A generally fun and worthy addition to LOTRO but is somewhat hampered by an uneven launch.
User Rating: 7 | The Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood PC
All in all, Siege of Mirkwood is a fun and much needed addition to LOTRO. As an avid LOTRO player, the decline in player population across all servers has been very noticeable and disconcerting. Mines of Moria was a sprawling, immense and immersive experience - which nearly doubled the size of the game's geography. By comparison, Siege of Mirkwood is considerably smaller...but with some nice game updates and features that will create some renewed interest. The zone itself is small but contains a large amount of instances (especially at the tower Dol Goldur). Quests are still of your typical "go there, collect this, kill that" variety...but with the addition of the Skirmish system, Turbine has employed an NPC-assisted instance system which reminds me somewhat of Guild Wars with a smattering of Neverwinter Nights thrown in (you can upgrade the abilities of your NPC). The Skirmish system is a vibrant and welcome addition to the game. The quest areas west of Dol Guldur, however, are a bit of a letdown. They look great...but the quest diversity is minimal and, at this time, several quests are just broken and in need of hotfixes (in fact, the GM's are freely admitting that this launch has not been smooth). There has also been a noticeable increase in server lag but this should be temporary. Leveling is generally fast; with many people already 65 after only two days (the current level max) which is worrisome - it is likely that with the quick leveling, server populations will once again decrease back to their diminished levels. Overall, SoM is an important and fun addition to the game - but enthusiasm is somewhat marred by the plethora of bugs, and the distinct lack of anything truly revolutionary (aside from the skirmish system addition).
