Ulasan

• gamedeal user

  Jan 10, 2019

  EDIT (updated Dec 2019): This review was first written during EA, and is now updated to latest events. At release game texts and cards were not presented well. Text rendering was especially bad. Things have been going better since. There was a second problem with the price of expansions; this problem was removed in Dec 2019. You now have three free campaigns/expansions (meaning 15 adventures, each of several steps) + 3 separate adventures + the Galadriel procedural / replayable mission. This is a lot of content! and every adventure has specific rewards you can look for, and each can also be played and won with every hero for more rewards. Time to gift the game to friends and play coop :D EDIT 2: I did gift it and played coop! The coop game is a bliss. Story mode is much too easy, and Challenge mode is really hard; players should still play Challenge on coop, in my opinion, for maximum pleasure. EDIT 3: Please note that since a change of developers there has been no update, except a drastic (and worse imo) change in game menu. The new developers had immense ambitions for the game but we had no news since some time. But the title as it stands still gives access to a lot of gameplay! ====================================== I will try in this review to be comprehensive. Other reviews kept me away from this game for months and I believe it is important for you now to determine the "truth" and to know if this LCG is a great game or not, and if it is a game for you. [h1]What kept me away for so long[/h1] From screenshots and reviews there was one main thing that was horrifying to me: I thought that the game was dumbed down! That it was looking like some sort of Hearthstone clone! That the concepts and mechanics of the game were transformed into their simplest version! Others were mentioning also the price model in their review: not enough Valor received, purchases too expensive, too much grinding etc. [h1]What I found[/h1] To be honest what I found instead was a great gem of a game: with much care and passion given to the narrative, to voice overs, to illustrations, to keep you in the world of Middle Earth; and even more to the mechanics of the game. What is still true is that you cannot consider this game like a 100 percent faithful port (or even a 80 % one). You must consider this game like a new game of its own. But contrary to the impressions I received so far, it still deserves to call itself LOTR:LCG and had an impressive way of putting together the concepts & mechanics in ways that are still very deep, faithful and quite adapted to a computer game. [h1]About Difficulty and Duration[/h1] I took the game with the base Shire Pack and customized my own deck from it; no special pack used and no valor card purchased. It took me several attempts and 3 hours of calm, non-rushed play, to beat the first quest at Normal Difficulty. Every adventure is a series of quests. We now have 3 campaigns of 5 quests each, and 3 encounters. I estimate it needs 10-40 hours of gameplay in order to beat one campaign and one encounter, and we have 3 times that now. To me, it is satisfying. The game is challenging and a real pleasure to play. More about pros and cons below, but I would disagree with opinions about the game being: too easy or too short. What you get here is a solo content above anything provided so far by card games (even TES Legends) and I think it is important to have proper information and understand what you currently get. I think the mention about it being "too hard" is because it's hard to receive max Valor for a quest. [h1]About the Price Model[/h1] The price model has been 'fixed' and improved during EA. Although a bit problematic at release (ie. expansions) it is now almost entirely free. You can earn as much Valor (now has another name!) as possible by being successful at Quests, and then spend it for cards. Purchasing a rare powerful card from the