The Lord of the Rings: War in the North Review

By Jeffrey Matulef Published 24 November, 2011

Bored of the rings.

Version tested: Xbox 360

Releasing a high-fantasy game a scant couple of weeks after Skyrim (in Europe) may be as foolhardy as entrusting a hobbit to hurl an all-powerful ring into a volcano, but everyone likes an underdog. While I'd love to tell you that The Lord of the Rings: War in the North succeeds against the overwhelming odds of being a second-tier licensed game clashing against Bethesda's behemoth, the truth is that it's as gruelling as Frodo's journey, yet retains none of the satisfaction, wonder or excitement of its source material.

Unwilling to step on any literary toes, War in the North follows the story of three unsung heroes whose journey runs parallel to the fellowship we've all come to know. While this provides an ample excuse to explore Middle Earth, one can't shake the feeling that the game takes place in alternate dimension full of less interesting personalities.

You play as a trio - a human, an elf and a dwarf - but they lack the charisma of their counterparts Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. There's a giant female spider, but she's not the infamous Shelob; and the central villain, a high-ranking lieutenant of Sauron, seems awfully important for someone who's never been mentioned before. War in the North may crib Tolkien's genre-defining universe, but outside of a few cameos by awkwardly voiced, well-known characters, it has little to do with the series proper.

1

Meet Beleram. He's an eagle who can talk and occasionally kills thing for you.

The story is merely a catalyst for a linear dungeon crawler with an emphasis on co-op. Each character has their own skill tree and unique powers. Andriel, the elven lore-master, can cast a large sphere that heals those standing inside it while providing protection from ranged attacks; Eradan, the human ranger, can dual-wield weapons; and Farin, the dwarf champion, specialises in all manner of melee attacks. You can swap characters between stages and your level remains consistent across the board, so if you decide that being a lore-master isn't for you, then you can switch to a ranger and assign all the skill points you would have acquired had you been a ranger all along.

For the first few hours, slashing through hordes of orcs feels satisfying. Attacks convey a strong sense of brutality, with gruesome slow-mo animations fetishizing amputations every time you score a critical hit. Smartly, critical hits are context-sensitive, occurring when you use a strong attack as a yellow triangle appears over an enemy's head. Ranged combat is handled with a zoomed-in, over-the-shoulder camera and switching between perspectives is swift and effortless.

2

Andriel, the Tolkien female of the group.

New abilities and useful loot are frequently doled out and varied set-pieces require switching between melee and ranged combat, manning turrets that shoot explosive arrows, and blowing up snipers placed conspicuously next to the oldest of game clichés: explosive red containers. It's nothing you haven't seen before, but the steady drip of new gear mirrors Lord of the Ring's themes of greed and compulsion. Though unlike the ring that drove Sméagol to murder Déagol, there's loot enough for all and much of it is dictated by class, so there's no need to fight.

While it starts off entertaining, things quickly take a turn for the tedious. As the game goes on, enemies start taking loads of damage, making your massive hammer feel no more powerful than a wispy twig. Something is certainly wrong in the state of Mordor when a lowly sniper takes 10 arrows to kill. The opposition's numbers increase so drastically that your feeble block and dodge manoeuvres aren't up to task.

Bewilderingly, your special moves are given short shrift by a dismal system that discourages their use. They're on a cooldown timer, which seems sensible, but also require willpower, which regenerates incredibly slowly. Such powers had the capacity to add depth to battles, but since their cost is so high you'll spend most of your time mashing the basic attack buttons. Even when you do get a chance to use these abilities, they're not that much more powerful than standard attacks. It's like your twig occasionally upgrades to a ruler.

3

Untrue to Tolkien form, hobbits are barely in the game.

In later stages, the resolutely reviving AI goes from being a boon to a curse, when your resurrection becomes their sole priority. They'll often stand next to your gasping avatar getting knocked about by cave trolls without bothering to defend themselves. AI and players alike frequently get boxed into corners, all too easy due to terrible collision detection where characters occupy far more space than they appear to. It's often up to luck whether your AI companions will save you or kick the bucket regardless of your performance up to that point, making War in the North a dreadful single-player experience.

