Ignorance and bliss

After 15 hours in LOTRO, I'm level 21 and I've finished with Bree-land.

That's not to say I've finished the zone. I did the epic story, the first half of the Old Forest and the first half of the Barrow Downs and not much else, which leaves a lot untouched – I'd say about six other quest hubs.

A lot of it is not bad, exactly, but it is average. Change a few names and the brigand quests in particular could be dropped seamlessly into World of Warcraft's Elwyn Forest or many other fantasy settings.

It's the writing. LOTRO's writing is usually good at evoking Tolkien's style but it falls a bit flat in Bree. I suppose they didn't really have much to work from since the men of this part of the world aren't really represented in the books, except as loiterers and thugs. They don't have the vigour of Rohan or the stoicism of Gondor. Even the men of Dale, in The Hobbit, have the looming presence of Smaug to define them, whereas the men of Bree are literally defined by their ignorance.

""Strider" I am to one fat man who lives within a day's march of foes that would freeze his heart, or lay his little town to ruin, if he were not guarded ceaselessly."

- Aragorn. Council of Elrond.

There's not much affection for the men of Bree in Tolkien's work, and looking at it in that light their portrayal in LOTRO makes sense, and might even be considered overly flattering.

The exception to all of this is Butterbur. He's written exactly as he should be, and thus far he's my second favourite book-to-game character. Second favourite, because while Butterbur is good, Tom Bombadil is simply brilliant.

Before I played LOTRO my expectation was that it would be a fairly obvious tie-in to the Peter Jackson films – Tolkien-lite, so to speak. When I first played LOTRO my initial impression was that it was a a re-skinned World of Warcraft, only less polished. It wasn't until I got to the Old Forest and encountered Tom Bombadil that I knew that this was a game that really cared about Tolkien's work.

Everything about Tom is perfect, from his hilarious but oh so appropriate dancing walk, to his wonderfully warm and cozy house and the music that plays there – oh that theme – to his note perfect quest text.

I said in a previous post that the Old Forest was the first area of LOTRO I really enjoyed, but if I were to further narrow down the moment that this game really clicked for me it would be to that meeting with Tom.