For those of you not familiar with the genre, Turbine has taken the Lord of the Rings universe, using material taken from the books (not the movies, EA owns the license there) and created a viable, playable world for fans to interact and quest in.

When the game begins, you're able to pick from four different races, Hobbit, Man, Elf, and Dwarf. Each race allows you to choose between male and female (except the Dwarf class) and from there you'll begin to customize the look of your individual using the various sliders provided. There's a ton of variations to come across, and you can even pick a particular nationality or family (for Man you can pick Gondor, Rohan, etc) which will also effect the appearance of your in-game avatar. You'll also be able to choose from seven different classes, each representing a particular archetype that fans of MMO's or Role Playing Games will be pretty familiar with at the start.

Lord of the Rings doesn't offer a very robust PVP system, but it can be pretty fun. Once you hit level 10 with your character, you'll be able to visit a fell scrying pool, and begin to try out the “Monster Play” system. Basically you'll choose from five different monster characters (Uruks, Orc, etc) and you'll start that new character at level 50, and be placed in the PVP zone where you can fight against other user controlled Hero characters, or even the NPC monsters you'll encounter there. Points you gain while playing your monster character can then be applied to either your main hero character, or your monster. Monster Play is definitely a fun distraction from the core game, but doesn't really fill the void of a true PVP Good vs. Evil system seen in other popular MMO's.

LOTRO does excel when it comes to the Player Vs. Environment content. The PvE stuff is well rounded, and the quest progression is very logical. It doesn't leave you guessing where you should be headed once you finish up a particular area. In the very beginning you'll be placed in a starter area for a few levels, which will then lead to an instanced story event, which in turn sets the tone for gameplay as you progress. The beginning areas can feel really simple to advanced MMO players, but as you advance past level 30 you'll find that the difficulty begins to amp up, and you'll be required to group more and more. Once you hit endgame, level 50, you'll be grouping for just about everything. A lot of the quests still stick to the tried and true formula of “kill x amount of this creature” or “bring this item to so and so”, but every so often you'll come across a great quest line that really ties into the lore of the universe, and its these quests that really help to set LOTRO apart from the rest.

There are a few other distractions you can find from the main game, some of which are useful, such as the crafting system, while others are merely for fun, like the music system. I actually thought crafting was a bit obtuse at first, and not quite beginner friendly to those that haven't experienced this mechanic in a game before. After you mess around with it a bit, and come to the realization that you'll be needing to trade with other players for a lot of your supplies, it ends up being useful, but not until later in the game. The music system, on the hand, is really easy to get into, and helps kill whatever downtime you might experience. Basically each class can play up to two instruments (except Bards, they can use all 5), and using a number of keys on the keyboard you can hit notes in the game, creating your own music to sit around and play in-game. There's a lot that can be done with this, and if you feel like scouring YouTube you'll find a few user videos where people have put together some incredible song renditions. I realize some of these are put together thru the use of Midi Keyboards, but still, the possibilities are there.

When it comes to presentation, Lord of the Rings Online really excels. Turbine has done a great job of giving the game a large slider scale, so even quite a few low-end systems will have no problem running the game smoothly. However, if you're playing on a pretty up to date piece of hardware you'll really gain an appreciation for the visuals of Middle Earth seen here. There's absolutely something special about stepping into areas like Bree and The Shire for the first time, especially when you take in the scope and scale of these places. Even the remote locations are rendered beautifully, with little to no graphical hiccups to be found.

Musically everything sounds very fantasy inspired, but for those of you who associate the film music with Lord of the Rings, you'll be a bit disappointed. However, all of the voice over work is really top notch.. All together it fits well within the game, but doesn't come off as anything incredibly special.

Also, the interface is a bit bland, and the lack of ability to scale it really hurts. If you're playing on a large monitor at a high resolution, you'll have a bit of trouble trying to read the text. Likewise, if you're playing on a run of the mill monitor at low resolution, be ready to have your interface take up most of the screen. Turbine has plans to allow more customization from users, and has also made mention of a scaler, but who knows when we'll see this implemented.

All together Lord of the Rings Online makes for a fine multiplayer experience. Quest progression is fantastic, the presentation is top notch, and there's plenty of side stuff to distract you from the main game if you so choose. Combine that with a very solid launch that doesn't seem to be plagued by the problems a lot of launch MMO's have, and you'd be hard pressed not to pick this one up and try it out.