A bit of a hidden gem if you're looking for a decent rental. Lots of bugs. Fairly strong combat and rpg elements.

User Rating: 7 | The Lord of the Rings: War in the North PS3
I'm a sucker for all things Lord of the Rings which means I have played my share of terrible LOTR games. I wasn't expecting a masterpiece with LOTR War in the North, but I was hoping the game would be decent. The game is actually kind of enjoyable. The RPG elements are strong and satisfying, the combat is surprisingly solid… and it's LOTR.

On paper the story is what it is, a moderately interesting excuse to slaughter thousands of undesirables. But the execution of story is terrible. The dialogue is cringe worthy and the characters are as flat and dry as can be… except for maybe Beleram. This is your absolute basic, bare bones video game story telling. It shows some effort that they give you dialogue choices but they have absolutely no effect on anything. For the huge LOTR nerds that have actually tried to read the Silmarillion they do an excellent job of staying true to the source material and there are tons of little knowledge nuggets.

There are some inexplicably bad design choices like the equipment menus and lack of overhead map. Healing is so slow that your best option is to just die and come back revived at full health. The difficulty is really unbalanced. The toughest part of the game is the first few hours. Playthrough 2 and 3 are a breeze. And early on by far the toughest enemies are the archers. Fighting swarms of orcs, no problem. Three trolls at a time, no problem. Massive stone giants, forget about it. But toss in like three goblins shooting at you with their magic heat seeking arrows… you're finished. It's so bad I thought maybe I was missing a button. Did no one play test the game and suggest balancing this out?

Speaking of playtesting the game is littered with bugs. Quests will lock, items will disappear and there is a save file corrupting glitch that potentially ends your game. Fortunately I had read up on the tricks to avoid the game ending glitch (compulsively reloading your game twice every time you start), but the minor ones still plagued the experience.

After just navigating the very first town I thought I was in big trouble. But the combat and controls are actually better than expected. Rather than your typical high speed button masher, the combat is slow and somewhat strategic and thoughtful. I have to emphasize the word somewhat because the combat certainly isn't stellar. It's just a good deal better than I would have expected based on the quality of the game.

All three characters play differently and leveling their abilities is satisfying. The equipment management and RPG elements are great, they kind of draw on that loot hording/dungeon crawling niche. I am sure the game would be a blast to play co-op but I never had the opportunity. The three other people in the world that own this game were unfortunately never online at the same time as me. Also you would have to be at the exact same level to have any success with it.

Bottom line is that this game is a little bit of a hidden gem if you're looking for a decent rental.