Playing with real people helps, but even this has issues. Unless you're playing with someone at approximately the same level, War in the North will be way too easy or way too hard. Whoever has the higher level will end up doing most of the killing and gain more experience, making it even more unbalanced for the weaker players. Reviving prompts are also finicky, leading to some aggravating failed rescues.

Outside of combat, War in the North's hub areas are filled with lifeless characters and a dialogue system that apes Mass Effect, only without any actual choices. Beginning the game, I was greeted by a man who wanted me to help him court his crush. Since I had a world to save (or rather assist in saving, since Frodo and co. are off doing the more exciting work), I told him to bugger off. Upon talking to him again, he reintroduced himself as if the conversation hadn't just happened. A simple "Have you changed your mind?" would have sufficed.

More on The Lord of the Rings: War in the North

4

Trolls. Get used to fighting these things. A lot.

Elsewhere, the obligatory giant spider boss is far from the biggest bug in the game: War in the North is a glitchy mess. A few hours in, I hit a game-breaking glitch: upon beating a stage, the next area failed to unlock. Replaying a prior level in the hope of circumventing it, I encountered a different game-ending glitch where a cut-scene failed to trigger, leaving my party unable to progress. Reloading multiple times didn't help and after a few curse words and a headache, I had no choice but to restart from scratch. While researching a fix, I discovered that there are several known glitches that can render it impossible to beat the game, which is frankly unacceptable. [Editor's note: Jeffrey wasn't even reviewing a pre-release version of the game, but the North American edition which has been on sale since 1st November.]

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is a soulless cash-in that has little to do with its license, and nor is it much fun in its own right. If you're lucky enough to not encounter any game-breaking bugs and if you have a friend or two to play with, then it can be pretty entertaining for a few hours. But that's a lot of "ifs" for so little payoff, since overlong levels and axe-sponge enemies inevitably whittle this dungeon crawl down into a slog. Repetitive, dull, buggy and frustrating, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North turns visiting one of Western civilisation's most revered fictional settings into a chore.

4 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Jeffrey.

About Jeffrey Matulef

Jeffrey Matulef is a yank, but don't hold that against him. A freelance journalist by trade, he likes eating rhubarb pies, but not baking them.

Read more articles from Jeffrey by visiting the Jeffrey Matulef archive page.

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Comments (77) Latest comment 5 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • username84 #1 6 months ago

    This will feel soooo awful after the divine gift that was Dark Souls.

  • JackHyland #2 6 months ago

    Ouch. Not even the Tolkien fan in me can see past these faults.

  • LazyDan #3 6 months ago

    I played this for as long as I could bear on OnLive.

    They hinted it might be like (and as good as) Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance. They lied.

  • DozyKipper #4 6 months ago

    Oh dear. I was hoping this would be this gen's "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance". Still going to rent it though.

  • berelain #5 6 months ago

    I feared this might be the case after playing it for a while at GAMEfest, and whilst a brief stint with the demo on OnLive was enjoyable enough, the game still felt very wrong somehow. Not quite sure how Snowblind has managed to get an action RPG wrong, but it clearly has.
    Edited by berelain at 24/11/11 @ 11:54

  • prudislav #6 6 months ago

    its definitely better than BG: Dark Alliance"

  • Donaldthescotishtwin #7 6 months ago

    Big news[!] a film based game that's shit.

  • TonyCB #8 6 months ago

    oh dear this game has just dropped thru my letterbox.....

  • Eldritch #9 6 months ago

    That's really sad, I was looking forward to this one...

  • bad09 #10 6 months ago

    Hmmm, 4/10 from EG usually means I'll like it :)

    Seriously though they've not really shown much in the way of the game so I've been wary of it anyway. Still fancy it being LOTR but I think I'll wait until it's a couple of quid in a few Steam sales time.

  • mcmothercruncher #11 6 months ago

    I won't be *ahem* Legging-o-las to the shops to buy this one.

