War in the North

December 12th, 2011

I wasn’t expecting much when I placed The Lord of the Rings: War in the North into my Xbox. Game adaptations of big franchises rarely shine, but after an entire afternoon of playing, I was ready to admit it may be my surprise hit of the year. Not because it’s a masterpiece – it isn’t – but because it is so much better than it had any right to be. In short War in the North is an incredibly fun game, and although it can be frustratingly clunky at times in single player and lacks something in its narrative, it truly comes alive when played co-operatively with one or two friends.

At first War in the North seems to wear its influences on its sleeve. The game’s presentation, inventory screens, dialogue wheels and skill trees all strongly evoke Bioware’s dark fantasy Dragon Age – however it feels like War in the North has succeeded in doing what Dragon Age II so desperately set out to achieve; that fine balancing act that is an action RPG. Developers Snowblind studios have a history of tackling established IPs and injecting them with visceral and fun gameplay, most notably Balders Gate: Dark Alliance on the PS2. Although they are not as celebrated as Obsidian – another company famous for tinkering with and largely improving upon established franchises – they certainly know their way around the RPG genre well enough to come up with a solid offering.

Set parallel to the events in the Lord of the Rings, War in the North begins with a nice piece of lip service to fans: a fateful encounter at the Prancing Pony in Bree with Aragorn, just before he meets Frodo. Aragorn is concerned that one of Sauron’s generals is raising an army in the north and sends you to act as a diversion as he helps the fellowship of the ring carry their burden to Mount Doom. Chapters take place in such evocative locations as Fornost, Mirkwood and Rivendell, and many of the book’s most famous characters crop up as NPCs. But, despite being based on one of the most important novels in the fantasy genre, War in the North’s narrative seems very flat. Indeed the developers appear to be acutely aware that it can’t compete with games like Dragon Age on the level of narrative and wisely focus on other strengths instead. As a consequence the game feels very much a tangent to the main adventure; it’s use of Middle Earth’s famous locations akin to a pretty slideshow. It’s when you enter combat that the magic starts to happen, and the game sets itself apart from its peers.

Each of the three characters – Farin the dwarf tank, Eradin the ranger, and Andriel the elf mage – feel very balanced yet distinctive in their handling. Each excels in a certain area and possesses a unique skill tree that builds on a unique central talent. Farin concentrates on slow, strong attacks and his battle cry ability can be upgraded to buff the entire party; Andriel can pick up alchemy materials and make potions on the fly and can cast a useful barrier that mitigates ranged attacks; and finally Eradin is the most versatile character, excelling with a bow and fast dual wielding attacks, whilst also being able to stealth by enemies for sneak attacks. Combat consists of hard and light attacks, evasive rolls, blocks and special attacks brought up by the triggers. It’s the use of combos, grizzly execution animations and God of War-esque hit multipliers, which increase your damage output, that makes combat such a satisfying affair. Add to this the fact that you can call on a giant eagle (with a ridiculous public school accent) to smite your foes and you’re laughing.

The game uses a massively overhauled version of Snowblind’s proprietary ‘Dark Alliance’ engine, and as a result looks incredibly beautiful, with highly detailed character models, fluid animation and painterly backdrops that really lift the game above the bland textures and clunky animations of Dragon Age. The levels are well designed to accommodate large amounts of enemies and adequate space for three players to battle them without feeling penned in. Indeed the gameplay often feels more akin to a third person shooter’s horde mode, with wave after wave of enemy swarming each area which needs to be cleared before the player can proceed. This could quickly become repetitive, but it’s a testament to how good the combat system is that the multitude of enemies provide perfect fodder for your acts of martial prowess.

Whilst the hordes of enemies provide ample fodder for a three player game, they make progression through single player with AI controlled companions quite challenging, particularly given that your AI companions will often block your way. This problem is emphasised by the fact that there’s no way to quickly switch to your companions in single player, leaving you to take control during checkpoints when you get the option to switch character and level them up. There’s no shared inventory, so even more so than Dragon Age it’s very hard to micromanage your team and although they will often equip items themselves, leaving them to their own devices is less than ideal. What’s more, some areas are simply inaccessible with certain characters, for instance you need Farin to break down certain walls and access to Andriel’s alchemy ability is vital to counteract the incredible shortage of health potions.

Snowblind studios have created an incredibly fun and rewarding co-op RPG (perhaps one of the best I’ve played) but the sad thing is that it’s hard to see who the game’s audience will be at the moment given that the world’s RPG fans are exclusively filling their hours with Skyrim until the foreseeable future. Ultimately it may be Warner Brother’s release schedule that is the biggest threat to the fellowship, rather than Sauron.

Words > Dean Bowman

Tags: Dragon Age, Lord of the Rings, Snowblind Studios, War in the North, Warner Bros