The Lord of the Rings War in the North Download PC

The game contains narrative elements unique to both the novel and the films, although the aesthetic design is based more specifically upon the look of the films, with characters in the game bearing the likenesses of the actors who portrayed them in the films. The game does not directly adapt the story depicted in the novel and films, but instead depicts a trio of adventurers whose quest runs parallel to the main narrative, occasionally intersecting with it. The story follows them as they attempt to track down and defeat a powerful Black Númenórean named Agandaûr, who Sauron has employed to lay waste to the northern regions of Middle-earth, whilst Sauron himself concentrates on Rohan and Gondor. The Lord of the Rings War in the North Download free Full Version.

The game received mixed reviews, with critics praising the graphics and tone, but criticizing the repetitive combat, weak storyline and poor character development. It was also criticized for containing several game-breaking bugs. War in the North was a commercial failure, a fact many critics attributed to the timing of its release — several weeks after Dark Souls, on the same day as Uncharted 3 and ten days prior to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Gameplay

War in the North is an action role-playing hack and slash game played from a third-person perspective. The game features three playable characters; Eradan (a Ranger), Farin (a Dwarf) and Andriel (an Elf). When the player begins the game for the first time, they must choose which character to control. However, they can switch characters during a single play-through either by using the «switch character» option at the end of each level, or by loading a previously saved game and selecting a different character at the character select screen. Each character has their own unique weaponry, attacks, skills and special abilities. Eradan can use a bow, a two-handed sword, a one-handed sword and a shield, or two single-handed weapons. His skill tree is built around stealth. His special ability allows him to find the tracks of other Rangers and follow them to secret stashes of items and weapons. Farin can use two-handed heavy weapons such as axes, a single-handed weapon and a shield, or a crossbow. His skill tree is built around melee combat. His special ability allows him to detect fissures and weakness in walls and rocks, smashing them open to find money, items and gems. Andriel can use a staff and a shield, or a staff and a single-handed weapon. Her staff also serves as her long-range weapon. Her skill tree is built around offensive and defensive spell casting. She can also create potions from alchemy ingredients collected in the field, and her special ability allows her to find secret passages marked with hidden elven glyphs.

All characters have a light and a heavy attack, and all three can roll, block and sprint. Players can also perform critical strikes; when a yellow indicator appears over the head of an enemy a heavy attack will produce a critical strike, which are extra-strong attacks that often kill an enemy immediately. During a single-player game, players can also issue orders to their AI companions; ordering them to either seek out enemies and attack, or stay near the player character and defend. Players can also revive fallen allies; if the player character dies, the player must wait to be revived by an AI ally. Another aspect of combat is the player's ability to summon a Great Eagle to aid them. The eagle can target a single foe for a large amount of damage. However, the player is limited in the number of times they can summon him, and he can be summoned only when the player is in an outdoors location. The Lord of the Rings War in the North Game free Download Full Version.

The game also features online co-op gameplay for up to three players, each controlling one character. When playing in co-op mode, players can swap items between one another, and each player can find secrets unique to his or her character, meaning all of a level's secrets can be found in a single play-through, which is impossible in single-player mode. Also in multiplayer, when all three player controlled characters are fighting a strong enemy, they can build up a combo chain. When the chain is sufficiently long, the players enter «Hero Mode,» which results in much stronger attacks. To build up the combo chain, the player must continually land successful attacks without being hit. Single-player games also include a hero mode, although it is limited to the player-character; the AI allies do not enter hero mode.

Characters gain experience by defeating enemies and completing quests. A character will level up when enough experience points have been gained. Once a character has leveled up, they get three points to spend on their stats (strength, will, stamina and dexterity), and one skill point to use in their skill tree. Players' skills are attached to their melee weapon, their long range weapon and their defensive stance; i.e. some skills are only available during melee combat, some during long-range combat and some when the player is blocking.

The game features two unlockable difficulty modes. When the player first plays the game, they can play on either «easy» or «normal.» Once normal has been defeated, «Heroic» mode is unlocked. If this mode is defeated, «Legendary» mode becomes available. Playing through harder difficulties takes the form of a New Game Plus; the characters keep equipment, money, updated stats and unlocked skills from all previous playthroughs. The Lord of the Rings War in the North game free Download for PC Full Version.

