Does LOTRO Hold Up In 2024?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 12 лют 2024
- A deep dive into The Lord of The Rings Online exploring a beginner's experience with this MMORPG and how it holds up today.
►Music Credits
The Lord of The Rings Main Theme - Howard Shore
The Uruk-Hai - Howard Shore
Inside A House - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess OST
A Walk In The Shire - The Hobbit (2003) OST
Prelude - The Hobbit (2003) OST
►Media Credits
Video clips from "The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring"
The Witch King clip is from "The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King"
Going on an adventure clip from "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
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#lotr #lotro #gaming - Ігри
Very happy you checked out LotRO! I've been playing since the beta, and was even crazy enough to purchase a lifetime account at the time, not knowing if the game would even last. They've added a crazy amount of content since launch (Gondor and Minas Tirith are something to see!). The characters are a bit dated, but they're slowly implementing new customization options. They renovated the race of Man not long ago.
Also, fun fact, it's where I met my now-husband. xD
That is so cool! Reading comments like this warm my soul!
Really cool
Haha so cute
I really wish I had bought a lifetime sub when I first started. Despite that, I had a ton of fun playing when I did. It was honestly some of the most fun I have ever had in an online game, and I don't know that anything will ever compare. Lotro when it really got cooking in Moria up until Isengard was really something. They had some of the coolest fights, content, dungeons, and community of any game up to even now. I was part of a server first raid in Isengard and how our kin came together during that period was just so much fun. I also think they had one of the most unique classes to ever be designed in the Warden. Very difficult to master, but if you could...my god, what a class. I played at launch and ended up quitting at like level 27 or so; something felt off for me. But when I came back and relearned the game I was hooked. I really miss this game and the community.
Met my wife play runescape haha
To be fair tom bombadil just skipping aeay merrily ignoring the wider worlds problems is pretty on brand for him as a character
in all fairness this doushbag doesnt know who the hell Tom Bombadil even is lolol
I think it's so cool when a playerbase is so committed to a game, that it stays alive for so long. Your video really made me want to start playing it, MMOs are the best, i just wish i didn't get addicted so easily, haha
Most are liberal psychos.
@@ollicron7397 repubs too busy working their dead end jobs games are for children and all that
All these "reaction" videos are like level 1-20 characters, this game is destroyed by P2W and P2SKIP.. Buy supporter packages for 199$ lol. Unfortunately these youtubers only cover the intro, and doesn't really delve into the game in later levels. They should cover Echoes of Angmar which is a classic private server of Lotro, before it was ruined by f2p.
@@ollicron7397 wtf dude... Chill
Unfortunately, the player base gets abused like cattle, they don't care. Too bad the game could be great
I have been playing 12 years now and always feel the urge to come back when the nostalgia hits. One of the best MMO communities, if not the best.. I can easily say the nicest people I've met in a game was in LOTRO.
very true, I played years ago, came back with not enough money to get my house/inventory back. Nice guy just gave me a few 10's of millions and now I can enjoy the game at my own pace whenever I want.
For better or worse this game is an absolute love letter to Vanilla/Classic WoW design. Huge world, huge grinds, random questgiving NPCs you'll stumble across all over the map encouraging you to explore more, world grounded in official lore and fantasy, designed for steady on foot exploration, unique class playstyles, dangerous if you pull too many monsters. Personally love it but many people likely prefer faster combat and higher quality of life in modern MMOs today.
A key reason LOTRO has so many things in common or being called a "WoW Clone" is due to Management back in the day. They began seeing how other MMORPGs were doing & instead of trying to make a Unique MMO, they started pushing the Devs to make something more akin to Everquest, World of Warcraft, etc. The original idea for a LOTR MMO varies greatly to what we got. The original was going to be set Centuries into the 4th Age, having a limited amount of Elves that can be played, Sandbox type of MMO, etc.
