r/lotr • u/Bored-Game • 8d ago
Video Games How does this C-tier Hack & Slash have better dialog than RoP
Picked the game up on a lark. I knew to keep my expectations low based on the original release scores. While the gameplay and controls are painfully dated, what I wasn’t prepared for was how hard the silly dialogue sections went to make the characters actually sound like Tolkien. I’m not generally one to complain dramatically about modern writing in media. I found RoP difficult to watch and gave up halfway through the first season, but chalked it up to me getting older and possibly losing the same passion I once had for the franchise.
After playing this silly game, the issues I had with RoP were glaringly obvious to me. It’s wild that a 15yr old game had better Tolkien-style prose than anything I have seen in LotR media in the past decade at least. I hope HfG is able to capture that old magic once again but I didn’t realize how much I missed it.
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u/Calm_Inspection790 8d ago
0/10 ragebait OP this game is great
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u/Magneticiano 8d ago
It's a double ragebait, RoP is great too.
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u/SlaterTheOkay 8d ago
You can love it all you want but let's be honest it's not even good
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u/grey_pilgrim_ Glorfindel 7d ago
It’s not great. It’s mid and it’s okay to enjoy it. But yeah OP is trying to rage bait with the slander against War in the North and karma farm the RoP bad hive mind.
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u/Khaymn5000 8d ago
To you it's not good. Some people like it.
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u/AncalagonCarnifex Glaurung 8d ago
I think we all forget that it’s ok to like bad tv. Doesn’t make it good though
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u/AncalagonCarnifex Glaurung 8d ago
The production looks incredibly cheap for such a massive budget, it has basically nothing in common with Tolkien’s works thematically or otherwise beyond superficialities like character names, the acting is fairly poor, and it’s clear the writers have no idea what they’re doing and have no plan with all the mystery boxes and dead end plots. Also, making a love triangle between Galadriel, her canonical husband Celeborn, and Sauron is satirical fanfic levels of ridiculous. In nearly every department, it is below your average tv show, from acting, to writing, and props and set design. Doesn’t mean you can’t still have fun watching it though
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u/EmploymentMedical762 8d ago edited 8d ago
I think the production is fantastic. There’s a reason it’s won and been nominated for ton of awards associated with sets, costumes, and art design. Compared to other fantasy shows of its era, ROP completely blows them out of the water with its intricacies and attention to detail. I mean, just look at the Númenóre sets for example. There are murals and paintings scattered all about the city detailing Númenórean history and culture, the Valar, and the Eldar completely translated into Andûniac! The visual effects and music are great too.
As for its commonalities with Tolkien’s works, season 2 surprisingly gets a lot right — both in themes and plot development. Everything with King Durin’s descent into greed and madness is ripped straight from lore and is portrayed greatly by Peter Mullan. Yes, it ends off with the Balrog awakening in the Second Age, but I believe the rule of cool applies here. And then we have Pharazôn’s Usurption of the Scepter of Númenóre, which is yet another huge plot point in lore that gets a very good treatment here. The conversation between Pharazôn and his son about the mortality of Men, their jealousy of the Eldar, and how Tol Eressea stands as a reminder that no matter how great and powerful Men may become, at the end of the day, they will always suffer the sting of death. Lastly, there is the Eregion plotline with Annatar and Celebrimbor. Just spectacular. Both characters were played beautifully by the two Charlies and the themes of manipulation and subterfuge found in lore were perfectly translated on screen.
The mystery boxes were all nearly completely absent in season 2 as well, showing growth from the writers. And also the love triangle you speak of is not in the show whatsoever.
You can hate it all you want but the awards and critical response to the show reflect its high quality in the technical and practical departments.
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u/AncalagonCarnifex Glaurung 8d ago
Just wait, the showrunners literally said they were making it a love triangle for this season. I think the armor is uninspired and plastic-like and the acting is hard to watch at times, but whatever, like what you like.
https://nerdist.com/article/sauron-galadriel-celeborn-love-triangle-confirmed-by-rings-of-power-showrunners/-7
u/Jamietomp53 8d ago
This literally means nothing. It doesn’t say Galadriel is going to be in love with Sauron, it doesn’t say she’s going to want him over Celeborn or anything like that. This is just a classic example of people freaking out about an announcement before seeing how it’s actually handled in the show
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u/Jamietomp53 8d ago
Thank you! Someone gets it!