Synopsis

Background

The game is presented against the background of the history of the One Ring. At the dawn of the Second Age, after the defeat of the Dark Lord, Morgoth, the elves of Eregion forged the nineteen Rings of Power to help themselves, the dwarves and men rule Middle-earth. However, the elves were unaware that Sauron, Morgoth's closest ally, had survived his master's defeat, and in the guise of Annatar had been the one who taught the Elven-smiths, led by Celebrimbor, how to forge the Rings, whilst, in secret, he forged his own One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom, a Ring far more powerful than any of the others. However, in order for the One Ring to be powerful enough to control the other Rings, Sauron had to transfer most of his power into it. As soon as he put it on, the elves became aware of his ruse, removing and hiding their Three Rings, which Celebrimbor had forged without Sauron's aid. Sauron waged war on the elves, conquering much of Middle-earth and killing Celebrimbor. Thus began the Dark Years, when Sauron took possession of the remaining sixteen Rings, giving seven to the dwarves and nine to men in an effort to corrupt them. The dwarves proved relatively immune to the powers of the Rings, acquiring only a greed for gold, and becoming unconcerned with events in the wider world. Men proved less resilient, and the nine kings given the Rings become the nine Ring-wraiths, or Nazgûl, led by the Witch-king of Angmar.

In his ongoing efforts to conquer Middle-earth, Sauron regained the allegiance of many of Morgoth's servants from the First Age, and successfully corrupted Númenor. However, in doing so, he expended a great deal of his power, and lost the ability to ever again assume a pleasing disguise. Returning to Mordor, he regained his strength, eventually capturing Minas Ithil. However, realizing that if they did not join together, Sauron would destroy both men and elves, Elendil, High-King of Arnor, and Gil-galad, High-King of Noldor, formed the Last Alliance of Men and Elves, and attacked Sauron in his fortress, Barad-dûr. The alliance was victorious, with Isildur cutting the One Ring from Sauron's hand. However, although presented with a chance to destroy the Ring forever, Isildur, already beginning to succumb to its corruption, chose not to do so. As such, although Sauron's physical form was vanquished, his spirit, bound to the Ring, survived. Some time later, Isildur was attacked and killed by a band of orcs, and the Ring was lost in the river Anduin for over two thousand years.

Meanwhile, during the Third Age, a still weakened Sauron covertly established a stronghold at Dol Guldur. In response to this undetermined evil, the Valar sent five Maiar to Middle-earth. Taking the form of wizards, they were led by Saruman. Unsure of the origin of the evil power in Dol Guldur, the wizard Gandalf was sent to investigate. However, Sauron hid from Gandalf, waiting for four hundred years before returning. Around the same time, the One Ring was found by a Hobbit named Sméagol, who became utterly corrupted by it, living in the caves of the Misty Mountains, and physically transforming into a creature known as Gollum. For five hundred years, Gollum was consumed and corrupted by the Ring. Eventually, Gandalf was able to determine the evil presence in Dol Guldur was indeed Sauron. Gandalf reported back to the White Council, but Saruman dissuaded them from moving against Sauron. Only when he learned the One Ring may be in the vicinity of the Gladden Fields did Saruman agree to attack Sauron, hoping to find the Ring himself. The Council drove Sauron from Dol Guldur, unaware that he knew the Ring had been found. Just prior to Sauron's departure, the Ring passed to another hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who used it to assist in the victory of elves, men and dwarves at the Battle of the Five Armies. Sixty years later, Gollum was captured by orcs, and taken to Mordor, where he was tortured into revealing the owner and location of the Ring; Bilbo Baggins of the Shire. In the meantime, Bilbo had left the Shire to live in Rivendell, and upon the advice of Gandalf had (very reluctantly) given the Ring to his nephew, Frodo Baggins. With the information given him by Gollum, Sauron, still unable to take physical form, thus sent the Nazgûl to the Shire to retrieve the One Ring. Frodo, and his friends, Samwise Gamgee, Peregrin «Pippin» Took and Meriadoc «Merry» Brandybuck managed to escape the Shire and head towards Bree.