It sounds like you haven't played either of those games lol. You're just living other peoples nostalgia
yea being a wow clone these days is actually a good thing since the real wow became really bad .this game didn't make a lot of the big mistakes blizzard made after 2010
@@belstar1128 As someone who´s played WoW since the beginning, i agree completely. Game went shit from Cata onwards. Legion was a short revival, but they fked up again.
except the combat was laggy and trash from day 1, classic vanilla however still stands up to this very day
i played this game 500 hours like a single-player lord of the rings adventure. exploring middle earth
It's also worth pointing out that the game is still receiving regular full-sized and smaller expansions that continue the story. Currently, we're between the wedding and coronation of Aragorn, now called King Elassar, and the Scouring of the Shire. So in the meantime, the Dwarves retook Mount Gundabad and the story has moved on to problems arising in the African/pirate-themed Umbar. 150 levels across the entire War of the Ring and beyond. Oh, and an alternate starting region that'll get you to Level 30 and focuses on Boromir trying to find Rivendell.
And just for the sake of lore, a Cargul is what happens to you when you die to a Ringwraith's blade. You come back as a lesser wraith under the control of the Nazgul that killed you.
huge lord of the rings fan here, will the subscription give you that alternate start?
@@spindriftmoa1517 Yes and no. No, a subscription does not grant access to Before the Shadow (the alternate start). But also yes because a monthly subscription also grants a $5 rebate in the form of currency for the cash shop. Since BtS is ~$20, you can get it after 4 months of subscription.
A subscription provides some extra xp gain, which you honestly don't need if you're trying to get immersed in the story. It's easy to out-level a zone even without it. There's a bunch of other things that make the game more convenient to play without making it P2W. The big one is "Swift Travel". The fast travel system uses horses that travel between stables. Free players have to ride the horse the whole way (and you can't queue them like in WoW). Swift Travel only has you leaving one town and entering the next. Plus, any characters logged in while you're subbed keep Swift Travel after your sub ends. It makes getting around much faster, even with all the travel skills every character will accumulate.
@@spindriftmoa1517almost the entire game apart from a couple of the end game parts has now been unlocked for free-to-play players. No better time.
Dying to know as well
@@kasperpedersen9192 I thought I replied, but I guess it was removed or something. The short answer is No, Before the Shadow (BtS) is the alternate start and it costs about $20 and it's not included in the sub. The reasoning was (at least in my view) that they just revamped the scope of their subscription to drastically improve the amount of free content. This would draw in new and returning players. These players would be making new characters and may be interested in a premium or at least different experience.
The long answer is Yes, because a sub also grants a rebate of $5 worth of store points (LP) each month and BtS can be purchased with LP. So play the game for 4 months and don't spend too much in the store and you can buy BtS and most other expansions that way.
Plus, earning store currency is fairly easy to do and just playing the game normally will get any character a trickle of LP, about $0.25 worth of currency per hour, depending on what you're doing. You get LP for doing quests, for gaining faction reputation ranks (most rep gains are from quests), and from defeating lots of monsters (guess what many quests involve doing?).
It really is a good MMORPG. A bit old-school (some parts of the game are positively ancient, and the graphics are a charming 2000's retro), but I definitely think it holds up well. In fact, I think it is better than ever. With so much content, continued support, and such a massive world to explore and a thriving community of Tolkien nerds that is always willing to help, there has never been a better time than now to start playing LOTRO.
Actually, this video makes me want to start playing again with a new character too.
why does he want you to play?? he is SHtting on it wtf dude
@@Trendle222 You're an odd person.
@@Trendle222 What Macie said. Nothing Cyan said in the video was inherently in any way "shitting on the game". That may just be your own takeaway talking. He was just brutally honest on the whole of his experience of the game.
I have so many fond memories with this one, oh man
LOTRO from my own personal experience is a Game which may not be what we expect from MMORPGs but is in every aspect the corner stones of what an MMO is supposed to be. A Massive World, With multiple players, Role Playing. Middle-Earth lends itself to allowing people to make their own stories. So while it's not a MMO I play all the time I am very impressed by it. A World worth getting lost in.
