[REVIEW] Lord Of The Rings: War In The North

Damian Turner

(PlayStation 3[Reviewed], Xbox 360, PC)

It has been 57 years since J.R.R. Tolkien’s mystical quest of good beating evil started. Through the many media forms used, it always turned out highly successful. When Peter Jackson put it through the cinemas, the whole world got sucked into Middle-earth once again. From that, we got two successful film-oriented games. Eight years later, Snowblind Studios picks up the material and tries to expand J.R.R. Tolkien’s universe in this new instalment, which features a new story coinciding with the original story, as well as giving us new and old characters to try to spice up the Lord of the Rings formula. So let’s hope that this game will be a great new edition to the story, or we might have to throw it into Mount Doom.

From what I stated earlier, the game has a brand new story. The story takes place at the same time as the three films. It is based in the northern regions of Middle-earth. As you embark, you get to see locations you have never seen before, but for fan service, you get to go to places like The Prancing Pony and meet Aragorn. They also have challenge maps where you get to go to places you have seen in the film. 


The story is not as unique as you think it would be. Snowblind has this great source material to use, but at the end, the story falls flat on its face. The premise of the story is that you must destroy Sauron’s right-hand man, Agandaur (the not Witch King), before he takes over the North. The whole time I was experiencing this story, I just didn’t care about it, and just wanted to join the Fellowship instead. The fact that Snowblind tried to give us something different just didn’t take my breath away like the original tale that J.R.R. Tolkien created almost 60 years ago.

Yeah, my Fellowship’s kind of a big deal.

Gameplay is one of the key components to making a game great. Basically, War in the North is very similar to the likes of Champions of Norrath and Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, hence it was made by Snowblind Studios. In a nutshell, it’s an action-adventure game with light RPG elements. You have your light, heavy, and ranged attacks that can vary from character to character. The ranger uses a long bow, the dwarf will use a crossbow, and the elf uses magic from her staff. Each level you grow makes it possible to allocate your points to strength, magic, health, and other stats. You also get one point to assign to a skill tree depending on whether you would like to have better ranged attacks, help buff your party, or even get a force shield to heal you and your party members. At the beginning, the combat feels fresh and rewarding, slicing orcs’ and goblins’ limbs off, but then it dries up very fast. 


You get money from killing enemies or finding chests. After you can go to stores and buy better armour and weapons. Also, if you do like the weapon and armour set you have, you can pay a blacksmith to fix your gear, so it does not break and get weaker. Saying that, if you are stingy with your money, you may find armour and weapons on your epic quest. When the game makes it feel like a chore instead of a game, then I must say that it has failed on all fronts.

One of the key things that will pull people into this game, besides the fact of it carrying the title of Lord of the Rings, is the 3-player co-op throughout all the entire story. I played co-op all the way through and, in my opinion, it’s the only way to play. The A.I is not very smart and when you need healing, they will run into enemies. Also, when you need help, they are off fighting something meaningless. The co-op throughout made this game a lot more enjoyable. Taking down waves and waves of enemies with monotonous combat is way more enjoyable with a friend having your back. Knowing that a human player will use his character to its full potential, using a spell to make the team stronger to take down the terrorizing enemies, is a great feeling. Stating what I said above, the co-op is not without flaws. Sometimes you may be fighting three goblins, but on your friend’s screen there might be nothing there. A couple times my friends and I were kicked out of each other’s games. And when there are too many enemies coming at you and your friends, the frame rate seems to drop significantly. But at the end of the day, the co-op is the shining star of this package.

Well, this is hawkward.

The sound department does an exquisite job, using a lot of the score from the films. Most of all the characters sound like they belong. I have to note that the famous Nolan North is the ranger, and it is always a pleasure to hear him in anything. From cutting heads off and clashing swords, everything seems right in this world. The background music really pulls you into the world of Middle-earth. Snowblind knew Peter Jackson had some magical music, and I am happy that they kept it and incorporated it so well.

The games’ linearity is another downside to it as well, as it is very unfortunate. You have this great world that the series has given you but most of the time you and your friends may go down one path throughout the whole level. Saying that, sometimes side paths will show up that you may choose to go down but you will find out there will be no point to them or they will just take you in a circle. I find it really disappointing considering this is not a movie tie-in with a set date, and the developer could have spent a lot more time giving you more freedom.

At the beginning, this title is fun and fresh, but the combat dies after a while and gets very repetitive fast. The co-op mode is a lot of fun and killing the armies of Mordor is always better with a friend, but it lacks the polish that most AAA titles have. The story does not even come mildly close to J.R.R. Tolkien’s, but they do get brownie points for trying to expand on it. My major problem with this game is that it had so much potential. It had amazing lore, an epic movie trilogy to take inspiration from, and great characters that should have been utilized to their full potential. At the end of the day, this game makes you ask yourself the question, “Was this fun?” Yes, it was at the beginning. It was a blast, and I can never complain about anything Lord of the Rings. But the polish is lacking. If you get past some of the rough patches and grab a buddy, there still might be a shine on this new Lord of the Rings tale.