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Most of us have only seen a trailer for Portal 2. Well I have a crazy story for you. You can achieve a great many things by walking through the right doors at E3 and pretending you belong. In short, I was actually able to take Portal 2 for a spin. And it was amazing!
I'm sorry, but I tricked you. I'm not here to talk about Portal 2 at all. Unfortunately, I needed to lie in order to get you to click past the main page. But please don't stop reading here -- even if you are not a Lord of the Rings fan. One of the best and most surprising games I saw at E3 this year was in fact Lord of the Rings: The War in the North. And I'm here to tell you why you should care.
First off, the studio (Snowblind) developing this game has a history of making really fun co-op action RPGs for consoles. The many college hours my friends and I wasted on their previous games, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath, are reason alone I'm confident that Snowblind can deliver another worthy RPG experience.
But most importantly, the game looked really cool. Gone is the isometric camera angle Snowblind used in their previous games. Instead, the camera is locked behind the character much like in Dragon Age or Mass Effect. At the start of the game you pick a race and customize the appearance that character. But here's the cool part -- you can play the game co-op online with up to three players. Each player chooses between the Human, the Dwarf, and the Elf. Each class has different abilities that aid the team both in and out of combat. Combat is pretty standard hack-and-slash with spells, but it's the combination these skills in co-op that looked really fun. For example, the mage character had cast a protection bubble that shielded the team from incoming arrows while the dwarf hammered the enemies that charged at the group. It's a simple combination of skills, but it's this type of cooperation that will be a blast online.
The game also appears to have deeper RPG elements than Snowblind's previous outings. Full Mass Effect style dialogue trees, Dragon Age style character conversations (while exploring the environment), quality voice acting, a loot system that alters appearance(!!!), and the rich Tolkien universe, are all reasons this game might be one of the better fantasy RPGs we've seen in a long while. The graphics and presentation were also impressive for a game not releasing till next year. One thing is for sure, War in the North looks FAR better than Bethesda's Hunted: The Demon's Forge.
Unfortunately, there are still a lot of unknowns with this project. The developers didn't have answers to my questions about skills and character progression; and I'm still confused how they will present a coherent story when three people are online playing the game online. Regardless, I'm very excited for this game. As for you all -- you probably don't trust me yet. Oh well, gameplay footage will debut soon enough. I will save space on my wagon of hype.
Comments
13 years, 10 months ago
God dammit Brad.
13 years, 10 months ago
I've been looking forward to Hunted: The Demon's Forge since I heard about it on the bombcast, but this is starting to sound promising. I wasn't familiar with the developer either. Dark Alliance? Hell yes!
13 years, 10 months ago
Dammit the post was a lie.
But anyways, the game looks promising. I know I've put my fair share of hours into Baldur's Gate. I'll be sure to pick this up when it comes out.
13 years, 10 months ago
You're an evil man Brad.
That said, Dragon Age dialog + Co-op gameplay sounds like a winning combination. Let's just see how well it turns out closer to release.
13 years, 10 months ago
man im a huge fan of Lord of the Rings and i gotta say i hope to be playing this game next year it sounds so good
13 years, 10 months ago
Damn it, you tricked me into being excited about a Lord of the Rings game...you evil Bradsterd.
13 years, 10 months ago
Well you've got my goat.
I'm wondering whether The Witcher 2 caught your interest, for some reason I thought it looked like the kind of fantasy RPG you'd like. It looked pretty good.
13 years, 10 months ago
demon's forge looked fine you douche.
13 years, 10 months ago
I'm actually more interested in War in the North than I am in Portal 2. Does that make me a bad person?
Some of my fondest PS2 memories are of playing Dark Alliance co-op.
13 years, 10 months ago
online co-op + good voice acting + good dialogue tree + LOTR settings = WIN
13 years, 10 months ago
Wait is it similar to LoTR: Return of King combat style like parrying and blocking? cuz that would awesome
13 years, 10 months ago
I'm not into that kind of a game, sorry. I liked the movies but I never really enjoyed their games.
13 years, 10 months ago
I agree with stemo, goddamnit Brad.
13 years, 10 months ago
Dude. It sounds banana crazy and very sexy :D
13 years, 10 months ago
God dammit Brad! I really tought it was Portal 2 >_<
But anyways I love Lord of The Rings *.*
13 years, 10 months ago
Not really a Lord of the Rings fan but I am a fan of the Mass Effect/Dragon Age style of character interaction. I'll check out the gameplay footage when it comes out.
13 years, 10 months ago
Brad, what a tease. First you don't agree to add me on PSN, then I create an account to comment on your blogs, and then your blogs end up being teases.
Give me an excuse, please.
13 years, 10 months ago
I also say "Goddammit, Brad!" but because I actually wanted to hear more about why this game has you so excited. I kept passing by this article because I don't give one ounce of POOP about Portal 2. Only when you said that nobody else has hands-on impressions on the feed did I think something was up with the article.
13 years, 10 months ago
kind of a let down it wasnt portal 2 but it still sounds like a really cool game
13 years, 10 months ago
New meme the post was a lie
And war in the north looks absolutely amazing to me not to mention it is being made by a nice studio and the game does not seem to tie into the movies.
13 years, 10 months ago
Brad delivers. I'll be checking this game out more in the future.
13 years, 10 months ago
ffs brad not funny
13 years, 10 months ago
I see what you did there!
13 years, 10 months ago
[...] enjoy playing games with your friends, put this on your radar now. Also, check out my more in-depth impressions of War in the North.Biggest Disappointment - Wasted TalentWhere do I start? Michel Ancel and his team working on a [...]
13 years, 10 months ago
well i love rpg games except dragon origins
13 years, 10 months ago
RPG RPG RPG !!!!
13 years, 1 month ago
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