![]() ![]() ![]() War in the North adds nothing to Lord of the Rings. Shadows of the Empire, which stars a Han Solo rippoff named Dash Rendar and largely takes place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, has a complex and interesting plot that adds layers of depth to the Star Wars trilogy. By defeating him, they can help Frodo on his quest to destroy the Ring.Īnd that’s pretty much the whole story. Their mission is to defeat Agandaur, a new villain that is of the same descent as the Mouth of Sauron and is one of the dark lord’s top lieutenants. ![]() Apparently, these races form trios all the time. For proof, look no further than the game’s three main characters: Eradon, a Dunadan Ranger like Aragorn Andriel, a female version of Legolas and Farin, a dwarf that looks just like Gimli. Instead, it’s an attempt to recreate Lord of the Rings without repeating the same old story we’ve been through in previous games. Yet all that has been averted because a handful of heroes stood in his path.” But beyond the general nature of the quote, so far as I can tell, none of the new specific story elements in this game appear in any Tolkien book, meaning nothing here is cannon at all. The game is based on a single quote from Gandalf the White taken from the books that says, “With his far reaching right hand Sauron might have done great evil in the North. Much like the classic Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (N64), War in the North is an attempt to breathe new life into the Lord of the Rings films by weaving a secondary tale into the fabric of Peter Jackson’s trilogy. But it does have some light RPG elements and they’re implemented fairly well. Don’t buy this game because you heard its an RPG. It is fun to play through early areas after you’ve leveled up though–the orcs die so quickly. Leveling up and equipment changes are also a part of the mix, but neither affect gameplay much. The elf is the most different but only because she can cast a nice healing bubble spell. They all have the same basic ranged and melee attacks. Actually, after playing all three character classes, I can say that there is almost no difference between a ranger, an elf mage, and a dwarf champion. There are three playable character classes and some RPG elements here, but they’re mostly negligible. This is the drill in War in the North. Don’t expect a mental challenge. To kill him, you fight him like an enemy in World of Warcraft: just keep beating him until he awkwardly collapses. A troll in War of the North simply drops into the arena and awkwardly starts fighting people. Defeating the troll required precise timing and was truly frightening. Unlike War in the North, each boss and enemy in RE4 required its own unique strategy and had its own learning curve. When I was battling a giant troll in the game, I remembered fighting similar creatures in Resident Evil 4. They just pop up and you try as hard as you can to hit them before they hit you. There are no unique strategies needed to fight different enemies. The bigger they are, the more hits it will take to bring them down. Your villains will shoot at you or come hit you. And don’t expect enemies to be any more complex. Just walk toward something and start hacking away. The controls work well enough, but, as you’d imagine, there is no depth to them. There are a few powerups and other controls mapped to different keys, but these are your core controls. For far away enemies, hold the left trigger to go into first-person POV and aim your bow or magic staff. To finish him off, use Y for a slow and powerful final blow. Just tap that baby over and over until your enemy is almost dead. Other than moving, you’ll pretty much be hitting the X button (on the 360), which attacks. Moving and the camera are controlled by the left and right control sticks. You can play by yourself or with one friend via splitscreen, but the computer will control any characters you don’t, and it’s not always great at knowing what to do…or how to kill. Like the old Gauntlet games, it’s best played simultaneously, in this case with three people. Hack and slash to your brainĪt its core, War in the North is a cooperative multiplayer hack and slash game. More importantly though, it’s an attempt to bring back cooperative hack and slash gameplay with the added value of some light RPG and story elements. The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is an attempt to stretch out the fabric of Peter Jackson’s film trilogy by fabricating a massive, concurrent side quest onto it. Luckily, the series has a timeless feel to it and with the first half of a massive two-part Hobbit film headed for release in late 2012, the franchise is already beginning to heat up again. It helped redefine the fantasy genre, and it’s hard to believe that The Fellowship of the Ring is 10 years old now. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy may be the best book-to-movie adaptations ever made.
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