The Ruins of Far Chetwood July 16, 2007
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft.trackback
Per Brenden‘s comment on my post “The Shores of Nen Harn,” I ran back up there to take a look at the ruins he mentioned.
He was, of course, correct. A little bit southeast of Nen Harn you will run across a path that will lead you east to the site. There are some nice early third age ruins there on the edge of the Far Chetwood.
There is the remains of a citidel that once dominated one of the local hills.
And there is what was a keep nestled between two other hills in what I felt was a rather exaggerated Fort Necessity fashion. No wonder it fell to the Witch King.
But this little tourist trip also showed me one other aspect of Turbine’s Middle-earth.
As you close in on these ruins, your location changes from Far Chetwood and shows you in the Weather Hills. That implied, to me at least, a connection between areas that was like, you know, the real world.
Compare this to World of Warcraft’s Azeroth, where most zones are pretty well contained with a few choke point connections to other zones.
The only zones I can recall in WoW that have that same sort of broad, natural connection are the three zones outside of Stormwind, Elwynn Forest, Westfall, and Duskwood, which connect along their entire shared borders with a river being the only divider.
Every other zone I can recall in Azeroth has some sort of barrier that limits access to a few points. (The lakes around The Undercity form a similar permeable barrier, if I recall right, but that is a awfully long swim to find a new way into a zone, and I have not been to the Outlands yet, so no idea on that.)
It took me a bit to confirm that my vision of a seamless world with more natural connections was, in fact, the case. The hills near the ruined keep are too steep to scale, but if you veer south enough you will end up in the Lone Lands on the west side of the Midgewater Pass.
For no real good reason, it makes me happy that there are these out of the way locations and natural connections between zones. And it isn’t that Azeroth is necessarily “bad” in comparison. Blizzard’s world just feel more planned. As the quest lines of WoW were carefully designed to lead you through your game experience, the world was crafted to channel and frame that experience.
Turbine’s Middle-earth just feels more like a real place because of these touches, while Azeroth is more like an amusement park. A happy, colorful, fun amusement park that most people, including myself, enjoy, but an amusement park none the less.
I definitely agree, Wil. I recently re-subbed to WoW for a month (more on my odd experiences back in Azeroth over at my place), and though it’s nice to be back in a familiar land, Azeroth feels a lot less organic than Turbine’s vision of Middle-earth. I still wish I could put the soloability of WoW into LotRO though. I’m stuck at 34 with 5 soloable quests and 34 group ones.
I like to group… but not that much. :P
I love those ruins! When I first stumbled on them, I brought my whole guild there and we had fun killing the elite orcs in the area and generally poking around. There’s no boss there and no quests I know of either. The ruins are beautifully done. I like visiting there when I can. Last night, in fact, I brought my level 18 burgler there and burgled a bunch of stuff. I managed to sneak all the way in without getting caught and stole a couple of nice things. (I had to quietly take out one non-elite guard that was standing in a doorway.) It was a lot of pressure but a real blast to do (any slip-ups = dead burgler). I made it to a safe area and mapped out without dying. The trip pretty much cemented my burgler as my next alt to level.
And I agree with the poster above about the group quests too. Once I got him to 35 for his horse, my guardian pretty much stagnated. Evendim helped a bit but not enough, IMHO. I’m wondering about Turbine’s tactics with regard to content. The slower leveling and group quests could be a brake on progress which could keep them from needing an expansive end game.
Just a little aside regarding WoW’s Outlands zones.
Yes, they include the usual choke-points dividing zones – but once you obtain your flying mount the boundaries open completely. You can just fly into the next zone from any point. Which provides a nice sense of freedom.
Every time you post pictures of Middle Earth, I am tempted to purchase LOTRO. I have been holding off because I don’t like the limited number of classes. Does this negatively impact the game? Are the classes fun to play?
Sadly most other zones changes are the typical choke points. I don’t know why they did such a good job from the Shire to Breeland to Lonelands and not in other areas.
@Fred:
The limited classes are a bit of a problem. There’s only 7, to start with, and the more pertinent issue is that there is close to zero customization or “speccing” to be had. You have some class traits that you can swap around, and some stat-based ones called Virtues, but your stats are so trivial in LOTRO that you won’t notice any difference based on what you stat.
Basically, one level 50 Captain is the same as every other level 50 Captain, which means those 7 classes make for exactly 7 options in the later levels. Once you choose a class at level 1, your meaningful decisions about your character are over.
That said, the game itself is fun, as long as the lack of character options isn’t a dealbreaker for you. The graphics are, as you’ve seen, amazing, and the music is VERY good in many places, notably Rivendell. And playing in Middle-Earth is a fun geeky time. It’s just not the revolutionary MMO that I was looking for.