Given the size of the game world, the joke about getting lost doesn't seem so funny anymore. I've been playing for 12 years and I can't list all the locations in my memory so easily 😅
Honestly it looks pretty good. At the time I would have said it was corny and cheap fan service. But viewed from the mountain of today's dearth of crap, it looks pretty good. Heavy narrative focus and dripping with Middle Earth theming. Lore-accurate but also knows how to not take itself too seriously.
Yeah they honestly _nailed_ the feel of Middle Earth. The music, visuals, characters and a lotta the quests just feel so perfect. The shift to the free-to-play model some years back is the only drawback, it has made some things grindier than they were before. But it's still pretty fantastic for what it was trying to achieve. One of those game worlds where every area has a well designed feeling and almost a smell
Awesome that you checked this game out! Got some pretty good chuckles out of your jokes. I also can confirm that encountering a full sized band playing in the streets is a semi-regular occurence in Bree.
I started playing this probably 2 or 3 months ago. I find it to be a way to unwind. The gameplay is slow enough and manageable enough that I'm never too worried about dying. It's pleasant to look at though it does show its age. The music is excellent. And the little lore nuggets are nice when I stumble onto them.
I've found the community to be friendly and helpful as well. It quickly moved up to the top of my play list.
The music in LOTRO is great..... Every time I switch to a new speaker system I feel excited as if I'm playing this game for the first time 🥰
friend, is the game still alive? I mean are there a lot of people playing it, I started playing when the high lvl was 60 and some time ago I would like to play again but I'm worried that the project is dead
Yes of course the game is alive and updated. I think it will last another 10 years don't worry :) and if you want to know the most popular server for EU player is Evernight and if you are from America it's probably Arkenstone (but I'm not sure anymore).@@VashpeKrasavchik
@@VashpeKrasavchik I think so. It’s certainly small but folks are dedicated. I find people to play with pretty easily during prime hours.
@@VashpeKrasavchik The game still very actively has expansions and patches released for it, with a very community-focused dev team. You'll still find loads of players in most of all of the games major (emphasis on major) hubs, and will regularly encounter the odd player passing by as you quest in the overworld. Lively endgame, too
10:06 *Aragorn blair witching in the corner* "FIND ME TOM BOMADIL"
Right after I watched your Hobbit video too - absolutely blessed timing. Started playing LOTRO in January for the first time and the amount of depth and lore is absolutely wild.
While grindy at times, the overall experience has been very positive. Currently at Minas Tirith at Level 100. The attention to detail in Moria and Mirkwood especially were pleasing, and some previously unseen areas, such as Evendim or Ered Luin was a nice touch. Overall? Love it.
I'm going to start playing it soon, hope to see you in Middle Earth!
Are new areas still behind paywall?
@@reynewan999 free to play up to lv95
I´ll start today! Im hyped.
I happened to just stumble across your channel from this being recommended in my feed. I've played about 5 hours of this game and it never really stuck for me personally. But, this video sure did. Your storytelling is amazing and kept me captivated! Thanks for the video :)
The hobbits you see playing with Weatherstock in their name are players that have played at the yearly Weatherstock festival in the Summer. Every year in July at the summit of Armon Sul a bunch of player bands will play music throughout the day and it is called Weatherstock and it has been going on 16 years now. It is really cool how they do it, developers and GMs will join in, it is usually streamed to Twitch so people can watch, it is a lot of fun. A lot of bands were playing in Bree this weekend for the start of the 17th Anniversary Festival. This sense of community and role playing is what really brings me back to LOTRO, there really isn't any MMO like it.
Thank you so much for taking the time to make this
Thanks for this fun & well edited showcase of LotRO's opening areas! I've played the game on and off since 2009, and it's still one that draws me back in. Always happy to see people cover it!
I finally did it, I finally managed to watch all your videos and now you bless me with a new one, many thanks, love your content.
I used to play this game a lot when I was like 12 with my older sister and dad. That is until my dad went to the ORC SIDE. If I remember correctly my main guy was like level 50+ Wizard or something. Or it was 40+ I don’t fully remember. I just remember whenever the skill tree stuff changed I could murder people in duels with an onslaught of pets. I did get bored at one point and just made new character and do like the opening quest 30 times. It was fun though but I don’t remember any account stuff anymore so RIP Mirtar he is forever gone.