Valor Store costs 1500, and a successful Quest gives you 2000 if you played new heroes (a hero nets you a +500 bonus when he beats it for the first time). An adventure of 5 quests should give you around 10 000 Valor, and you can even max that above it. [h1]About the Narrative[/h1] The narrative was the best surprise I had. You have large illustrations, a voiced narrator, new voice overs from Gollum, Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits, and it's of top notch movie-quality; and writing is even better, with much style and middle earth ominous writing style. Note that I tested the game in english language, as I had doubts about translations quality. Some card illustrations are absolutely great. However cards suffer from the invasive and colorful template with symbols for Threat, Combat, Willpower and Health. [h1]About Mechanics[/h1] My last point will be about the mechanics. I was worried about that a lot before trying the game. Heroes generate Threat at the beginning of an adventure. You must not reach 50 Threat, and at different thresholds Sauron can unleash a new event. All Threat powers are relatively powerful, as they should be. I disagree with opinions mentioning that you could put "all your most powerful heroes in your deck" and not "think about Threat", however that sounds true in "Story" difficulty (=easy mode) but not on "Challenge" difficulty (=normal mode). I have been in situations where just one, two, or three points of Threat were the difference between victory or defeat just because of some event. However, players will certainly master Threat more and more, and players purchasing cards from the Valor Store will have an easier and easier experience over time, and will then be able to put powerful Heroes without any second thought; at least with first campaign ;) Threat mechanics, in my opinion, was perfectly ported and balanced. Heroes can generate Fate by using your action, and at certain thresholds can use it for one-time positive effects. These effects are different for every quest chapter. For instance, in first chapter of first quest, I could use it to receive supplies (2 Fate), to exhaust enemies (4 Fate), or to have Gloin join the part (7 Fate). The Fate mechanics was perfectly balanced too in my experience, as I was forced sometimes to rush and forget about it and other times was able to use it. Activating Fate or Threat does not take your turn, but everything else does: attacking, playing one card, or using a card power. You take an action, then your enemy does the same, until you cannot play any action or card. You can attack creatures with Combat, and locations/events with Willpower. Any unit can decide to guard. Guarding is an action which takes your turn and your guard unit will be exhausted in one attack. Guarding is the only way to deal damage when defending. It is well thought and different from other games. When you play an adventure, you play it like a campaign, keeping your card hand, resources, cards in play etc from one chapter to the next; deciding between rushing or not makes for great replayability and risky decision-making. I am satisfied by the mechanics of the game, deeper that what the screenshots hinted at me; developers if you read this, please use screenshots to hint at how deep the game is, how great the writing is! A strong negative was (is still?) the current card collection. Not enough cards and the real drawback is that deck building is made much easier, but also less deep than in the original game. I hope that will be improved, and is currently the main negative I have to mention! PS: I had no special network setup to do to play the game and no need to apply the network recommendations from store page. But developers should make the game fullscreen by default at first launch, it was currently at EA and resized window has bad antialiasing on fonts/textures/etc.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 29, 2018