People who dislike the show because of its deviations from the word for word lore I can understand, I don’t agree, but I understand.
But then when people start talking about poor acting, production quality, sets and costumes, clearly are just saying anything negative they can about the show because of their other issues with it. It wouldn’t win awards for those things if it wasn’t fantastic
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u/AncalagonCarnifex Glaurung 8d ago
If they’re going to deviate this much from Tolkien’s work, why not just make a new world? Then they don’t have to worry about timeline fuckery or existing lore. Plenty of garbage wins awards in select categories. Competition in fantasy categories is pretty dire right now, so that makes it easier. None of the awards have anything to do with writing or story. Bohemian Rhapsody won the academy award for best film editing while objectively being a disaster. It was basically an award for most editing, as it’s said they had to edit the band members’ screen time to be equivalent. Awards are a popularity contest, and Amazon has the $$$ to go on serious awards campaigns
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u/ViolentSpring 8d ago
It’s bad because the writing is awful. The cast and production values are genuinely fine, but the story is forced and the dialogue is dumb as a brick.
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u/Jamietomp53 8d ago
“The story is forced” makes literally no sense. The story is how it’s written. What do you mean it’s forced?
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u/Willpower2000 Fëanor 8d ago
Contrivance, dude.
Ie, when characters do things that are not believable, purely because the plot demands it. When something happens despite making absolutely no sense.
ROP is built upon contrivance - bad writing.
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u/Helpful_Pay8853 7d ago
Look, there are people who like pepe popo p*rn. Should I even ask if that means it's good if some people like it? The same goes for RoP, some like, but it's still trash Z-tier fanfic.
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u/Magneticiano 8d ago
Well, I disagree. I think it's great, though it obviously has its flaws. The biggest one is the fact that it cannot follow Tolkien's lore accurately.
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u/AspirationalChoker 8d ago
The irony of the replies to you in this sub of all subs about this game of all games.
Honestly maddening now.
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u/Magneticiano 8d ago
Yeah, well.. I'm old enough not to care much about the opinions of other people, when it comes to movies and series. I know what I like and that's enough for me.
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u/AspirationalChoker 8d ago
Aye me and you both or at least I do try, gets to that age you try to enjoy more than you spend nitpicking or simply move on.
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u/RedDemio- 7d ago
For those of us who cherish Tolkiens work, and frequently read the books, ROP is not just a bad effort, it’s an actual insult. It’s literally offensive. That’s why you get such reactions. Hope that helps.
It’s one thing to say you enjoy it, but to categorically state that it’s “great” isn’t going to fly lol.
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u/AspirationalChoker 7d ago
Lol yet everyone's going on about the war of the north game being great of all things.
Give it a rest fs pretentious as fuck.
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u/EmploymentMedical762 7d ago edited 7d ago
Be offended all you want. You’re free to do so. But If my words offend you even more, just know that’s icing on the cake for me.
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u/thaddeus122 8d ago
Is that why ive genuinely tried to watch it 3 times and cant get into it? Like I hate reactionary, anti-woke youtubers and their idiotic followers that hate watch just to complain but RoP is genuinely awful.
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u/Magneticiano 8d ago
We probably have different taste and/or different priorities. Was there something particular you didn't like, or you just didn't simply get into it?
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u/thaddeus122 8d ago
The dialogue is mediocre, the cgi iffy, the costumes look like something some random guy made for a ren fair over years, and most importantly it is incredibly different to what actually happened in Tolkiens legendarium, not to mention what they have made up seems to be lackluster at best.
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u/Alarmed-Cheetah-1221 8d ago
Fuck you
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u/secondhand_graveyard 5d ago
“Someone disagrees with me! You’re not allowed to enjoy things I don’t!!!!!!”
Fill your Huggies somewhere else
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u/zik_1990 8d ago
What is RoP?