Hey There Delilah at the inn was a thing of beauty.
Thank you for inspiring me to log back in. It's been a few years. I think it was seeing the silly moments you had interacting with the community (the bard dance circle) is what I miss the most. There are prettier, more exciting mmo's out there but I have never experienced a more chilled, laid back and friendly community as I did in lotro.
What server are most English speakers on? I remember a lot of Russian speakers got merged into my old server (brandywine).
LOTRO is amazing and this video has been so fun! Please play again and make a part 2
why was this fun? Fun in the sense he sht on our game and said how stupid it was??
I'm glad I found your channel with the 🤓 vibe all over the games you play. Feels like home! Thanks for the content
4:30 super important in middle earth history as the first hobbit pimp
I've been loving LOTRO. Recently picked up The Hobbit and LotR books and started reading them for the first time. Decided to dive into LOTRO at the same time and have been having an awesome time adventuring through The Shire and Bree-lands. It's really immersive, clunky at times, but it's just so charming.
It's no The Lord of Ring: Gollum, but I suppose it'll do.
I love this channel and its random video uploads
Started playing this about 10 years ago and was blown away - very enjoyable game - fantastic setting - beautiful world to explore - but the most amazing thing of all was the community - I would say it is has the nicest community in an online game! And the players playing music - sometimes whole concerts were organised for special events! Brilliant game!
Im so glad i found this channel!
This humour is on level with incognito mode!
quickly becoming one of my favourite youtubers ❤ amazing content
Me and my friends sank so many hours into this game 10 years ago, great times great game
I used to play this like 10 years ago, I barely saw any other players even back then but it was awesome. I got up to Mirkwood before the updates. Forochel stands out as the best area, it was beautiful
When it was still a subscription game it really didn't have a large playerbase outside of the first few months of release and Mines of Moria expansion. Going free to play definitely saved the game from getting shut down and continue to get a playerbase, however it's never had mainstream success and especially no streamer attention.
@@cattysplat I would disagree with that, as I played in 2012-2013 or so when Riders of Rohan came out and beyond. It had a solid player base, but the content of the game is part of what drove people away. Isengard was such a good expansion with tons of content and raids, and they went in the opposite direction basically after that. I was in a high end raid kin and even with pug groups I don't think I struggled at all to find a group for any basic content. It definitely did not have the player base of other mmos like WoW, but it had a solid group that played regularly.
@@cattysplat I've played since release and it was pretty popular at lower levels at least when it had a subscription and in the early days of F2P. They've just not kept the game up to date for modern audiences so it's just not bringing in new players
pipe buffing and pipe idling were just chef's kiss... haven't been on since 2014. Good times. KODA
i am still playing this game and as a lotr fan i love it
I had no idea this game still existed. My uncle showed me it when I was like 8 and it just sort of vanished from my life. What a delight this was to see
If they updated the visuals + UI I'd be willing to give it another shot. Shame it looks exactly the same as it did back in 2006 / 2007.
Well that is incorrect. The Visuals from 2007 aren't across the entire Game. In fact ever since 2007 they've been using Modern Visuals that they keep Updating. The big thing is that there are not uniform Visuals used from Level 1 to the current Max Level 150 Content. The difference between such is a Night & Day difference. They are doing Visual Updates but that is a lot of work to do so along with putting out New Content and this is while also Developing their 2nd MMO: Dungeons & Dragons Online.
UI is something that is a key goal for LOTRO and we "might" see some UI Updates here in 2024. We know that they are aiming for the New LOTRO Launcher, 64-bit Servers, Two-Factor Authentication and possibly more in 2024, pending anything. So they are working towards such Improvements but it's a Long Term Process.
It does look like hell and they aren’t fixing anything. The ui is embarrassing and the graphics are hard to look at even in 2008. I don’t know what these people are smoking.
@@Ouioui555 Agreed
Cool and fun vid😀 been playing this since launch and will still be here until i am on a ship to Valinor🧙🏻♂️
Love that you checked this game out! I hope others find this video and give it a chance. It’s an amazing game and we can always use more players in the kinships :) awesome review my friend
the player dancing thing in Bree is business as usual :)
I think the important question is, did you get the achievement for not dying until level 20?
