Pros: Well-written, engaging quest storylines; The game world looks and feels like Middle-earth should; Impressive in-game music system; Deep, co-dependent crafting system.

Cons: Crafting needs serious tweaking to become viable; Limited PvP options, currently only PvMP is available; Not enough choices during creation to make a truly unique looking character.

Final Thought: An impressive offering from Turbine that really brings Tolkien’s Middle-earth to life.

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar has officially launched, and with it comes the undeniably daunting task of bringing virtual life to one of literature's most adored and enduring sagas. Starting with a hobbit named Bilbo, a wizard named Gandalf, and the true meaning of the words "Good Morning", J.R.R. Tolkien created a series of stories that has resonated with readers for 70 years. Add to this the huge success of Peter Jackson's cinematic adaptations, and you can easily see why Turbine has their work cut out for them.

Installation was smooth, with only a few choices to make before the game files were installed to my system. While the installation progresses, you are encouraged to visit Turbine's website and create your game account, and enter your product key to activate your subscription to the game. Once the installation was complete, I launched the game, only to find that there was a patch that needed to be downloaded. Of course, this is expected of all online games, and the download only took a few minutes over a cable connection to the Internet. I then entered my game credentials, and was presented with a list of available servers. There are 11 servers available at this time; 4 of them had player queues at peak time. To be fair, though, the most wait time I experienced while logging into one of these servers was 3 minutes.

After sitting through an intro movie that introduces you to the game, you will come to the character selection/creation screen. You have a selection of 4 races, 7 classes (some classes are not available to some races), and, excluding Dwarves, gender. Once you've chosen your class and race, you are presented with a few appearance options, and the ability to name your character and choose his/her place of origin. While I would have liked to have seen more choices in either class or race, the available choices have distinct differences to them, and should appeal to a wide variety of players.

Gameplay should be fairly familiar with anyone who has played an MMO recently. Your character interacts with other players, NPCs, and monsters in the game world, earning XP as you go along. When you reach an XP milestone, you will gain a level and are then able to grow your character through new skills and abilities. As you enter the world for the first time, you begin in a solo instance designed to introduce you to both the storyline of the game and how to play it. Once you've completed this introduction, your character starts in a shared instance designed to prepare you for the full game world. You should be around level 6 when you finally transition to Middle-earth proper, and at this point you will have access to all of the game world's 9 areas.

Experience is earned through the completion of quests, and given for each mob you kill in the game world. The vast majority of XP you earn, however, will be through the quest lines, as the amount of XP given for mob kills is minimal. This shouldn't be a problem, however, as the number of quests available are numerous in each zone. The main quest line is, appropriately enough, split into Books and Chapters, and continues the story that began in the level 1 solo instance. The developers have done a remarkable job immersing you into the history and lore of Tolkien's Middle-earth, and they have filled the game world with hundreds of quests to keep you constantly moving forward without the feeling of grinding your way through to the next level. While the time actually spent leveling my Champion character to level 20 was about on par with other games, the process felt much faster, thanks to interesting stories and objectives. Quest directions are very clear, making it easy to explore and find its objectives. The only thing Turbine could add to make quest objective locations clearer is an in-game GPS and satellite tracking.

As you level up, skills and abilities will become available to you through your class trainer. Most skills you will only have to purchase once, and they will grow in power as you continue to level up. Other skills require you to purchase the next available rank when that level is reached. By collecting Traits, you can further define your character's stats and abilities, and distinguish him/her from others in the same class. Traits are broken down into four categories (Virtue, Class, Race, and Legendary), and are earned through completion of Deeds. Deeds can be completed by killing a certain number of a monster type (Wargs, Bears, etc.), exploring points of interest in an area, or using a certain skill repeatedly. Once you unlock a Trait, you must visit an NPC Bard to equip your Traits, for a fee.

Some quests will require that you group up with other players to accomplish, and that's where Fellowships come into play. A Fellowship can consist of 2 to 6 players, and allows the players to work together to accomplish quest goals, kill some of the more difficult mobs in the game world, and perform Fellowship Maneuvers. Fellowship Maneuvers are a very interesting addition to the group dynamic. Usually triggered by the Burglar class, each player will get a few seconds to choose from one of four colors: Red (instant damage), Yellow (Damage over Time, or DOT), Green (Morale restoration, or healing), or Blue (Power restoration). There are many different combinations and effects of these selections, and if used correctly, can turn the tide of a battle going poorly. Having all players select green, for instance, can add a much needed Morale boost, while all yellow will cause a DOT attack on an enemy that will add damage over 20 seconds. Once you properly use a Fellowship Maneuver, it will be logged for later reference in your character screen. Beyond the Fellowship is the Kinship, the LotRO equivalent of a guild.

