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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Banshee16" data-source="post: 3372634" data-attributes="member: 7883">That single thing really helped me "feel" the character.  During the attack, my presence in the past ended with me and others running to a gate from the city's inner courtyard, and there's a cave troll outside.  The thing roars, and it's pretty loud over the speakers, and the whole screen kind of blurs and shakes, then I was stunned.  At that point, Elrond arrives at the head of an army of elves from Rivendell, to try and hold off the orcs, and give the civilians and younger elves (like your character) a chance to escape.You do, and that's when you "return" to the world.  You're outside the ruins, part of a small band or village of elves that have been set up outside of the ruins, in order to monitor them, and deal with threats that might rise within them.  I ended up talking to a dwarf, who started reciting the history of the ruins, and the elven city they used to be, then he looked at me, and commented something like "oh, you were there 600 years ago, weren't you?  Sometimes it's so difficult to remember that.  You look so young....but your eyes....one can see eternity in them".  Something like that.  I just remember thinking "cool!".What other stuff was there?  There are some tools to make it easier to find groups.  They *do* break roleplaying immersion, but they're useful because they let you pull up a panel that shows you a list of characters in your area who are working on the same quests you have active....which makes it easier to find a group.Levels seemed to come quickly.  I don't know if it's because I was in the starting area, but in about 3 or 4 hours, I got to lvl 6.  By that point, I could really feel things slowing down.There were all sorts of little touches.  I found a cave within the ruins, and there was a hole to the surface, with daylight pouring through it, and right where the shaft of sunlight fell, there was a troll that had been turned to stone by the touch of the light.  Pretty cool <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />The art direction seems very much influenced by the movies.  The elven ruins were beautiful, and the equipment you gain is covered in elven tracery and decorations.  Even some of the more advanced swords and such looked like they were right out of the movies.Many of the quests were fedex type quests...but again, because I never got out of the beginner area, I have no idea if they get more complex.I created a human character, who starts in Bree, but I only played that one for like 10 minutes, so really had no good idea of what that area was like.  Oh, and I can confirm that the game seems to take place right before the War of the Ring.  When I played my human character, there was a fire in Bree, and a ranger of the north asked for my help to stop ruffians who were assaulting hobbits, looking for a "Baggins"......apparently they'd hurt a Sackville-Baggins, and two others.I understand that most of the game is player vs. environment....however, there are some areas where if you go there, you can leave your character behind, and decide to play an orc or a cave troll or whatever, and act as the monsters fighting adventuring bands of hobbits, elves, men, etc. who are coming into that zone, run by other players.  I think it is a really neat way to do it.  Allow the PvP, but only in certain areas....and it fits within the story, because it's all alliance vs. shadow.There are loading screens, when travelling in some areas, like going from outside, to inside of a dungeon.  I don't think they have those in WoW.I think there are only two starting areas....one for elves/dwarves, and one for men/hobbits.  ie. once you get through the "ancient times" beginning for elves, you appear in the ruins, and that same zone of the world also has dwarves in it.  Similar with Bree-town having both humans and hobbits.Characters can have titles.  i think you can even customize your character description, even after character creation.  And when you accomplish certain feats, you gain a title, and you can choose for that title to be added to your name, and displayed to other characters.  I reached level 5 without being defeated once, and gained the title "Eraitha the Wary"....there's others like elf-friend and a whole whack of others.  It's really a minor point, but it helps with customization, and gives you something permanent to remember accomplishments by.That's about all I can remember.  It was a busy weekend, and I can't say that I played it a huge amount.With respect to the beta, the one I took part in was the stress test.  The one starting in March will be an open beta.  Apparently they're giving a few benefits.  Those who take place in the beta, and choose to preorder the game, will get a special price, and will have an option to pay $199 to have a lifetime membership for the game, or choose to pay a lower monthly rate.  So if it interests you, and  you're the kind of person who can play one of these MMORPGs for over a year, then it might be worth checking out.Banshee</blockquote>

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