  • coomber #12 6 months ago

    Good to read a review that takes bugs into consideration when judging its overall quality. *Cough*Skyrim*Cough*.

  • ShiftyGeezer #13 6 months ago

    I've had mixed feelings about this game following its development, being a huge Snowblind Studios fan thanks to their last-gen titles. Where the review may be fair regards combat and stuff though, I have to pull them up on the complaints about the boring lore. If you visit the WITN forums full of Middle Earth nerds, they are loving that the war in the north aspect of the Fellowship's battle is getting some attention, instead of regurgitating the same old characters and story. If the lack of Legolas and Gimli is such a negative, Jeffrey must find every other RPG with new characters similarly tiresome. This game uniquely expands on the LOTR universe, perhaps to the detriment of the game (I wanted another CON type game!), but to great appreciation for the LOTR fans it seems.

    Edit: I'll add that pulling this game up on bugs is great, but that should be done with all games. I'm sick of buying buggy crap this gen where the console companies' QA process has dropped from last gen, and the fact the reviewers don't report universally on broken games means publishers get away wtih releasing bugged games.
    Edited by ShiftyGeezer at 24/11/11 @ 12:08

  • Nanocrystal #14 6 months ago

    @coomber
    I'm 35 hours into Skyrim and haven't encountered any bugs so far.

  • Daeltaja #15 6 months ago

    Post deleted at 16:13:19 25-04-2012

  • Fletche #16 6 months ago

    I told him to bugger off. Upon talking to him again, he reintroduced himself as if the conversation hadn't just happened. A simple "Have you changed your mind?" would have sufficed.
    To be fair exactly the same kind of thing happened in Mass Effect 2, although it did annoy me.

  • jablonski #17 6 months ago

    Sorry to be the one to complain about the score policy, but how does this:

    "The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is a soulless cash-in that has little to do with its license, and nor is it much fun in its own right ... [this game] turns visiting one of Western civilisation's most revered fictional settings into a chore."

    ...equate to a 4/10?

    A '4' is just short of average.
    Average to me is not a 'chore'. And it should be fun.
    If something is marked as a dull cash-in, which is not fun to play, surely we are talking 2/10?

  • strictlybeats #18 6 months ago

    Bored of the unimaginative and lazy sub-heading more like

  • Dizzy #19 6 months ago

    Did anybody actually expected this to be good. All vibes pointed to an epic fail.

  • Tryhard #20 6 months ago

    Gametesters."We think this still needs some work."
    Publisher."We can't hear you."

  • Canyarion #21 6 months ago

    I feel sorry for all the people who keep buying these simple licensed hack-and-slashers, instead of the real good games like Skyrim and Skyward Sword.

    Also: I partly blame (grand)parents for that.

  • Smudge1983 #22 6 months ago

    Ouch...

    Even the LotR geek in me is looking away at this. With Skyrim and Dark Souls out this was always going to take a hit. Still could be a good bargain in the next few months when all is quite for gamers.

  • elephant_stone #23 6 months ago

    I played it on Onlive the other day and felt like I had wasted 30 minutes of my life... is it me or does the Lord of the Rings franchise get shovelwared?!

  • Zapatero #24 6 months ago

    Isn't 4/10 EG-speak for "only played for an hour"?

    Sorry Ed Zed. I love you really :)

  • yarkiebrown #25 6 months ago

    @strictlybeats i think the the Tolkien female of the group statement makes up for it though

  • LeChuckie #26 6 months ago

    Hoped this would be 7/10. Crises it off my list now. :(

  • bigjimbeef #27 6 months ago

    I definitely don't like mentioning the scoring policy, but I would be intrigued in this situation to know how a game that contains a number of technical hangs and other game-breaking bugs could score so highly? As you rightly say in the review, that is frankly unacceptable, and just wondering what the score would have been were they absent? I'm not trolling in any form here you understand, I am in fact genuinely curious.

    The actual gameplay sounds rather enjoyable, albeit for a short duration. If the game was actually quite fun but a buggy mess, it might very well be worth a look-in in a few months for LotR fans.

