I was invited into the alpha of Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar last year and have been itching to post my experiences there for several months. Well, today the Non-Disclosure Agreement was lifted, so I can speak at last! Of course it’s late at night and I’m nearly asleep, so I’ll let some screenshots do the work.
Keep in mind that the game is still in beta so changes may very well happen. In fact, the highest-resolution textures still aren’t in place yet – they would have made the client download even more massive.
If the fancy image viewer in this blog software works, clicking on these resized images should bring up the gi-normous 1600×1200 shots.
Join Druni, my Dwarf Guardian, on a trek through a few of the sites of Middle-earth!
The first group are taken out in the wilderness of the Trollshaws:
Bruinen Gorge, on the road to Rivendell. The water effects are incredible in this game – the surface reflects the surrounding environment, including an accurate reflection of the stars in the sky at night. Not only that, but the reflection appear to move with you as you run across the water!
Heading down to Rivendell.
There were little fuzzy dandelion-seed things drifting through the air when I took this shot; for some reason they didn’t show up in the screen-grab. The area in front of Druni looks a little blurred because there’s a waterfall below him that’s throwing mist into the air.
Imladris, the Last Homely House
Elrond’s council chamber, where the Fellowship was formed. Bilbo is down there giving riddle-quests to visitors.
Trestlebridge, a town in the North Downs that has seen better days.
That’s all for now – more in the days to come!