Your particular fellowship in The Lord of the Rings War in the North is not nine strong, but it does contain an elf, human and dwarf and later you are joined by various others, including the Great Eagles, on your quest to help fight the forces of Sauron in the northern part of Middle Earth.

The Lord of the Rings War in the North suffers from intense bouts of button mashing and some clunky features, but in the end really delivers on an exquisitely crafted tale, steeped in Middle Earth lore and featuring some nice regions of Middle Earth like the Barrow Downs, the city of Bree, the Ettenmoors and more.

Along the story inThe Lord of the Rings War in the North, which made me feel like Rosencrantz, or was it Guildenstern, you run into the actual Fellowship as they assemble at Rivendell. You can speak with the major players from the books like Gandalf, Elrond, Frodo and yes, even Bilbo. Arwen, Aragorn and Gimli are there as is Legolas. Of course, when given the chance to speak with those characters, you do so. It adds to the environment, but not really to your story. The dialog wheels have no effects at all on the story or gameplay and end up just being wastes of time to the point where I just started skipping them. Yes, I’m a fan of all that is LOTR, no I don’t want to sit through piles of dialog that do not progress the game in any way. Perhaps if there was some actual impact on the gameplay and story based on the dialogs (aside from some minor side quests) I might be more inclined to waste time chatting with everyone I came across. Another negative on the dialogs is that you must sit through some of them which is annoying as well.

Admittedly, I often felt like I was playing Aragorn when I was the human and Gimli when I was the dwarf. The only truly original character of your party is the elven lore-master who is like a wizard and cleric mix offering both ranged attack and healing/defense capabilities.

The Lord of the Rings War in the North features a good amount of RPG elements including character progression in the form of levels which give you points to increase your four stats of Will, Strength, Dexterity and Stamina all of which affect things like hit points, power, damage.

On top of that there is an inventory system that allows you to customize your armor with constant upgrades as well as some enhancing by mounting gems into some items. Loot piles up quickly at times and you will eventually run out of inventory and have to make some decisions.