Al1: Hey, I just got into the free to play beta, and am downloading the client right now. Just a quick question. How does this compare to other MMO's in terms of: difficulty; solo gameplay vs grouping; pvp; story; in-game plot development; mechanics etc? Is it particularly comprable to any other MMO's out there? Cheers in advance.
solo gameplay is the key point in LOTRO. If the game were solo only, I'd have just as much fun. While grouping is also loads of fun, it's only done 40% of the time, if that. Then again, what MMO isn't like that? Theres a few, but WoW is in the same boat. The thing with this is that the solo stuff is actually cool.
PvP is the games weak point. It's capped out players versus capped out creeps (orcs, spiders, wargs, etc.). Creeps don't gain levels, they start at the cap, and increase in the skills you buy for them with the notoriety they gain from killing players and doing quests. It all happens in one region,and is actually pretty cool. Or at least it was. Now there is no point at all to it. The gear freeps (free peoples, the players) gain is level 50 gear, which is trash to a 65. They haven't updated it since the last patch before Moria. The lag spikes are insane in the region too. But it all used to be so much fun.
The story/in game plot, is the games strongest point to me. It's just so awesome and well done. It goes really in depth to middle earth lore. It's comparable to other MMOs. I say it's the best current. Everyone else would say that it's in the top 10 somewhere.
As for interesting game mechanics. There are cool things called "deeds" where you gain attributes by completing universal tasks. If your a human, you get a deed to kill 400 wargs. You do it and you gain a skill to warp to Bree Town from anywhere. Thats just one example out of the thousands of possible deeds. Theres so many it's mind blowing. My favorite are the ones that require exploration of famous areas. It will show you a list of the areas to find in the region related to the area type (landmarks, ruins, springs, etc.) and when you find them all, you get the deed completion, which gives experience and some sort of bonus to improve your skills. It's really awesome.
Then theres skirmishes. Where you can manage AI allies and fight alongside up to 8 online players who manage their own squad as well. It's interesting because you can fight at iconic locations, even the Prancing Pony. I haven't gotten around to it sadly, as it's with the new expansion that I have hardly played. But everyone in the whiny forum community loves it. And don't worry, the community is awesome IN the game. But avoid the forums. Nothing but whiners and trolls there. The community IN the game is small, mature (Like GoG) and very helpful and fun. If you join the Landroval server, it's the unofficial RP server. And it's amazing. The ingame playable musical instruments (up to 20 notes to play, with quite a selection of instruments, so they hold concerts. One player run event is called "Weatherstock", which is a music festival on Weathertop. Really awesome.