Development

The game was first announced on March 18, 2010 when Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment revealed Snowblind Studios were developing the game for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows. In March 2009, Warner had acquired the rights to make games based on the film series from Electronic Arts, and in May 2009 they had acquired the rights to make games based on the literary series from Vivendi Universal Games. With Warner holding the rights to both intellectual properties, it meant New Line Cinema and Middle-earth Enterprises were both involved in the game. War in the North was the second Warner Lord of the Rings game, after Aragorn's Quest, but the first for which they possessed the rights for both the films and the books (Aragorn's Quest was based exclusively on the films).

Reception

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North received «mixed or average reviews» across all systems; the PC version holds an aggregate score of 66 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on twenty-five reviews; the PlayStation 3 version 63 out of 100, based on thirty-five reviews; the Xbox 360 version 61 out of 100, based on thirty-eight reviews.

Official Xbox Magazine's Cameron Lewis scored the game 7.5 out of 10. Although he was critical of the lack of differentiation between the three protagonists, the shallow pool of enemies and the linear nature of the gameplay, he concluded «War in the North is hardly the most memorable adventure through Middle-earth, but you won't regret any of the time you spend fighting across its grim battlegrounds.»

IGN's Steven Hopper scored the game 7 out of 10, writing «there's something too safe in War in the North. The gameplay doesn't take any real risks, as the combat is fairly simple, the RPG features are par for the course, and the story doesn't make any attempt to stand out in the backdrop of its established universe.» He was critical of the bland characters and the «inconsequential conversation system,» and concluded «while it's admirable that the team had opted to create an original story set alongside the events in the books, you'll wish that they had attempted to take more risks with the project. The characters are bland and lifeless, and the combat, while fun at first, gets pretty repetitive before too long.» In November 2011, IGN rated the game the fourth most disappointing release of 2011.

Game Revolution's Josh Laddin scored it a B- . He too criticized the bland characterization. Of the combat system he wrote «there isn't anything especially innovative about it, but it's all solid.» He was also heavily critical of game-breaking bugs. He concluded "War in the North is a good choice for some classic action-RPG fun. It isn't amazing, but it's a competent effort and certainly one of the better LotR games to come along.

GameSpot's Carolyn Petit scored both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions 6 out of 10. Although she praised the graphics, she was critical of the collision detection, the autosave feature, enemy AI and technical issues with multiplayer. She concluded «there are times when War in the North shows you the game it could have been [...] But each time the game starts to hit its stride, it soon stumbles and falls on its face.»

GameSpy's Leif Johnson scored the PC version 3 out of 5 arguing «it never overcomes a sense of enjoyable mediocrity.» He felt the game was unlikely to be a success due to the timing of its release; amidst such highly anticipated title as Dark Souls, Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3, Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted 3 and Skyrim. He concluded «Unless you're a Tolkien die-hard, you'll probably be better off waiting a week for the next fantasy-based game featuring a struggle in the snow-riddled northern reaches of the world [...] At its core, War in the North isn't a bad game; it's merely a disappointing one.»

Game Informer's Joe Juba scored the PlayStation 3 version 5.5 out of 10, calling it «clumsy and unpolished.» He too complained about game breaking bugs, and concluded «I can only say one good thing about War in the North: It could have been awesome. The conceptual framework is solid, and with some extensive tuning and polish, it would be fun to play.»

Eurogamer's Jeffrey Matulef scored the Xbox 360 version 4 out of 10. He called the narrative «merely a catalyst for a linear dungeon crawler.» As with several reviewers, he also found the game suffered from bugs, calling it «a glitchy mess.» He concluded, «The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is a soulless cash-in that has little to do with its license, and nor is it much fun in its own right. If you're lucky enough to not encounter any game-breaking bugs and if you have a friend or two to play with, then it can be pretty entertaining for a few hours. But that's a lot of „ifs“ for so little payoff.» The Lord of the Rings War in the North Free Download Torrent.