched and what not I was looking to play a little EQ2 before bed, but what I did play I really liked.
I enjoyed the character creation process. The characters look good. They look crisp and clear and while there are not a HUGE amount of options, there are enough to let me have fun playing with it. The characters themselves sort of remind me of WAR in colour and graphic, not necessarily a bad thing. Of course like every other game I play the first thing I do is re-map all of my keys to something I’m used to and more comfortable for me. That means getting rid of the WASD keys and changing them to the arrow keys on the number pad. After 7 years of gaming if I can’t move around in the way I’m most used to, it’s a deterrent. The game ran really really smooth, the UI was clutter-free even though it will take me some time to figure out how everything works, where it all is, and what it means. I picked up the first quest I saw after logging in (of course after putting on my cloak) and headed off down a road to talk to someone and smush some spiders. Combat was a little confusing to me but I was also trying to play EQ2 on the laptop at the same time which was a bad idea.
Over all though my impressions (so far) have been very positive, and I’m looking forward to exploring middle-earth. I should have more solid time this weekend to play, and for $9.99 a month you really can’t go wrong.