The Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan preview

It would be impossible to talk about Riders of Rohan without discussing how horses play a role. Mounted combat and horse customization were key aspects in my E3 demo, but this was my first hands-on. Immediately, I realized these horses weren't typical MMO mounts. Instead of being a percentage speed increase, horses in Riders of Rohan have multiple speeds and maintain momentum. There will be times you want to ride full gallop, and other times where a brisk trot is superior. You can't ride hard all the time or you risk your momentum taking you past your objective. The horse riding feels great and the speed makes exploring far away parts of Rohan much more tempting.

Mounted combat has lead to design changes in The Lord of the Rings Online's action, as well. The two most noticeable differences are open tapping and remote looting. Tapping is an MMO concept that determines who gets loot and experience for a mob kill; generally this is the person who initiates combat. Open tapping means everyone who contributes to killing a mob is rewarded for their efforts. Contributors get the loot, the quest reward, the full experience, everything they would get if they downed the mob solo. This is a welcome change to MMO combat that all other developers should take note of.

Remote looting is Turbine's solution to maintaining fluidity in mounted combat. When you down a mob in Rohan, you are awarded personalized loot automatically. When galloping across the planes of Rohan, stopping at a corpse to pick up a trinket is simply not an option. Loot is also determined by player now, instead of by kill. While a mob used to have a chance of dropping an item for the whole party, each individual player now has a chance to earn an item from the kill. This alleviates fighting over loot, and promotes a friendlier atmosphere for spontaneous grouping. Between open tapping and remote looting, Riders of Rohan strides to make questing and combat more social.

Despite the focus on perfecting the mounted experience, there's plenty of on-foot content in Riders of Rohan. As my tour wrapped up, I was taken to Fangorn Forest to explore nature and take arms against angry ents — tree-like creatures of the forest. While traversing the woods I was struck by how dense it felt. Foliage covered the landscape like a rug, paths were discernible but overgrown, and the trees dwarfed all objects around them. For as impressive as King Théoden's throne room was, the atmosphere of the forest matched its detail and craft.

I've seen Riders of Rohan from two sides, now. At E3, I was the new guy. I couldn't tell Gondor from Isengard or Boromir from Faramir. Despite that, the expansion impressed me with its focus on single player end game and mounted combat. Now, months later, I know Isengard is Saruman's tower of operations and Faramir is the ill-fated son of the Steward of Gondor. Upon a second tour of Rohan, it continued to impress me with its story content and atmosphere. Whether you're a Tolkien veteran or completely oblivious, Riders of Rohan has something for you. Take it from the guy who has seen both sides. The Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan launches October 15th and you can pre-purchase the expansion on their website.

When I saw The Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan at E3 this year, I was admittedly ignorant to The Lord of the Rings universe. Since then, I became a respectable person and watched the film adaptations in anticipation of my tour through the Riders of Rohan beta. Though the MMO is based on the book lore and not the movie license, the extra bit of knowledge helped me appreciate more of what Turbine is doing with their new expansion. I enjoyed my time with Riders of Rohan at E3 but after my crash course in Tolkien mythology, the full Middle Earth experience was opened up to me.

My tour through Rohan began with a look at the expansion's story content. Throughout the storyline, players may assume the role of characters from the fellowship. I was treated to the scene where Frodo wanders the landscape wondering if they should break up the fellowship. The temptation of the ring is too strong to have a large traveling party, or so it seems. There was no combat in this sequence as the flashback was purely meant to let the player live out this portion of The Lord of the Rings tale. Despite MMO limitations, the severity of the situation came across and the sequence felt genuine. If all the fellowship flashbacks are as well designed as this one, they may be one of the best aspects of the expansion.

Following along the storyline thread, my tour took me to the throne room of Théoden, King of Rohan. At the time of this expansion, the King is still under the influence of Wormtongue, his chief advisor. I wasn't tipped off to what story they have planned for the throne room, but I was allowed to explore the interior and marvel at its structure and decor. The east and west halls of the chamber are decked out with tapestries which detail the history of Rohan. Since only one tapestry is described in the books, Turbine used their knowledge of Rohan history to fill out what the rest of the chamber may have looked like. The final product is impressive, and adds a sense of reality to the fiction. Though I may not know what lies in store for the player in King Théoden's throne room, I know that simply standing in the hall is impressive.

The last piece of story content I witnessed was the town of Hytbold. At E3, the most impressive part of the Riders of Rohan puzzle was the burned down settlement that, through a series of quests, the player could rebuild into a burgeoning township. They only had the initial destroyed settlement on display during my tour, but it was enough to reinvigorate my interest in the feature. The settlement is large and with 150 stages of reconstruction, it sounds like it will hold players' attentions for a long time. Even with the town demolished, the area felt lived in. Most of the settlement had waist high stone fences that border roads for horse travel. Rohan is a horse-centric region, and the town structure depicts this.