LOTR War in the North is severely underrated and it's a shame so many gamers will overlook this hack and slash gem.
You will crawl through dungeons and caves, fight through castles, descend into cavernous mines, slog through haunted swamps, and traverse snowy mountains. The combat is straightforward hack and slash but what makes it fun is the leveling system and the tactics that can be employed in co op play. Having the tank dwarf take care of closer enemies while the ranger human picks of distant threats with the bow and the magic using elf provides protective cover is a lot of fun. Using a stunning shot so a teammate can delivery a critical strike is also great. Disappear as a ranger in order to revive a fallen teammate safely or use a sweeping strike to clear an area of enemies while another revives a fallen teammate. In short the combat was visceral and satisfying.
I think there are two main reasons this game was scored unfairly low by critics. First, if you are not playing co op (which is clearly the way the game was designed to be played; offering both split screen, online, and a combination of both if all players have an xbox live gold account) the friendly AI leaves something to be desired and you will find yourself crawling on the ground often. However, when playing with a friend on the default difficulty setting I've only gone down a few times in several hours of play. Second, if you play this game for several hours straight (which most reviewers probably did), I could see the repetition of battling hordes of enemies becoming numbing. The game is a hack and slash game with no real puzzle elements and very limited racial abilities which are only employed to find hidden treasure to assist in the hacking and slashing. There is very limited exploration. However when playing in one to three hour bursts I have found the combat to be brutal, engaging, and fun. Building up a combo meter, using customized special abilities, employing tactics with friends, and performing bloody decapitations is a blast. Critics who played this game alone for several hours were setting themselves up for a frustrating and repetitive time. So should developers create games that critics will enjoy on a solo speed run, or create games players will enjoy? Apparently they are not the same thing.
Slowly I also really began to appreciate the story and background lore. If you take the time to speak with NPCs you will find some nice bits of information that fill in some missing gaps in the movies. For example you find out why Legolas was in Rivendell when Frodo arrived with the ring or the history of Rivendell itself. These are revolutionary discoveries but as the game takes place at the same time as the movies, it's nice to see what was happening elsewhere and get more information on events which led up to the ring bearer's quest. These details are great for any fan of LOTR.
LOTR War in the North doesn't break any truly new ground. What it does is provide an excellent hack and slash game with plenty of loot, character leveling and customization, and nicely implemented lore and storytelling. I wish I had picked this game up for $60 when it first came out to support Snowblind. The critic reviews of this game unfairly hurt a development studio that obviously put a lot of love and effort into this game.