  • ccfb #28 6 months ago

    Not caring one single jot about this game, I'd just like to say that (aside from the game breaking bugs) a lot of the major complaints in this review could be applied to Gears of War 3 too.

  • verynaughtyboy #29 6 months ago

    From Software should make the next LOTR game. Just re-skin Dark Souls with Tolkiens world and characters and I'll be at the midnight launch!
    Edited by verynaughtyboy at 24/11/11 @ 18:10

  • makariel #30 6 months ago

    Spiders are not bugs!

  • UncleLou #31 6 months ago

    Shame, I loved Snowblind's games last gen, but after a few reviews and videos I haven't bought it mainly because

    1. It is blatantly designed around coop (with a negative influence on single-player, from all I've heard);
    2. No isometric/top-down perspective anymore.

    And LotR as a franchise is past its prime, why waste money on it? I am sure an updated BG:DA or Champions of Norrath would have done fine.

  • Cobalt_Jackal #32 6 months ago

    My mother was going too GIMLI this for christmas, but after this review that won't be the case now.
    Edited by Cobalt_Jackal at 24/11/11 @ 16:30

  • udat #33 6 months ago

    @makariel Sure they are, just like centipedes, slaters, cockroaches, flies, and all other creepy crawlies.

  • udat #34 6 months ago

    Also, does anyone know if you can do the Co-Op on one Xbox? I'd happily play this with my brother at his house on the same couch, would rather not play it over Live.

  • Benno #35 6 months ago

    we all knew it was going to be horseshit

  • SheffAl #36 6 months ago

    Lol you notice the bugs in this but not Skyrim, Eurogamer, what are you like!

  • dirtysteve #37 6 months ago

    Dear God, ten years of awful tie-ins, did anyone really expect much from this?

  • killuminati2911 #38 6 months ago

    Another LOTR licensed fail? Seen it coming miiiles away :D

  • ps-360 #39 6 months ago

    @TonyCB go straight from your letterbox, straight to ur bin and pop the game in there!

  • MrDurandPierre #40 6 months ago

    @udat Yes, it has two-player splitscreen.

  • oupe #41 6 months ago

    Lord of the what? Jurassic what?

  • muttler #42 6 months ago

    4/10 is the new 8/10

  • ShiftyGeezer #43 6 months ago

    @berelain : How they got it wrong? I've been following SB since 2004. They had a different game in the works to WITN that was pulled. They ended up being bought by WB who want to cash in on existing strong franchises, who set SB up to make a LOTR game. Ryan Geithman, head honcho at SB for thirteen years, left mid development. So it was a troubled development of a title that was forced out through troubled years, and those never end well.

    This is very sad. No-one has managed console hack'n'slash coop like SB, and their technical accomplishments on PS2 were among the best (2x supersampled AA @ 60 fps is but one of many technical highlights). I hoped they'd bring their SB magic to a new set of hardware, but it sadly appears the games industry has taken its toll and they've become another corporate lackie who've lost their soul.

  • muttler #44 6 months ago

    I'm wondering how this stacks up against LotR: The Third Age (from last gen), because I really enjoyed that, and it also scored badly.

  • Yeoung #45 6 months ago

    @Nanocrystal started at 41 hours for me, 7.2 mb

  • digitalash #46 6 months ago

    "It's like your twig occasionally upgrades to a ruler." Nice line.

    It's a pity, cos this looks quite polished from the screens.

  • Alivada #47 6 months ago

    Read like a 2

  • Collymilad #48 6 months ago

    I might trade in Skyrim for this.

    @yeoung PS3 or 360 version? If PS3, didn't Bethesda already releas 2 games that had exactly the same game breaking bug? Seems weird to even buy a 3rd..
    Edited by Collymilad at 24/11/11 @ 15:35

  • udat #49 6 months ago

    @MrDurandPierre Thanks. Ok, I don't regret my random pre-order as much now. Glad I got 25% off though (thanks Sainsburys!)

  • UncleLou #50 6 months ago

    Forgot to mention the utter failure of making the demo OnLive-exclusive, a service that isn't even available in many countries (Germany for example).

