Games worth discovering

A F2P mobile gaming treat for LOTR fans | Full Review - LOTR Heroes of Middle Earth

2K View2023-05-15

The Lord of the Rings: Heroes

7.5

RPGPvEAdventureFantasyPvP

Get

The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth or LOTR Heroes of Middle Earth is a turn-based hero collecting online RPG game for the platform.

🟩Pros

+Various campaigns to play with hundreds of missions

+Quality of life features to help with grinding and farming

+Intuitive and beginner-friendly game mechanics

+Control over character progression, reducing reliance on randomization

🟥Cons

-Not LOTR newcomer friendly

-Turn-based combat lacks depth

The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth, also known as LOTR Heroes of Middle Earth, is a new turn-based hero collecting online RPG game available on both Android and iOS platforms. This game immerses players in the rich lore of the Lord of the Rings universe, allowing them to command a party of iconic characters and embark on epic campaigns.

LOTR Heroes of Middle Earth combines hero collection and turn-based combat mechanics to create a familiar gaming experience. The game follows various campaigns inspired by the LOTR storyline, giving players somewhat in charge of their journey and battles. The main campaign, known as the Light campaign, begins with Frodo's adventure alongside Strider (Aragorn). However, as players progress and collect more heroes, they have the freedom to customize their lineup, even replacing Frodo and Strider themselves.

LOTR Heroes of Middle Earth is a hero collecting game at its core with a focus on participating in turn-based combat to progress in the levels called missions taking place in the lord of the rings storyline. The story is not exactly friendly for Lord of the Rings newcomers, as the game assumes some prior knowledge of the franchise, and newcomers may find it challenging to fully grasp the context and significance of certain characters, locations, and events.

The game seamlessly integrates the mobile gameplay into the LOTR books' narrative, albeit with some creative liberties. While the explanation of how players can influence the characters' actions and "cleanse the corruption out of stories" may require a suspension of belief, the addition of countless battles and scenes adds depth to the storyline.

The game's chapters present the storyline in a chapter-ized format commonly seen in live service RPG mobile games. It also allows players to freely change their party lineup between battles. Additionally, players can select up to five characters for battle, with the occasional sixth character being either a storyline NPC or another guild members’ character providing assistance.

In the early stages of the game, players are generously rewarded with resources and energy through various introductory quests, objectives, and challenges. These rewards enable players to unlock up to four characters quickly. Additional resources can be earned by playing the game, particularly EXP, which determines the maximum level of characters.

The progression system is designed to be intuitive and beginner-friendly, guiding players on which gear or resources to acquire for upgrades. Although unlocking characters may require some grinding, the game offers a degree of control over character progression, reducing reliance on randomization.

LOTR Heroes of Middle Earth features stylized graphics that bring the characters and environments to life. The visual presentation is a unique adaptation of the LOTR mythos, displaying top-tier mobile AAA quality graphics unsurprisingly with EA behind the production of the game. The soundtrack is a decent orchestral high fantasy style, but nothing special unfortunately, they weren’t able to tap into the already amazing soundtrack from the live-action trilogy.

The gameplay in LOTR Heroes of Middle Earth revolves around two main components: turn-based combat and the RPG hero collecting aspect. Progression through the chapters entails engaging in turn-based battles, each contributing to the completion of the storyline. The game offers hundreds of engaging challenges for players to conquer.

These missions are rated based on a three-star system, evaluating the player's performance and is repeatable. Apart from the Light Campaign, there is also a Shadow campaign featuring different sets of "Shadow" Heroes to collect, providing an entirely separate storyline that players can progress in side by side with the Light campaign.

The turn-based combat is your standard combat system, with each of the characters having access to various unique skills such as AOE attacks, heals, buffs or debuffs. These skills can be upgraded along with the character. The overall combat is not really that deep, without any unique mechanics or items to use. Fortunately, players who aren’t interested can speed these battles up to x3 and use the auto function to allow the AI to take control.

As players progress through the game after the first few chapters, the difficulty level will steeply increase. This shift in difficulty can pose a challenge for newcomers who may have initially found the game to be relatively easy and guided. To overcome the rising difficulty, players will need to focus on upgrading their characters and obtaining new ones.

Monitoring available upgrades and gear becomes crucial to ensure that characters are adequately equipped to tackle tougher missions and enemies. This emphasizes the importance of strategic character progression and team composition, as well as putting pressure on the players to spend real money.

The hero collecting aspect of the game allows players to summon various heroes to their aid, unlocking them as they meet specific requirements. Players can enhance their characters' stats by equipping them with gear obtained through looting or crafting. This upgrade system is user-friendly, guiding players on the necessary steps — what gear or resource to acquire and where — to improve their characters. Characters can also synergize with each other depending on their relationships in the story, such as with Frodo and the other Hobbits for example.

While the game includes a gacha element when opening chests to obtain more characters, it is not the sole method of acquiring heroes. Players have a significant degree of control over character progression and are not solely reliant on randomization.

Grinding in LOTR Heroes of Middle Earth has been streamlined into a much commendable simpler process, instead of continuously repeating a mission manually, you can “auto-battle” an already three-starred mission multiple times (up to x20 at a time), to effectively speedup progression and gain rewards. Provided that you have enough energy currency.

While there is an auto function and x3 speed to help players automate battles like an idle game, the auto-battle is a much better option for those who want to grind repeatedly, and in an instant.

As LOTR Heroes of Middle Earth is a live service free-to-play game, there is unfortunately an understandable time currency in place to limit playtime. You need energy to take on missions and this energy will run out pretty fast after all the initial new player bonuses have been exhausted.

Fortunately, this energy is divided into two currencies. One for the campaign, and one for Guild missions. And yes, this game has guilds you can join that allows you to asynchronously give and request aid from your guildmates in the form of their main character assisting you in battles.

Other F2P live service staples are also present in this game, such as spending real money to speedily unlock new heroes and get more energy. Bundles to unlock specific characters , resource boosts, or just outright buying the premium currency gems to mostly spend in opening chests.

Conclusion:

Overall, LOTR Heroes of Middle Earth seems to offer an enjoyable gaming experience, particularly for fans of the Lord of the Rings franchise who appreciate turn-based combat and hero collection mechanics. The presence of gacha and time currency elements may be a downside for some players, but the fact that character acquisition is not solely reliant on luck is a positive aspect.

Mentioned games

The Lord of the Rings: Heroes

7.5

RPGPvEAdventureFantasyPvP

Get

A new The Lord of the Rings mobile game! | First Impressions - LOTR Heroes of Middle Earth

lyndonguitar1K2023-05-15