  First of all, and probably most important of all : DO NOT GO INTO THIS EXPECTING TO PLAY LOTR LCG. This game's mechanics are nowhere close to the physical living card game.... Oh, you'll see the same card titles and illustrations, and keywords' names, but that's about it... This would, for me, warrant a red flag already, because when i put time, and money in something called "The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game" i want to play the lord of the ring living card game.... but hey, in any media transfer, changes are to be expected.... let's keep an open mind... It is a standard opposition card game with symetrical gameplay but asymetrical cardpools. You and your ennemy each have a different deck (you create yours based on your card.... 3 heroes you will start the game + 30 other cards) and the computer has something in store based on the quest you're attempting but your turns will play the same : collect 3 ressources, draw 2 cards and play one action each until both players pass. The pros : - As its RL counterpart, this game is beautiful ; the cards illustrations and backgrounds wallpapers are really cool-looking, in theme with Middle Earth, and not too much inspired by the movie so they still stand on their own. - The music is immersive, whimsical, and has enough different themes so you probably won't be turning it off too soon. I'm pretty much considering buying the soundtrack. - The narration at the begining and end of quests and between stages is immersive and well written. It mixes text specific to this game and excerpts of the books, giving a middle earthy feel to the game. - The AI, while still being a procedural checklist, has been given thought and doesn't always attack when it wouldn't be smart for it to do so, picks targets somewhat intelligently, and so on. - You can pick between 3 difficulties level when you play a game. It changes the number of ressource points your opponent is given on each turn. I would prefer for it to change cards available to the AI or even change its procedures rather than "changing the rules" but hey, can't fault them for giving new players an option to gain experience with the game at a more friendly pace. The design cons : - The UI, while simple and clear enough to understand easily isn't on par with the overal beauty of the illustrations. It's all flashy, ugly color boxes and, to me, break the immersion quite a bit. - While it can be considered minor by others, this is really driving me nuts : to see a card details, you need to click it, not to mouse over it. So, to play a card, you have to drag and drop it, you can't click it in your hand then click it where you want to play it.... makes it easy to screw something up... - There are no tooltips to explain the keywords of a card, if you want to know what's what you have to hit ESC to open up the game menu and search through a glossary you'll find there. While i do think a glossary is a good idea, tooltips are much more newcomers-friendly. The gameplay cons : - The game is overly simplistic.... it's a watered-down version of any other CCG you can find on your computer with the added twist of playing action per action instead of turn per turn (which, in itself, could be a good idea if the game was better). - It is designed to be a PvE game, not a PvP one. Having to play, albeit different quests, against the AI over and over again will end up being a bore because you'll end up catching on to its flaws and will kinda sorta end up being procedural in your plays yourself. - The tutorial.... There is one, that's a plus, and it takes you by the hand to show you the basics.... but it falls into the trap of showing you everything you have to do until the last turn or two.... It gives you a handle (albeit not very strong) on the mecanics, but not on the decision process... The elephant in the room : If you want to play this game with any semblance of seriousness, be prepared to grind yourself to the grave. You are given 1 quest, 4 heroes and 26 cards x2 (and you need 30 cards in your deck, so there are at max 9 cards you won't be putting in your deck to begin with.... sheesh), and 3000 coins (valor points). - buying 1 new quest is 3750 coins - buying 1 new hero + 5 cards is 3750 coins - buying 1 common card is 375 - buying 1 uncommon card is 750 - buying 1 rare card is 1500 the first time each day you complete a quest, you can expect to gain 200/250 coins, subsequent times, you gain less than 1/10th of that amount. MAKE SURE YOU BUY THE QUESTS BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE.... While i understand that a compagny gotta make money off of microtransactions, this is ridiculous. Overall : It's free, so check it out, but don't fork money in the game... play once or twice, realize you like middle earth but the game doesn't do it justice, and that you're not prepared to give away your whole life to grind what you'd need for the cards... I've tried to distance myself as much as possible from the real life LotR LCG to write my review but this is where FFI failed the most in my humble opinion : The LCG has a large fanbase, and many peoples play it solo, so a computerized version of the game obviously would have a built-in community. Trying to cash in on it isn't, in itself, a bad idea. But, by changing the game mechanics so drastically (and for the worse), you're leaving yourself open to displeasing the fan of the games (which will be the one jumping on it day one and giving the early reviews.... so, might not be the smartest of moves). And calling your product the same as a "board game" we know and love proves you were trying to cash in on it... it's not LoTR digital card game, it's LoTR LCG... Luring us into your microtransacting arms... I like playing CCGs against a computer rather than live players because i'd rather play RL against living beings, so i'm not minding the PvE aspect of it ; but i've played only a handful of games and i'm bored already.... There isn't much challenge in fighting an AI that will always be the same for a given quest and the grind factor doesn't even allow me the sweet taste of collectionning. Would the game be drastically different from its RL version, i wouldn't have complained. Unfotunately, this game varies enough from its cousin to bother RL LCG fans and not enough to offer them a new experience. The RL LCG is perfect for solo / cooperative play because there is no AI involved, the game doesn't make any decision, it's all player based. Every choice you make will impact the resolution of your quest : chosing a card over another, attacking with this ally or defending with this hero, and, of course, enemy cards you reveal. i've played the same quests in RL LCG dozens of times and minute changes in your deck or even in the draw can lead to totally different experiences this would have been perfect for a game that requires you to do the same thing over and over again... I would even have welcomed some of the changes made for this game.... the guard / range mechanic is interesting and the "pooling" of the ressources does make it easier to understand and less frustrating...
• gamedeal user