  • woodnotes #51 6 months ago

    Just before everyone writes this game off completely, it's had an extremely diverse range of reviews, so seems to be a love it / hate it kind of a game. I couldn't give two hoops about LOTR but I loved BG:DA so a little gutted it might not have lived up to the amazing game that was.

  • NewbieZilla #52 6 months ago

    Honestly expected this to be shit based on the videos.

  • FenderMaster #53 6 months ago

    For years I've been waiting for someone to do something amazing with the LotR licence: Make an action adventure game! You'd think it would be the first thing any developer would do with the license, but so far we've had EA's hack and slash games (good fun, but more like a series of skirmishes than a cohesive game), that dreadful EA RPG with the B list cast nobody cares about, Conquest which was decent but unambitious, that RTS game which I hear was actually fairly good, and now this.

    If Bethesda were to get their hands on this, imagine the game they could make? Or Ubisoft, their Assasins Creed engine was great for open world environments, and large crowds, two things a LotR game really needs.

    I guess it's not going to happen anytime soon, but someday, some developer with ambition has to get this license, and finally make a game that allows us to go on a real journey, and take part in some epic battles, theres just too much potential for it not to happen.

  • strictlybeats #54 6 months ago

    The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is a soulless cash-in
    - for it to be just a cash-in, wouldn't it have to have been rushed out in under 12 months, rather than development dragging on for years? It might be rubbish, but surely not just a cash-in.

  • Lonewolf2002 #55 6 months ago

    @Nanocrystal and Coomber

    I am 70 hours in on Skyrim one CTD and 2 miscellaneous side quests that I cannot complete now. Considering how large and complex it is Skyrim for me at least is running really smooth with no real game breaking issues. Now I know a lot of people are having issues but not all, maybe the same with War in the North but then I have not played that.

  • MattRobson #56 6 months ago

    how have devs failed again and again to make a decent game out of such excellent source material?

  • Yeoung #57 6 months ago

    @Collymilad PS3, I never played the Fallout series, I dislike gun combat.

  • Triggerhappytel #58 6 months ago

    Somehow I keep there's going to be some 'restructuring' taking place at Snowblind fairly soon.

  • Collymilad #59 6 months ago

    @Yeoung Ah right.

    Hopefully Bethesda will patch it out (though I don't think they did with the previous games) If not, people really need to pursue this is in court or something as it makes the game unplayable eventually (i.e. not fit for purpose) and they knew about it

  • septimus #60 6 months ago

    I wouldn't mind a HD remake of the PS2/XBOX originals. Banal but pretty fun.

  • Desheep #61 6 months ago

    @Tryhard Exactly this. Anyone who says that QA wouldn't know about the bugs in their game - or that they could have stopped the game being released - clearly knows nothing about software development.

  • ShiftyGeezer #62 6 months ago

    @FenderMaster : Trouble is WB own the rights. Seems to me ME really wants an open implementation of the PnP RPG - pick a class from halfling, elf, human, etc., and go adventuring. That is, make it Middle Earth rather than LOTR which was only a single event in that universe. Such an expansive game would be awesome. Doubt WB would ever give it the goahead. They've said they want to create tiers for their IPs, with kid-friendly content and mature. Aragon's Quest was their kiddy effort, and WITN their mature. But it's creation for the wrong reasons such that the games aren't inspired - they've are constructed more than created.

  • mumblyjoe #63 6 months ago

    I like to read reviews with an open mind but, thanks to eurogamers "hilarious" tag lines which have given away atleast three reviews in recent days

  • mrwendall #64 6 months ago

    I've spent most of the evening playing it with some friends, it's an absolute blast in co-op.

    If you're a fan of anything LOTR, and have some friends to play it with, i'd highly recommend it.

  • JayKwon #65 6 months ago

    Review seems fair enough, although I would've liked more information on the overall music, looks, atmosphere and sound, you know, the cool Lotr stuff. As a lotr fan, the story and lore sounds pretty good to me, but I guess you have to be a fan for that.

    Other than that you can feel that Jeffrey got irritated a lot by this game. Gonna buy it when it's cheap and patched then.

