The Lord of the Rings: War in the North

The hack 'n slash category isn't exactly thriving on consoles these days, so if you've been hard up for a cooperative loot bonanza, War in the North is worth sinking a weekend into. Its lack of variety and polish, however, makes it hard to imagine it having any sort of longevity.

It's a comfortable Action RPG that makes up for its shortcomings with addictive fun, cool three-player co-op and a goddamned giant talking eagle. Just push a few boundaries and hire a scriptwriter next time Snowblind, please.

Apart from the three player co-op, there's not much to recommend about War in the North. Fighting the same enemies over and over again gets old fast, especially as they take way too much damage for the combat to feel satisfying. [Dec 2011]

War in the North is also quite a lengthy game, which although sounds great on paper does work against the overall experience.

It has some good ideas, but it falls short in depth and developing an interesting story. It's an enjoyable game, but it should have been much better, as it seems to lack the faith to try some new things or further develop the main characters.

When it works it really works well and its attention to the canon and lore of the Lord of the Rings is phenomenal, but it does too many things poorly to put it in the same league as a game like Dark Souls or The Witcher 2.

The tale may not be as finely crafted as Tolkien's, but it's reverent of his work and worth experiencing – just keep in mind that you'll have to kill a lot of orcs to do so.

A perfectly competent beat-'em-RPG, even if it doesn't do much to carve out its own niche in the Lord of the Rings universe. Its strength and weakness is that it's completely inoffensive -- the perfect middle-of-the-road game. Unfortunately, it's hard to see what helps differentiate War of the North from the pack, and the pack is where it's apt to stay.

While it doesn't reach the heights we wished it would, War in the North is still a solid experience with more than enough content to justify checking it out. The combination of action-packed combat, RPG elements, and iconic Tolkien vibe make it worth a look for anyone looking for a bloody good time, even if they don't typically care about the stories of Frodo, Gandalf, and the rest of the fellowship.

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.

The hacking and slashing game is enjoyable enough over short stretches, but you'll inevitably wish that there was more to the game than that.

There are some undeniably cool settings and promising combat mechanics, but the experience doesn't have the depth to draw players through to the end of the campaign.

War in the North is not a bad game, but it is an average one.

Although the story is original and its combat and roleplaying gameplay is a good idea, there are things that doesn't work well. Roleplaying elements are well-made, but they are not that important, and combat lacks depth, and the enemy AI is limited. An average game that won't make history.

It's by no means perfect, but Lord of the Rings: War in the North is still one of the better games to come out of the franchise, particularly if you play co-op. If you've been missing middle earth you're bound to get some enjoyment, just be prepared for it to be a little rough around the edges.

The story is decent at times but fails to compare to the magnitude of the original books' story. Leveling up and getting new gear is fun, but the combat becomes repetitive quickly.

An new take on the fiction, a genre I thoroughly enjoy, and a designed-for-co-op experience; this should have been a home run. But, robotic animations, sometimes bland voice work, invisible walls and ignorant enemy AI sucked much of the life out of it.

When it works (and when you have friends to play with), the game is a perfectly average hack-and-slash RPG. However, the laundry list of aforementioned issues not only hold the game back, but inhibit it to the point that it's not fun.

Lord of the Rings: War in the North is fine for a few hours of jolly good fun, but once you realise that the game has played its hand early and really has nothing else to offer then the lustre is soon lost. Poor AI, boring combat and pointless quests all add up to a disappointing game that would be better off dropped into the fires of Mordor.

Saved by the co-op mode, but this is a repetitive action RPG with quite a few bugs.

In short doses and with a good team, War in the North is not without its compulsive charms.

While New Game+ lets you restart the adventure with all of your gear and experience, there's not much variation to the storyline, and the light RPG conversations add little in the grand scheme of things. That said, if you're aching for a solid, fun co-op game, War in the North might be worth a stab.

A decent little distraction, but it's out during a period when "decent" distractions should be low on a gamer's list of priorities.

Too many frustrations interfere with the joys of killing orcs and collecting loot in The Lord of the Rings: War in the North.

Overall, the entertainment is there, but usability is lacking.

I can only say one good thing about War in the North: It could have been awesome.

There's a fair amount of content here, but it's tedious and repetitive enough that you won't want to play it for very long.

This isn't too bad for a couple of hours of button hammering with two friends. [Issue#118, p.112]

The flaws are just too much to look past. [Issue#80, p.82]