LotR Online out this year

By Ellie Gibson Published 3 March, 2006

Courtesy of Codemasters.

UK publisher Codemasters has teamed up with Turbine Inc. to bring MMORPG Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar to Europe.

The game will let you play as a human, elf, dwarf or hobbit, creating your own unique character and selecting their skill set. There are loads of locations from The Fellowship of the Ring to explore, including the Shire, Barrow Downs, Rivendell, the Old Forest and Moria.

"As the lands of Middle-Earth fall under a growing threat from the dark realm of Angmar, only the mightiest of deeds and the stoutest of hearts can halt the advance of Sauron's minions," etc.

There's plenty of solo adventuring to be done but you can also establish your own Fellowship, taking on missions that might task you with saving a hobbit village, for example, or clearing a dwarven mine. A unique combo system is designed to make group attacks even more effective, which should help.

As you explore Middle-Earth you'll face off with all manner of familiar foes, including orcs, trolls, spiders, barrow wights and the Nazgūl. You'll also get to meet Bilbo, Elrond, Tom Bombadil, the Dśnedain and various members of the original fellowship.

The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of Angmar is slated for a release in late 2006.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (15) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • MrAtheist #1 6 years ago

    Bored of the Rings.

    Wheres my Mean Girls mmorpg? Im tired of all this men in tights crap, lets see something a little different. :)

  • Donkeh #2 6 years ago

    Codies? I thought EA had the rights to all things LOTR related. I'm sure ages back there was an "EA buys all rights" doo daah.

    Have I got it wrong?

    /Confused

  • MrAtheist #3 6 years ago

    EA have the movie rights, Turbine blagged the book rights (some of the books anyway).

  • Donkeh #4 6 years ago

    Aahh, I see now. Ta.

    LOTR Online does have it's work cut out though. WoW being a monster hit that it is (for MMORPG's), it's gotta have all that WoW has to offer an more.

    RF Online just didn't do it for me, good luck with this one though.

  • Kami #5 6 years ago

    " Bored of the Rings. "

    Couldn't have put it better... not that I dislike LotR, but an MMORPG... hmm...

  • Aga #6 6 years ago

    Make an elf called Legolas and sell on eBay, you will be minted!

  • Kazzahdrane #7 6 years ago

    Actually, as I understand it EA have also aquired the rights to the LotR books. They just don't included making it into a MMO since that's already under development. It's similar to what Bethesda are doing with the Star Trek license - their deal didn't affect Star Trek Online which is under development by Perpetual.

  • ElephantMonkey #8 6 years ago

    If I would play another medieval fantasy world MMORPG it would be LOTR. Otherwise enough with the medieval fantasy worlds. Bring on Pirates of the Carabean Sea!

  • Narv #9 6 years ago

    If its to do with Angmar then that is pre LOTR as the Witch Kind of Angmar (If I remeber right) turned into the chief Ring Wraith. So, it probably gets around the LOTR rights by not being set in the LOTR time.

    I could totally wrong of course...

  • AOFanboi #10 6 years ago

    Woe is the industry!

    Why do they insist on making MMOs set in established worlds? Yes, you lure fans of the world, but then you get all the anguish because they don't get to play Sam Gamgee or Aragorn, but some no-name dude in the Rohan cavalry.

    Playing hobbits? A race famous for their reclusive, NON-adventuring life? Yes, that will fly with the Tolkien hardcore. Plus the reclusive dwarves... there's a reason Gimli is the sole dwarf mentioned in LotR. Oh, and add the reclusive elves.

    This is like SW:G post-NGE, where the galaxy suddenly is full of jedi despite the game being set in a SW time period where there were two known jedi and a handful of force sensitive people...

    Then we have the Marvel and DC games... and Star Trek if they ever get anywhere with that...

    Ah, well, it's their money.

  • vane101 #11 6 years ago

    Lord of the Rings Online will almost certainly be the biggest of the next wave of MMORPGs. I'm looking forward to it.

  • Talha #12 6 years ago

    Come on guys (and gals) - anyone try reading the ACTUAL BOOKS for a change?

  • ElephantMonkey #13 6 years ago

    ^^
    "Come on guys (and gals) - anyone try reading the ACTUAL BOOKS for a change?"


    Reading?!! We don't read books! We play videogames!

  • Talha #14 6 years ago

    @ElephantMonkey : Right, I can see that. ;-)

  • kangarootoo #15 6 years ago

    LOL