I'm so happy I found this channel, I haven't laughed like a tea kettle in almost a year.
LOTRO is my comfort game I always come back to every year to relax and explore
this is by far my favorite lotro video. Thakn you so much on doing such an amazing video on a somewhat dying game. U are my fav man
Well I'm sold. I'll go take a look at this game now.
I really gotta play this. My friend loves the LOTR and Hobbit movies and I wanna make our own Fellowship
OMG im so glad you ran into people playing midi music
Appriciated!:) I have some really good memories from this game when I played it back in the day. It certainly has a unique vibe:)))
played 1,800h+ since 2010 when it went f2p with breaks. I still come back to it to get more lore and fun what that game gave me. Only 1 thing i purchases it was rohan expansion which i was not able to play at that time and few months later it went as f2p expansion :D its realty fun for lotr lore and fantasy.
Now I want to return to Lotro... good video!
Love your content!!! Please tell me Helldivers 2 is on your list 👀🤞🏽
I've been playing it off and on since before release and it's fun to come back to. I think had you picked a different race you'd had a lot less of the hobbit style chores to do. I tend to suggest either the elf or man for new folks.
that shadow of war insert...sweet
You can press N to toggle off overhead character names. Makes the screen a lot less cluttered.
amazing video man!
New subscriber ! Just watched two towers last night gonna watch return of the king tonight ! This fits
Some server merge happened years ago and a bunch of old characters that hadnt been played in awhile (mine) got wiped. Wanted to come back recently but was very disappointed to discover this.
The Shire is the best zone in LotRO! Unfortunately, as you level, it becomes clear that it has succumb to the same erosion as all other mmos, where content has become so trivialized that it basically becomes hollow to play it. Plus, it's incredibly difficult to find a group to run a dungeon.
Its a great game!
I love the fact you play along the Story and cross the charakters every now and then.
You being pretty much involved in all the side Events or even Main Events as an onlooker
But yeah, the normal quests can be really boring. The amount of walking is insane.
A lot of the quests are just walk from point A-B-Z-back to A-B again-C
Glad you had a good time. I play on Arkenstone (firefoot before it closed) ya the game is fun and I still after 16 years have not done all the quests.
Open world content is very good - questing, world building, story arcs. The issue is both the grindy systems that get added to keep busy at level cap along with the monetisation of the game which the VIP never really gets close to overcoming.
This still looks awesome, and will have to give it a go at some point, thanks for sharing mate 👍
The way Tom Bombadil's house theme has a chokehold on my childhood
Archet theme for me.
Haven't played in years. This video inspired me to redownload the game. Even managed to find my old account info. Might have a few characters waiting for me once the game finishes downloading.
Been playing lotro a lot the last couple years and it was enjoyable to see a new player's experience through the world! Being able to explore Middle Earth and go through the world on the heels of the Fellowship (and fight with them at helm's deep and pellenor) is very fun. Even if the main story has you walking across the map every other quest, it's worth it. (and warden or hunter teleports help out a lot lol) if you like lord of the rings, mmos or just wanna kill orcs as a dwarf, I couldn't recommend this game more.
Fantastic video btw. :D
Love this channel
Fun fact: once upon a time, LOTRO had ammunition that you could craft; they eventually got rid of it. They also changed how the best craftable equipment at each tier used to require special trophies from rare spawn enemies as components to making those top-tier recipes single-use only so now my crafters have a metric butt-ton of single-use recipes for every single stupid crafting category I've unlocked that I won't get rid of cause I'm a hoarder but I'll probably never use half of them (more than a few, especially weapons, are basically worthless), albeit there are a few at least partial exceptions to that conversion (like a cloak w/ a very unique look from Farochel that requires a special mammoth's fur).
Oh man! Me and my buddies played this to take a break from WoW back in the day. Fun game.
How much does it cost to play? One time lifetime access versus a yearly or monthly plan(s)? Are there additional transactions to be made besides the upfront cost to gain access to the game?