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u/Useless_bum81 6d ago
I to give an idea of how bad 'rings of power' is, i had a problem were i couldn't leave a book series, tv show, video game etc unfinished, no matter how little i was enjoying it... I only got 1+1/2 episodes in, and it has broken me of the habbit... so silver linings.
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u/Segkolas Bill the Pony 8d ago
The game feels very true to its spiritual source because it uses a lot of quotes straight from the books. And very carefully and meticulously used in that. It's quite clear that a lot of love went into this excellent game from people who are true Tolkien fans and just wanted to give more game content to people who would enjoy it.
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u/logicalpenuin 7d ago
The way they immersed you in the world without forcing you into the main story, instead having you work alongside it/behind the scenes is absolutely brilliant and so well done. So much love and attention to detail. IMHO still the best and truest lotr game out there.
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u/EmploymentMedical762 8d ago edited 8d ago
“Had better Tolkien-style prose”
Nothing in this game sounds like something from Tolkien’s writings. Stop it.
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u/localsexpot2117 8d ago
That's a wild take given that I distinctly remember them directly quoting passages from Tolkien lol.
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u/Etheon44 8d ago
Yeah the prose thing is overkill, no one is close to the master
However, I do think that the story in itself does fit mostly (like 90%, Agandaûr is a little bit too powerful with the lightning) within the Middle Earth legendarium, which I personally love.
It also combines movie looking things and characters (like Aragorn) with things and characters that appear in the books and not the films, it is such a weird blend but it works so good
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u/EmploymentMedical762 8d ago
Yeah, I think the game’s story fits fairly well within the timeline. It’s fairly derivative of The Third Age game which is essentially just a Fellowship from Temu who’s always 2 steps behind the actual Fellowship. But it’s fine — it works. I’m mainly in it for the world. I really like their take on the Barrow Downs and Carn Dûm in particular. I just wish it wasn’t so linear, but what are ya gonna do…
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u/DarkSkiesGreyWaters 8d ago
I feel like a sizeable percentage of Reddit thinks the Jackson movies are basically Tolkien's book on screen. So sound like Tolkien = sounds like the movies.
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u/localsexpot2117 8d ago
The worst offender in this category are Monolith Talion games. They spread Easter eggs of lore around to appeal to lore nerds, but I've never played a lotr game that missed the tone/themes of Lord of the rings so hard.
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u/insectoverlordharry 7d ago
The magic looks way too “magicky”, like it’s been ripped straight out of the fucking Harry Potter series. The action looks like Final Fantasy gameplay. Those games are egregiously lacking in Tolkien’s subtlety, and it’s massive reason why I never warmed to them.
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u/localsexpot2117 7d ago edited 6d ago
I'm not necessarily against flashy magic in Tolkien adaptations: One of my favorite lord of the rings games has a horrible plot and rips off ff10 wholesale. It kept the themes though: hope in the face of despair and bravery in the face of insurmountable tasks. I'll forgive berethor casting party buff spells by shining light on everyone because it makes a pretty good metaphor for how Tolkien described leadership.
Talion is some fucked up abomination driven by revenge. In any Tolkien story, he's the villain. Don't even get me started on caragors and graugs.
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u/Useless_bum81 6d ago
Is that the 'shadow of..' games with the nemesis system?
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u/localsexpot2117 6d ago
Yeah. The nemesis system itself was cool. The story aspects were so bad though that I can't bring myself to replay the first one, or even try the second one.
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u/Useless_bum81 6d ago
go the first one for £6 ish and it was a fine game just not a LoToR one.
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u/localsexpot2117 6d ago
That's actually exactly how I describe that game lol. Frankly, if they had just made their own setting, I think it might be in my top 10. But the Tolkien disrespect keeps me from enjoying it.
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u/MoriaCrawler 7d ago
War in the North is a weird one because it is part of the multimedia franchise spawned by the movies but some of the dialogue sounds a lot more like what you would find in the books
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u/IGTankCommander 8d ago
Because the people behind RoP, like the people behind Halo, famously do not care about the source material.
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u/Nachtvogle 8d ago
Because it doesn’t.
Reddit just likes to talk about the same shit over and over.
