Lord of the Rings: War in the North Preview

Developer: Snowblind Studios
Release Date: November 1, 2011
Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC

Lord of the Rings: War in the North is an action RPG title based on the northern front war briefly mentioned by Gandalf. Developer Snowblind Studios, with notable RPG pedigree, took liberties with the Lord of the Rings property to craft a unique experience for fans. Players who like co-op gameplay will thoroughly find interest in War in the North’s three-player adventure. We attended a fan event during Comic Con and had an opportunity to get hands-on time with a stage demo.

The backdrop for the War in the North derives from movie and book properties, creating a synergy of both mediums. Borrowing a lot from Tolken’s work, the developers stress the importance of the northern war as an integral part of the Lord of the Rings timeline, essentially running parallel to the events of the series. Expect characters like Aragon and Gandalf to make an appearance. Additionally, our stage demo featured the ability to summon an Eagle, a popular ally in Lord of the Rings mythos, during combat.

War in the North offers three playable heroes that differentiate themselves based on their abilities. The dwarf is a melee tank, the elf specializes in magic, and the human ranger can match enemies at long distance. However, all three characters are equals on the battlefield in close range combat. The gameplay is likened to simplistic levels featuring light and heavy attacks with the ability to chain up combos and build up the special meter, when activated dials up exponentially higher damage towards enemies. Drawing a comparison to Dragon Age, each hero has a special ability and regulated with a timed cooldown.

Considering Snowblind’s background, the standard RPG elements are present. There’s loot. There’s magic. There’s upgradables. The core of its gameplay will revolve around how effective one can work in a team-based setting and completing objectives asked of you. In our demo, our set up tasked us with defending a duo of elven brothers casting magic to open a fortress door. Of course, if you’re the enemy, this would be a great time to attack, so a friend and I along with a third computer controlled AI partner took on the task of defending the vulnerable elves against an onslaught of foes. Here, Beleram, the giant eagle we talked about earlier, is summoned and tears foes apart mercilessly with a simple key pad press. While it didn’t necessarily felt too overwhelming, the hack-n-slash nature of the combat is where the demo felt a tad tedious. If the combat gameplay switched up the repetitive orc-like enemies for later stages, the overall experience would be more compelling.

Since our time with the game, Warner Bros finally announced a target release date of November 1, 2011 for the highly anticipated Lord of the Rings: War in the North. The main draw of having a new Lord of the Rings adventure will definitely strike the chords of the dedicated fanbase and moviegoers but it will also appeal to those seeking for a loot based, cooperative RPG experience on the consoles come Fall. Hey, it certainly beats waiting for The Hobbit.