Full disclosure: I'm about fed up with all massively multiplayer online games in their current state. I think that, for the most part, they are derivative crap which essentially just wraps the same old ideas, gameplay and contrivances with a fancy new IP.

Having said that, Lord of the Rings Online: Shadow of Angmar is quite palatable. I'm sure tons of people are going to pick it up and say it's World of Warcraft or Guild Wars with a Lord of the Rings flavor, but you could say WoW didn't do much in the way of innovation either.

What millions of dollars a month in subscription fees has taught developers is that they don't need to do anything better or different, just that they need to have a unique look and a strong IP and Shadow of Angmar delivers that in spades.

The game is beautiful, probably the best looking MMO I've seen in quite awhile, for it's particular style, which is very much not the cartoon-like graphics of World of Warcraft.

Instead the game is going for something that looks a bit more realistic and they achieve it. You start off the game by deciding what race you are, then what class and finally from where you hail. Then you have a fair number of choices for customization.

Once you get into the game you play through a series of relatively easy missions that familiarize you with both the story and the mechanics of the game. Then comes the big mission that spits you from this starter instance into the main game. (Think Guild War's intro).

The gameplay will be familiar to any who have played an MMO. You have skills you acquire as you level up. You collect things and sell them for better weapons. And there are always plenty of missions to grab, from deliver this package here, to sort out this big mystery that is linked to the grander Lord of the Rings theme of the game.

Instead of big exclamation points above a mission-dishing non-player character, you've got the golden ring. As in THE ring.

I don't mean to dismiss Lord of the Rings. I was genuinely impressed with some of what they did. The graphics, for starters, are just amazing, especially the scenery graphics, which are, at times, almost breath-taking. And there are some neat little things I spotted.

For instance, when I was taking on a wolf and received a bit to the leg, a little symbol warned that I would be much slower for a set amount of time (measured in seconds) and my character actually limped until it healed. Very neat.

I also didn't get too far into the game. I played for about five hours and made it to level nine or so, getting past that initial training instance and into the wide world but not really exploring much past where I started.

The game seems to have plenty to offer for those still in love with the MMO genre as it stands today, and enough tweaks to set it apart from much of the competition. Will it be a WoW killer? I don't think such a thing exists. When WoW dies it will be a natural death, not one brought on by competition. Brian Crecente

Shadow of Angmar Gallery [Kotaku]