The Lord Of The Rings: War In The North Review

Released little more than two weeks after Skyrim, we can only assume that the suits at Warner Bros. decided they wanted to get in on some of that Skyrim hype. To catch some players that had had their fill of Tamriel and wanted to return, as it were, to the source.

If true this is a miscalculation: people are still playing Skyrim, and even if they weren’t they wouldn’t be interested in this, quite possibly the most boring Lord Of The Rings-related media since the second and third films sighed their way onto cinema screens with run-times in the light years. 

There are Lord Of The Rings lunchboxes more entertaining than this, if only because they might have food inside. (As far as we’re aware there’s no special edition of War In The North that offers this. If this does exist, however, then add another point to the score). 

Running parallel to the trilogy, you and up to two other friends can live out all your Rings fantasies by helping to shape the destiny of the One Ring by, err, talking to Aragorn a bit and then heading out for some of the most repetitive combat since Golden Axe.

Playing as either a Ranger, a mage or a dwarf, you’ll hit things, cast spells, loot stuff, hit things, upgrade your character, hit things, talk to people, hit things, hit things and hit things.

Granted, ‘hitting things’ is actually pretty fun, for a while. There’s a critical hit mechanic which appears after weakening foes that sees limbs and even heads removed, and the strikes themselves feel like they’re really connecting.

However, this is pretty much all the game has to offer as it quickly descends into rote hack-and-slashing through tedious, telegraphed killrooms that ask you to eviscerate everything before you can continue. 

Taking an orc's head off is one of so few thrills.

There’s no real variety to any of the combat, with special abilities requiring a power meter that depletes too quickly, and after the initial thrill of combat fades you’re left with hours of identical slashing, poor stage design and worse partner AI. (Playing with friends obviously solves this problem, but the others persist.)

As for the role-playing elements of the game: forget it, this is an action game with some small RPG trappings and very little else. Sure, you can talk to people, and you even have a dialogue wheel, but it doesn’t seem to matter what you say or when. Another disappointing entry into the franchise then. Is anyone really surprised?