Today I want to continue looking at some of the announced new content from the letter from Aaron Campbell. If you missed it yesterday, or haven't seen it yet, here's the link: A-letter-From-Executive-Producer-Aaron-Campbell-April-2014
Yesterday I talked a bit about my thoughts regarding the newly announced beorning class, today I want to look at some of the new playable content, or "zones" of the game.
First off, props to Turbine for deciding to try and stick with the timing of the LOTR story rather than inserting a lot of extra content. Personally I think this will have two major positive effects, though there may certainly be others as well.
1. Tolkien fans should be happy as we will be progressing towards the truly epic portions of the war of the ring. Helm's Deep behind us, we now press forward through the paths of the dead and eventually the Pelennor Fields. We always knew (or at least assumed) that eventually we would be heading towards Mordor and now we have some confirmation that we are heading in that direction. After three expansions (Rise of Isengard, Riders of Rohan and Helm's Deep) and now three content updates (Great River, Wildermore and now Fangorn) focused on the story within Rohan, it will be nice to see some of Gondor at long last.
2. Those who have been doomsaying the end of the game should be reconsidering their prophecies. If we hit Minas Tirith in 2015, we will likely be seeing the Black Gate in either 2016 or 2017. Not only does that give us at least 3 more solid years of new story and content, but it leaves a number of undeveloped portions of the map left for post-Mordor adventuring.
Wouldn't that go outside of the lore of Middle-earth?
No. Those familiar with LOTR know that following Sauron's defeat with the destruction of the ring (I'm assuming I'm not spoiling anything for people here!) there is a number of events that tie up most of the hanging plot threads and the story is mostly peaceful (until the return to the Shire anyway). However, anyone who's ever taken the time to read the appendices in The Return of the King knows that King Elessar spends most of his reign rebuilding his kingdom and setting things right, which includes a lot of battles with remnants and rebels throughout the re-established realms of Gondor and Arnor.
This will open the possibilities of not only going to Northern Mirkwood and Wilderland, as well as (I hope) Erebor and Dale, but possibly even returning to places like Evendim and the North Downs. It would be amazing to see the sort of technology that allowed us to transform Hytbold letting us see a return to grandeur of these realms of the North.
3. We will be seeing either a new map system or a new map showing Gondor, Umbar and (possibly) Mordor. Personally, I always love to see new pieces of the map being filled in; and the LOTRO game world has become truly expansive. A few years ago I read somewhere that to ride (a standard steed) from Thorin's Hall to the Gates of Moria took around 45 minutes. I've never tried this, but I may someday soon try a ride from TH to Parth Galen. Middle-earth is getting to be a very big place in LOTRO.
The other stuff is what we would expect to see; lots with the army of the dead, a tour of West Gondor leading up to Osgiliath, etc, etc. and I'm prepared to wait until it's out before making any comments on that content.
We've just seen our first of three planned updates for the year, which means Middle-earth is going to be a busy place in 2014. Hope you're all set to enjoy it!
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