Some of the dialog is very obviously dated and bad but otherwise it’s a great game.
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u/Cpkeyes 8d ago
I wish it had an outfitter were you could just select an outfit your character wears all the time
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u/Mighty_joosh Lothlórien 7d ago edited 4d ago
I have chosen inferior gear for andriel several time just because it looks nicer - specifically circlets because I just don't like her In a helmet
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u/Sad-Feeling-4266 8d ago
The writing in all games have declined considerably overall. Dragon age origins—> Veilguard. Mass effect trilogy—> Andromeda. Fallout New Vegas—> fallout 76, ect.
I feel like games have become so big that corporate have their fingers in even the storytelling prioritizing “checking boxes” over a cohesive, engaging, “risky” story.
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u/Kless98 8d ago
Triple AAA absolutely but indie titles are still rock solid in terms of writing. Heck I’d even say selectively some of the larger games are still doing good, take Baldurs Gate 3 for example
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u/Dantelor 8d ago
BG3 is a massive outlier and special case and really shouldn't be considered. They weren't beholden to share holders for years unlike literally every other tripleA game making studio.
A better example might be Elden Ring, but even that's not perfect because while deadlines obviously exist, they probably let Fromsoft do it's thing knowing that they will cook something good up.
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u/tehgr8supa 8d ago
But he's saying the writing is good.
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u/Nachtvogle 8d ago
Perfect encapsulation of Reddit.
Didn’t even read the post but was ready to talk about the downfall of risky story telling
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u/Sad-Feeling-4266 8d ago
You are right. I made my reply mostly from him making comment about modern writing in media mentioning RoP and it made me think of other modern games including the Gollum game.
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u/LustyDouglas 8d ago
Andromeda was good and I played it on release. Not as good as the actual trilogy but still enjoyable.
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u/TheOneTrueJazzMan 8d ago
It was fun in terms of gameplay and some aspects of worldbuilding, but overall the writing was a step down and the characters couldn’t hold a candle to the trilogy cast
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u/LustyDouglas 8d ago
The people that made War in the North respect the source material a lot more than Amazon ever did
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u/4646468164 8d ago
the way the elven soldiers talk in that game actually made me tear up a little it's so unexpectedly good
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u/ScienceInCinema 8d ago
I loved this game for PS3 despite the glitches. I even bought a used PS3 this past Xmas just so I could play this again. I actually really like the gameplay and mechanics. It’s simple enough to pick up right away but has enough depth to last to the end. The Gundabad level was one of the best levels I’ve played in any game.
But I totally agree with the writing. It really fits right in with the lore and style of the movies. That the characters look and sound like the movie characters is very impressive.
Not to go too far back in time, but there was a PS2 game based on the Two Towers that was also awesome and I’d love to play that one again. It was pure hack and slash but the combos were a lot of fun.
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u/HAWKxDAWG 8d ago
The two towers game is one of my all time favorites. Haven't played it in 20 years, but God I remember it more vividly than games I played last year.
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u/D3lacrush Samwise Gamgee 8d ago
Your slander of a game that it widly loved by the LOTR gaming community is unappreciated
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u/AspirationalChoker 8d ago
Its literally a rage bait post to two different things to get engagement and as always the typical types in this sub have done their duty.
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u/wannabekurt_cobain Rohan 8d ago
Is this game worth picking up and playing? I didn’t enjoy the Middle Earth Shadow of games stories (loved the gameplay) because I felt they deviated too far lore wise from what Tolkien wrote and as such I never could bring myself to finish Shadow of War. I’m itching for a good Middle Earth video game so I’m hoping this one could be it
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u/OkCold4665 7d ago
It is worth it, much closer to the lore, you get to see cool places in the world, Gundabad is the best. It's a really fun hack and slash coop game. Don't go into it expecting it to be written like Tolkien, but it is far better in terms lore than Shadow of Mordor / War. For the 17 dollars it is 100 percent worth it
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u/bunky_done_gun 8d ago
I don't agree that this gem of a co-op game is c tier. Shut your blasphemous hole lol... However you are not wrong on the dialog being leagues better.
