Beat Up A Balrog
Posted by Stropp on March 18, 2008Oli Welsh of Eurogamer was lucky enough to get the chance to chat with the Jeffrey Steefel, the executive producer of Lord of the Rings Online.
Turbine have just announce their first paid expansion to LotRO, there have been a number of free expansions to date, which opens the door to the Mines of Moria. Players will be able to explore the mines as a single, continuous underground zone.
So what should we expect in the Mines of Moria?
For one thing, there are lots and lots of goblins to slay. There’s likely a few Cave Trolls in there as well. And since the entire Dwarven population was slaughtered, I’d guess Saurons guys have employed the evil arts of necromancy to raise a few Dwarven dead to fight as their side as well. That’s my educated guess at least.
But there is one big fella that players will get the chance to beat up on. Steefel has confirmed that the Balrog who fought, and was defeated by, Gandalf will be available on the line up.
That might raise a few eyebrows, especially since the early indications were that the developers were reluctant to allow player involvement with Balrogs. You see in the lore, Balrogs were immensely powerful beings, and I think that there were only three of them. It’s been a while since I read the Silmarillion, and even longer since I spelled it, so correct me if I’m wrong.
It’s my guess, there is no mention in the article, that the Balrog fight will require a raid. That’s really not much of a longshot is it?
Aside from putting the beat down on the Balrog, players will have a new level cap - sixty. There will also be a bunch of mini-games that will unlock deeds and other content.
There will be Legendary items added to the mix, and get this, these items will have their own advancement paths. I guess that matches with the lore, after all Bilbo’s blade, Sting, had it’s own special history.
It’s pretty cool really. It’s always been one of the things about MMOs that I’ve been in two minds about. On the one hand, getting the fancy new weapon or armor is cool. It’s fancy new after all. But I’ve always been loath to just vendor those old items. We’ve been through so much together, so many good times, it’s a shame to get rid of them. Now, once I’ve got some Legendary gear, it will follow me through the game. Nifty.
The problem with all the press about the Mines of Moria expansion is is that I’m getting the urge to dust off my account and log back in. With Warhammer, Age of Conan, and umpteen other good looking games coming out in the next year it’s looking increasingly difficult to focus on a single game.
Must. Resist. Urge.
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There were armies of belrogs that served the original dark lord ( who sauron was only a right hand man /general for, his name might have been Morgoth, where they get the name for the land after him ) . it was either in the second age or maybe even the first , when manwe created the gods.
In the huge wars after dwarfs but before men appeared, several belrogs fought and were killed.
The elf king ( I think it was the guy who played agent smith in the matrix) killed one before the allence between men and elf.
I thought it was mentioned that there still survived a handful of belrogs in the dungeons of Mordor Deep deep in the unexplored places even few orc s have seen
Well due to WoW burnout and AoC boredom I decided to download the 7 day free trial to give this a shot, id previously stated i wasnt interested in this game due to no factions and limited pvp but after watching the first two lord of the rings i thought id give it a wee try.
Last night i created a Burglar on the evernight server (i think) called Pitrelli, I got him up to lvl 5 after about 1 and a half hour of play then decided to hit the hay. So far im not sure what to think, the graphics are pretty decent and i can actually have them on the highest settings without any lag or issues (unlike conan), the quests are quite standard however seem more in depth like AoC than that of your boring WoW quests, i had minimal contact with other players so cant really comment on the community, the gameplay again i cant really comment too much untill i guess i get dual wielding and am of a decent level, im quite busy the next 7 days but i do hope to have a little more gametime and make the choice whether its worth a few months of my effort and coin for the full game.
Whats your thoughts Stropp, is it a decent game?
Yep. I think it is a decent very well put together game. I have a lifetime sub, but don’t spend enough time really. I think that Turbine have got well past their release blues and have put up enough content to satisfy. That was the biggest issue at launch.
There are a couple of things I don’t like. 1) Especially for the hobbits and men there is too much back a forth in the early quests. You’ll get sent out a long way to talk to someone for a quest and once you’ve done that, you’ll be sent right back to the starting point. I find that frustrating. 2) Most of the main questline quests can be completed solo, but there are spots where you are forced to group. I respect this as a design decision but personally dont want to be forced to group to progress.
Otherwise, the game is gorgeous. The storyline quests tie well into the LotR story and I get the sense of epicness. The little bit of monster play (you get it at level 10) I’ve done is fun. I think it’s a good game and well worth trying out.
Frankly though. Really hammer the 7 day trial, try to do as much as possible and get past the newbie areas like the Shire. Then you’ll start to see more of the game and can make a better decision
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