Another large component of the game is crafting. There are 10 professions, of which you can learn 3. Instead of picking the professions you want, however, you must choose a vocation. There are 7 vocations to choose from, with 3 predefined professions in each vocation. This was done with the intention of creating a dependency between the various vocations; recipes will often call for resources and items that only other vocations, and thus other players, can provide. One major problem with crafting in the game at this time, however, is it can be a money sink. Progressing through the various tiers of a profession can cost significant amounts of both time and money, and by the time you've mastered a tier, the gear you receive through quest rewards and loot drops are usually better than the items you can create. And some professions, such as cook, are extremely expensive to pursue and offer very little opportunity to sell your creations at a profit. Turbine, however, has acknowledged the imbalances and plan to address these issues in a future patch. I'm hopeful that crafting becomes a viable part of the game, as each profession does offer a fun diversion.

PvP is implemented as Player versus Monster Player, or PvMP. When you reach level 10, you gain the ability to go the the Ettenmoors and fight as a level 50 creature, or Creep, by using one of several Fell Scrying Pools located throughout the game world. There are five basic creature types to choose from, and they closely mimic the abilities of the 7 main classes of the game. When your character hits level 40, you can join the battle on the side of the Freeps, or Free Peoples. Kills and completed quests in this region reward you with Destiny Points instead of XP, which you can use to purchase temporary buffs for your Freep or upgrade your Creeps initial abilities. You will also earn Destiny Points for each level gained after 10, and those points are shared between all of your characters on a server. And don't worry about the level differences; A creature character at 50 has basically the same stats and skills as a player character at level 40, and only through the use of Destiny Points can a level 50 creature advance their skills and stats to compete with players who have capped at 50.

PvMP gameplay is centered around attacking and gaining control of various strongholds in the Ettenmoors, although there are a few quests available for Raid groups with PvMP-centric objectives. Battling for a stronghold can be an intense affair, as you are fighting both human players and NPCs of varying strengths. Once you take over a stronghold, allied NPC characters will spawn to help defend against a future attack and takeover attempt from the enemy. Although simplistic in its design, PvMP is a blast to play. PvMP will need to eventually grow past this one area to remain a vital part of the game, though.

Behind all of this gameplay lies a remarkably powerful game engine. Even at the lowest settings, the game world looks great, thanks to some impressive art design. Bump up the graphics options, though, and that's where the engine really begins to shine. This is a game where it pays to stop once and a while and take a long look at your surroundings. The details are amazing, and succeed in making you believe that you are actually walking through Middle-earth. I found myself taking screenshots to share with friends very often, in some instances taking the time to move around to get the perfect shot. The game music fits the essence of the game perfectly, without overly distracting you from the task at hand. Sound effects are top notch, and although there are a few glitches where sounds are triggered inappropriately, this only occurred a few times during game sessions. And since launch, both the client and server connectivity were extremely stable and (mostly) lag-free during peak-time gaming sessions. The only lag I experienced was in heavy populated areas in town during peak-time, and even then it was more than tolerable. I encountered very few bugs in the game, as well, which is remarkable for a newly launched MMO.

Speaking of music, there is a fairly robust music system included in-game. Once you reach level 5, you can purchase a music skill (lute, clarinet, etc.) from your class trainer, and then purchase the matching instrument for your new skill from an NPC Bard or a player Woodworker who can craft the instrument. Entering the command '/music', you are then able to use your keyboard to play musical notes on your instrument. Traveling to The Prancing Pony, among many other locations, can enable you to join in on impromptu jam sessions involving other players, and is a lot of fun to participate in. The default keyboard layout is a bit cumbersome to use, but remapping the keys to something more intuitive is easy to accomplish via the options menu.

Showing Turbine really knows how to take care of their customers, they have already announced content additions to the game, before the game even officially launched. Turbine plans to release small content upgrades throughout the life of the game, and this content addition will be included as part of the monthly subscription fee. Larger expansions will be released periodically for retail purchase. The current update, entitled 'Shores of Evendim', will provide an enhancement to the music system, add 60 new quests and a new Raid, and opens Evendim as a new explorable area in north Eriador.

The gameplay is familiar, yet extremely fun and engaging. Leveling a character doesn't feel like a grind at all, and the available quests, especially the Epic quest line, are intriguing, compelling, and well written. PvMP is an entertaining distraction to the main game and offers some unique twists to gameplay on the side of the monsters. The game world itself is a wonderful sight to behold, and is the most stable I've seen in an MMO launch, well, maybe ever.

PvMP really needs to expand beyond its initial offerings to attract a wider player base. Crafting, although an enjoyable component of the game, doesn't offer the players enough incentive to pursue, since crafting profit is almost non-existent compared to what you can purchase through an NPC vendor or receive as quest rewards. Having said that, the game's economy is brand new, and Turbine has already demonstrated a responsiveness to their player community, so these issues should be resolved as the game matures.

In the end, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar successfully delivers a fun and immersive look into life in Middle-earth, and should please both fans of MMOGs and fans of Tolkien. As for me, I'll be at the Bird and Baby Inn having a smoke, and listening to the locals as they regale me with songs and stories of their travels through Eriador.