8:40 had me in stitches 🤣
I love your uses of The Hobbit Videogame soundtrack
Tried to get into this but so many quests are bugged especially inside dungeons where you just can't do anything and support won't respond.
I'm a lotro fan. The game holds up against the armies of Sauron. It holds up against a concrete wall. And yes , it holds up against the test of time. It's fantastic.
I’ve been playing this for well over a decade.
About to download and start this haven’t played since 65 was cap… can’t wait!
I haven't spent so much time with LotRO as for example with WoW Vanilla, but sometimes I return to it even if it's just for exploring the detailed world that has implemented so much from the books. I just wish the graphics would not be so dated and a bit less edged, the atmosphere itself though fits each land nicely!
I have been playing LOTRO a lot from the very start where the game was harder, and it toke for ever to lvl up but that was the joy LOTRO is not about reaching max level in a day its the journey to that point and me and my friend has done a lot of funny stuff in that game but sadly the last few expansions have failed in my mind not as fun once you reach the point after you go to Mordor and the lake town place efter that it died for us at lvl 130 but it did bring a lot of good hours spend in a world we both love
scenery looks beautiful without a doubt I will be playing this game
I used to play so much about 8 or so years ago, was fun.
too funny! I'm a diehard LOTRO player and loved your humorous take! I hope you stick with the game - it gets better and better as you go along! Who knows where you may end up - even Umbar!
I miss this game. Back in the day I had a ranger named ServantOfNazgul and won a few character creation contests. Fun times
This was awesome. But is ayone else eagerly anticipating the continued exploits of Pauligan Picklesworth?
Been playing since 2007. It's definitely a marathon, not a sprint. I play the trilogy soundtrack while I play and it's therapy. It's just so good.
i bought and played this game back in the day on its release, good times.
Quite a few lol moments in this vid. Maybe the first LOTRO review vid that made me physically laugh. Also the though of how many LOTRO players were losing their minds when you kept running past the stable guy in Bree with his glowing blue flag is an entertaining thought. "Oh.. you're just going to run off and leave me alone to do this by myself.. ok.. cool.." deserves a special mention.
I have 10k hours in the game loving it. But love your run through very funny and entertaining, would watch you if you made it into a series.
Been a long time since I played this game but it was pretty fun I have good memories of it :)
Watching this while killing Globsnaga Spiders in The Foundations of Stone. So there.
I played this game way back on release with my irl friends we got to around lvl 25-30 and all quit :( the game was fun to explore and it was something new but we played wow after this and we still play games today just not mmorpg, I sorta want to start a new game on lotro because I love to lore so much
When Hey There Delilah came on I almost lost it xD
What is Barnabun had a low tapered fade?
Back in the days i remember purist hobbits leveled to top without killing anyone.
Tbh, I really wanted to like this game. It seems like the perfect type of cozy mmo to play as a destresser. However, after the opening sequence for my elf, everything felt clunky in a way that something like OG WoW never felt to me. Maybe it was the style of graphics, the lack of players in my starting area or something else but I couldn't get into it. I'm glad to see you enjoy it though!
LOTRO is a fantastic game. My fondest memories of it was playing with friends and the things you discover on the way. Though the lag is a little off putting these days and playing on your own can be a bit lackluster. It does have group instances so you can do more mmo type content but may take some time getting a group. Overall.. Even though I dont play it as much anymore i still think it is one of the best if not the best out there. Especially for world design. My attention right now is with Final Fantasy online but will come back to lotro at somepoint 😊
Damn, the flick got me
i actually recognized that youre playing on gladden because i ran into this player band tonight (they are called the fiddlesticks) in the west bree part. Gladdens the best
I recognized because of the kinship names and you can see Bez in the chat at some points who's a pretty notorious troll of Gladden
i recently played LOTRO for 3 days or something, enjoyable game with oldschool/outdated graphics and mechanics but awesome, aged well but the lack of inventory space triggered me, and i think LOTRO is the most faithful media to LOTR that we have today, kudos to all involved
Great video man barnabum sounds stronger than legolas xD