The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria Previews
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Your entry into Moria takes place a few weeks after the Fellowship passes through, as you join a plucky bunch of Dwarves in their expedition to break past the Hollin Gate. As you'd expect, things aren't as easy as opening a door - a vicious squid-like monster called The Watcher attacks, and you have to beat a retreat. To ward off the creature and gain access to Moria, you have to return with a legendary weapon. This is Turbine's new advancement system that we reckon competitors are going to be wholesale copying very soon. You pick up these items in a bit of a state, and have to take them to be identified by a specialist NPC. Once this is done, they level alongside your character, gaining experience that can be put into '˜legacies' to improve characteristics. Things become a little complex past that, with each weapon having particularly effective legacies, and the ability to re-forge each one a few times over, making the Legendary Advancement system a potentially endless pursuit of augmenting these magical items.
And then move on to GameSpot:
Although you'll be playing below ground, the sense of scale in the mines is still very impressive. We saw a huge staircase in the first part of the demo, and it took about two minutes to climb. The lighting and overall detail also made us want to explore more, although we sadly didn't get to see any of the city. Turbine also promises a better item-advancement system through something called "legendary items." The developers have implemented feedback from players who said that it was a bit complicated, and you will now be able to level up and forge new weapons in a more efficient menu system.
