Lord of the Rings: War in the North

As I'm waiting for Shadow of Mordor to arrive I thought I'd play War in the North again to get me in the mood for the J.R.R Tolkien world. It disappointed me massively when it first came out. I felt like a kid watching the adverts for it and got over excited when they said this was a RPG. Alas it was not a true RPG as the whole game is very linier and your decisions during the conversations has no effect on the game. From the adverts we were expecting Skyrim in Middle Earth but it was more like a less enjoyable Witcher. Playing it again, however, knowing what the game was like I enjoyed it all the way through though it can get a bit repetitive and frustrating. There is a lot to love about this game though. The world looks lovely and you can take in the views and explore a bit after you clear the areas. The three main characters look amazing too and I love how one armour looks different on each character, being customized for their race and skill set.

As with all games that give you the option I was the Dwarf, Farin son of Norin. He looks bad-ass in heavy armour and is the strongest and toughest character.

Another great thing about the game is the Eagles that accompany you on the quest as they resemble the Eagles from the books more than the ones from the films as they can speak and have a society. A lot of people that have only seen the movies think they are being smart by saying 'why didn't they just use the Eagles at the start?' There wasn't a lot of Eagles there for the same reason there wasn't many Dwarfs: they were busy defending their own territories from Sauron's armies. Plus the Eagle King was a bit of a racist dick and only helped Gandalf because he owed him one. Any way, kind of went off on one there, they are pretty damn cool in this game.

The enemies all look pretty good too, I love the large variety of Orcs in this from the standard Orc...

To Uruks like the boss Tharzog, a captain and champion of Orcs.

I really like the variation in Trolls too. Most games would just give you the one look for a rare enemy but half of the Trolls you encounter in this game look different.

There's also the dragon Urgost, he's no Smaug but he's still pretty cool and probably smarter than Smaug, choosing to make a deal with the heroes rather than throwing a tantrum and running around boasting though he still boasts a bit.

The evil men are pretty cool in this too. Love the look of Wulfrun's armour and he looks bad-ass on the Fellbeast.

Agandaûr, the main antagonist of the game looks pretty cool too. He's one of the highest ranking officers of Sauron's army.

This is a great game for fans of Lord of the Rings, just don't go in thinking it's going to be a free-roaming RPG. It's not the most sophisticated game in the world but has a fantastic story and the gameplay is fun.