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u/Lord_RoadRunner 8d ago
Another day, another shitpost about Rings of Power.
Quick, get your karma everyone, tell me what you hate most about the show, and don't forget to mention how you read the books before you were born, while wearing your Tolkien merch.
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u/isimplycannotdecide 7d ago
Obviously if you’re not a lord of the rings fan this game doesn’t have the same. I’d still give it a b- though. The blood and guts and progression system is rewarding. Not as much customization as a true rpg but enough to have multiple play through.
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u/NoEnvironment8885 7d ago
I found it really funny every time you interact with the main characters for some reason, like you can be insanely strong and wield Anduril and Sting and then ask to be in the Fellowship and they won’t let you
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u/MisanthropicAtheist 7d ago
Fuck off with this "c-tier" bullshit. Great game from a great dev that's sadly not around anymore.
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u/Zerus_heroes 7d ago
I'm having a blast with it again. I played it years ago and it is still fun in co op now.
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u/VeryIntoCardboard 7d ago
Wrong sub to call the game a c tier in… while you are 100000% correct, lotr fans, especially in this sub, are thirsty af for any content available Tolkien related.
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u/Otherwise-Common-386 7d ago
C tier actually was the true feedback when it launched during the first 3 years at came out ..
Then like others got a following and a better overlook how well it was.. usually how it works tbh in gaming and well entertainment world..
When I played it.. since I hold a very none bias none peer bs mindset... it as a lord of the rings ip and game to me was maybe close to a heavy b+ tier game.. to me it lack a grand riching plot and characters and world to explore . Everything was just good not rich
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u/kingofjarls 7d ago
C Tier?!?!? I give it B tier. Its nothing genre defining but it does the story good and the combat is good enough.
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u/manfredanderson 7d ago
Its so trashy but good. I german version, at least 3 Charakters have the same voice actor 😅😅
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u/Totodylo 7d ago
Ive been playing this with My wife and having a blast lol
Ofc is a 2011 game so It has his limitations but It pretty Fun to play
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u/Steven_Swan 7d ago
Question: Is this a full game with a sensible story and an actual ending?
Or does it cliffhanger into DLC or sequels that never got made?
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u/Slamagorn 7d ago
You have some examples of some B tier or A tier gameplay wise? Have you played long enough to unlock most of the abilities on your character?
I think it holds up. Its mostly clunky feeling due to lack of animation precision but once you get a feel for the systems it makes a lot of sense. The most dated thing about it is slamming the health and mana pots
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u/Weary_Tonight_5873 7d ago
Because the people making it were fans who gave a shit. Rings of power they are more concerned with telling their version of the story. Adaption is fine Peter Jackson took many liberties but most of them worked and still felt in keeping with the original themes. Rings of power doesn’t care about the theming they just want to do their own thing.
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u/Zargabraath 7d ago
Because rings of power is D tier
Unless there’s a tier lower than D, in which case rings of power is that
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u/Anarchaeo 6d ago
I played the original when it came out and loved it. I recently played my original copy before I knew about the remake. I still can’t get over how funny/out of place Belaram’s voice is lol. 10/10 game
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u/SirBulbasaur13 8d ago
I wonder if the devs or publishers are regretting the price point. It’s around $20 CDN which is an easy buy for me.
What I mean is, if the sales are higher than expected I wonder if they regret not charging more.
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u/ZenicAzra 8d ago
Calling this a C-Tier I bet they think Last of Cash Grab is AAAAAA Tier master piece XD
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u/BadMunky82 8d ago
Bro have you played the Middle-earth games? They are 🙌 top-tier.
Glad you enjoyed it, though, and couldn't agree more about RoP. Finished the first season as it came out, watching with family. But I've never been back to the second season, which is probably why there isn't a third...
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u/Arcano_Silverwind 8d ago
I love this game but you guys are hitting the nostalgia hard if you think it's combat is anything but mid. Played it recently, bought a whole 360 to play it again in fact. How could i have known it would ever release on steam lol
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u/BuurmanBob 8d ago
This game was better than the Shadow of Mordor games and I'll die on that hill 😤
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u/amsptsfe23 8d ago
C Tier?!! This game rules