  Aug 29, 2018

  You only get 1 quest (30 min of gameplay) for free. With the Shire Pack (and registering your account) you get enough points to buy two more quests for a grand total of 1.5 hours of gameplay for 8 euros. If you want more each quest is 2 euros or 10 hours of grinding the same few early quests to earn the points in the game.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 29, 2018

  Let me preface this by saying I was absolutely delighted when the news first broke that Lord of the Rings LCG was coming to digital. As someone who loves the paper card game I was really looking forward to a digital version that would save me the trouble of set-up and tear down time. Unfortunately, as time went by I realised that the vision for this version of the game strayed further and further from the original. Regardless, I still wanted to give it a go and so I bought the top tear version of the game to support FFG and show there is desire for these games in digital format. Now, after playing through the tutorial, the first 2 quests and unfortunately being kicked off the server during the 3rd quest I can say that, upto this point, this digital version shows none of the invention of the paper game. Each turn of the paper game is a puzzle of weighing up risks and strategies, daring to quest or conserving actions for potential encounters in a later round. Each quest in the paper game is unique in its own right with clever innovations that alters the gameplay and keeps the game feeling fresh. The paper game is really beautifully realised. Disappointingly, the digital version lacks the innovation that keeps the paper game so fresh and interesting. Up to the point I have played it feels as though each phase of each quest is simply a fight to the death with little tactics or strategy. Indeed I have had no trouble finishing quests with the starter deck and have given little throught to the actions I've taken during each game. This really is a distilled version of the paper game - and actually, I'm not even sure it can be called a version of the paper game at all. Furthermore, there are other problems with the game. The presentation of the board and menus are fine, but the cards themselves are poorly considered. The frames crowd out the beautiful art from the paper game and the characters jump into action with clear appropriation from Hearthstone. There is no tracking of stats in the game currently, no way to see which quests you've defeated and what scores you've acheived. The upside of this all is that this is still an early access game and perhaps more invention will come in the future. However, the foundations look like they've been laid down and there doesn't appear to be anywhere near the complexity, depth or difficulty of the original game. It's a shame. I wish this was a faithful recreation of the original so that more people could experience its brilliance - but I can't currently recommend this digital version. I will persevere and will revisit this review if my opinion changes.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 14, 2019

  I'm deeply conflicted about the Lord of the Rings Adventure Card Game. On the one hand, we have a digital version of a game whose theme and mechanics I love, without any of the arduous and time consuming setup and tear down of the physical version. What's more, the UI has all the love and polish of Hearthstone or Magic the Gathering Arena and some much needed improvements have been made to the deck building component of the game without fundamentally changing the underlying mechanics. Brilliant and clever. Unfortunately, some entirely unnecessary changes have been made to the game, presumably for the sake of simplicity, that do it a disservice. Threat is now just a counter until the next bad thing that happens to you, culminating in your loss. Gone is any concept of optional engagement or avoiding certain enemies by keeping your threat low. Questing, a rich and thematic mechanic by which you placed progress tokens (with little footsteps on them) onto location cards has been abstracted behind a meaningless "fate" value that robs the game of much of its flavor. All of this could be forgiven, I think, if the attempt to create a more accessible, streamlined experience came with friendlier encounter design but, alas, it is not so. In my opinion, the designers of the Lord of the Rings Adventure Card Game have become so desensitized to their most hardcore fan base constantly complaining about the game being too easy, that they simply lack any perspective about what the experience is like for a new or casual player. As someone who engaged casually both with the physical game and the digital, I can tell you that every brief moment of triumphant success is almost always immediately crushed by a new stage or phase or enemy, often appearing without warning. It's soul crushing, it's not fun, and to add insult to injury, the "narrative" setting does little to alleviate the difficulty, leaving you feeling bad about being unable to play the game on a mode that is a thinly veiled euphemism for "easy". And so we are left with a game that has the polish and accessibility of a Blizzard offering but the unforgiving depth and complexity of whatever fun-adjacent game Valve has most recently published. Its unnecessary simplifications to the game mechanics will drive away the hardcore players and the encounter design will have casual players putting the game down forever after their third or fourth consecutive loss. It's a game with heaps of potential but, sadly, is right for no one.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 30, 2020

  So far, I really enjoy this game and I recommend it to every card games enthusiasts and/or Tolkien's fans. There is some awkwardness to it though, and it might not be for everybody. The good: ++ The Tolkien's lore is really well integrated in the gameplay mechanics and in the multiple texts and story elements. It reminds me a bit more of the Hobbit (the book, not the awful movies) and less about TLOTR ++ A lot of gameplay variety. You create your own combinations of 3 heroes from a pool of 20, and build your deck of 30 cards around those heroes. Decks feel much more unique than in any card game I played previously + Art is good, but glitches and awkward UI will take your attention from it. Concept art in menus is better than the gameplay art. + Story is well narrated and the writing is not bad, but not great either in my opinion. It is the best I have seen in a card game except maybe for Gwent + Music is good, but repetitive after some time The cons: - No real choices in the campaign except for some rare options pick which does not influence anything in the long term (pick card A or card B). I would have liked to make important decisions. Go through the Moria or over the Caradhras? Save a village at the risk of losing the orcs you are pursuing? This kind of things. - UI is awkward at best. You will see UI popping in and out of existence, I had light bugs where the goal of my quest would not display. The main menu is completely awful and should be started from scratch. -- Tooltips are non-existent. Sometimes, you encounter keywords and have no clue about what they mean. There is a glossary in the options, but it feels like hovering a card should extend a tooltip about its effects.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 29, 2018