  • jyrque #66 6 months ago

    Ah well. I had high hopes for this game since Turbine made such excellent work of expanding the story of Lord of the Rings in the MMO. You went to the same area, north side of Middle-Earth in your own adventures and it was definitely interesting.

    Since it's on PC, I expect a Steam sale in the near future. I will definitely pick it up then.

  • spacedmonkeys #67 6 months ago

    Ah what a shame, I am still waiting for a decent two player hack'n'slash to play with the missus. Something up to the standards of Dark Alliance or Champions of Norrath. Nothing exists this gen, although some have attempted but not got it right....

  • Mik3yB #68 6 months ago

    Just last night I dreamt of The Lord of the Rings!

    ...turned out I was just Tolkien in my sleep..

  • guernican #69 6 months ago

    I take issue with some of the reviewer's comments.

    Legolas has about as much charisma as herpes.

  • Ptarmigandalf #70 6 months ago

    @coomber Except that an open-world game cannot legitimately be expected to be bug-free, and an intestine walk can and should.

  • zide #71 6 months ago

    It's mind blowing how many bad LOTR -games fits into the world

  • frazzl #72 6 months ago

    I haven't read about any of the bugs mentioned here in other reviews. In fact there are a number of positive reviews for this game, for example:

    http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/Lord_of_the_Rings_War_in_the_North/index.html
    and
    http://www.1up.com/reviews/lord-of-the-rings-war-in-the-north-xbox360-ps3-pc

    I have had fun with it so far. The game looks good and performs well (I am sorry username84, but a game with as much slowdown as Dark Souls can never be divine). Not sure if a demo is available, but if you're into dungeon crawls with campaign coop, this is worth checking out.

  • jabberwoky #73 6 months ago

    thank you for mentioning the bugs. You have saved lots of gamers a lot of frustration and given publishers a reason to stop and think.

  • Darth_Flibble #74 6 months ago

    got as a rental and glad I did, its pretty terrible, the AI keeps getting knocked out, graphics look a bit "meh", weak combat & generic looking main characters. but lots of loot

    Seen plenty of comments from other forums of nasty glitches and ones that break the game. Didn't get any update when I loaded the disc (ps3)

  • panathatube #75 6 months ago

    How come a game that contains a number of serious technical problems could score a 4/10?

  • mrwendall #76 6 months ago

    @frazzl I agree, played through with two mates, it really comes alive in co-op. Also the first 2 areas don't do the game justice at all, the latter areas are much more varied and interesting, and with some skilled up characters the combat becomes really satisfying.

    Starting playthrough two tomorrow night. If you're into slashers with a nice bit of customisation, loot and a decent story to tell, I still think you should give it a shot.

  • HolyKnight #77 5 months ago

    Worst review ever. The reviewer bashes the game because he sucked at playing it. This isn't like Skyrim where all you do is bash on one button. Enemies actually require different tactics to beat and trolls are EASY to kill if you roll away from their attacks, use abilities and take advantage of the critical attacks which lead to hero mode.

    It also seems like the reviewer likes Skyrim. This is hilarious because he bashes War in The North for a having few bugs but ignores the fact that Skyrim is PLAGUED WITH GAME ENDING BUGS.

    http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/user-reviews?dist=negative

    Skyrim = 5.2 stars out of 10 on metacritic. Currently, there are 562 negative ratings for the game and all reviews mention the bugs and glitches. That's ignoring the reviews which bash Skyrim on its atrocious gameplay alone.

    War in The North may have a few bugs but you can beat the game still. Unlike Skyrim, the game is actually fun too. The reviewer says abilities are useless because the willpower bar doesn't regenerate? Evidently, the reviewer didn't buy any power potions which can be brought at any shop. If the willpower kept regenerating, then the game would be too easy. The abilities and willpower are the way that they are so the player can't just rush into tough battles, spamming abilities to win. You have to be tactical.

    What a terrible review. Don't listen to this guy people. You're gullible if you believe him. War in The North is one of the best loot RPG's of this year.

    Farewell.