  I played the physical Card game extensively so I've been waiting for this but the Micro Transactions will kill you. I'll keep it in my collection to see what happens but no way am I going to spend the kind of money you would need to get all the content. Grinding your way through the same content over and over again to get a few Valour every time would take you days just to get enough Valour to get somewhere. Really hope they drop the prices of the content or seriously up the Valour you get for completing missions. I've played Hearthstone for years and never spent a cent so I don't mind a bit of grinding but this is ridiculous.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 6, 2018

  Fantasy Flight, in 5 days, basically did: - Answered +50 posts on Discussions - Revamped their server system - Streamed 3 times with Q&A rounds - Gave quests for free for everyone - Refunded currency spent ingame - Buffed unbalanced key cards - Fixed their daily system - Released 3 patches - Saved a stray cat. It wasnt a perfect Early Access, but. If you like TCGs and LOTR, this is a safe bet :D
• gamedeal user

  Oct 3, 2018

  As a big fan of the tabletop card game this game is based on, I can't wholly recommend this product just yet. The transition to digital format makes for some major and mostly positive changes to gameplay, IMO - randomness, easier value tracking, no manual setup for scenarios. There are two major drawbacks: First, the microtransactions feel pretty heavy-handed. The card packs are not expensive, but you don't get much with each one and you will likely find yourself wanting multiple packs to create the synergies you want for your deck. It's understandable as a monetization strategy, but providing a bit more viable content in front of the monetization wall would feel more welcoming to casual and new players. Second, the UI is useable, but clunky, and it makes tasks like deck-building a chore. previewing cards in small sets on screen makes the decision-making process difficult and really turns me off to that aspect of the experience. And viewing details of cards in play is also cumbersome, requiring the player to click on a card to view it. During some selection modes, you can't click the cards on the table, so you must rely on your memory or best-guess to make good targeting decisions. For example, during upkeep, you might be prompted to deal 1 damage to an enemy target (via Legolas). The valid targets are all highlighted, but you can't click on them to see their details before making your selection. If you target the wrong enemy which has the "Block" trait, your damage is nullified, so you end up trying to memorize the traits in play before such prompts pop up. I would recommend using a mouse-over preview mechanic which remains active during target selection instead, so players can quickly see the cards and make their decisions without any accidental stray clicks. Another UI fail in my mind is how traits are handled on the cards. When a character is modified and given a new trait through a card effect, the card icon gets a little purple pip over it. That pip stands for any and all modifiers the character might have - strength boost, guard, block, whatever. You still need to view the card details to know what effects are on the card and as I noted earlier, that's not always easy. Besides, some cards have native traits and others will be modified during a game. The pip is sometimes downright misleading. I would recommend adding a different color pip for each type of attachment (so you know it has been modified), but also using a unique icon for each major trait which is displayed on the card icons on the table. This way a player could know at a glance which characters had Block or other traits and make decisions accordingly. Characters with Guard are given a unique visual treatment. This approach should be used for all traits which are important for target selection. The game itself is pretty solid and enjoyable, but you'll quickly find yourself wanting to buy content to deepen and lengthen the experience. Hopefully, the developers will work on streamlining the UI so players can focus more on the game itself and less on how to play it. I could recommend this game with a little more TLC.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 14, 2020

  I really like card games, and this one is a good one. But it has a major flaw design: it needs a permanent wifi connection (why ????). And during a mission, when your computer enter sleep mode, it is never able to reconnect to the server, ending the game. Meaning that you have always to play a whole mission before stopping. That has a sense for PvP games as Hearthstone, but not here !!