The Lord OF The Rings: Adventure Card Game – Worth spending money on or just a cash grab?
Hello again fellow gamers! Back at you with another review. Changing things up this time and reviewing a card game. Not everyone’s cup of tea, I know but this is a Lord of the Rings card game…
Still not convinced? Neither was I to begin with. Firstly, this game is £20… yes twenty pounds. When I saw that I was honestly kinda shocked. From the little I knew of the game it was very Hearthstone-like and pretty indie. So I did do a double take. Considering I was, wrongfully assuming it was like Hearthstone and Hearthstone is free you can see why I didn’t have the best first impressions.
I bought the game anyway because it looked genuinely good. I love LOTR and I love TCGs so it had it all really. The price did stop me in my tracks for an hour or so though.
However, onwards we go into the depths of Middle Earth!
Gameplay
This is an odd one because it is a lot like Hearthstone and others so if you’ve played them you’ll get the basic gist. However, this game is based on the old TCG that Fantasy Flight released in April of 2011. This digital version was released on 8th August this year and is a port from the windows version that released on early access 28 August 2018.
With all that out of the way, how is the gameplay? Well, it’s actually very good. It’s different enough from other TCGs for it to stand out.
It works on a heroes based system. Your game is over if Sauron discovers you so the main aim is to complete the objectives (not all of them having to do with killing the opponents warriors.) This creates a great new mechanic where the idea is not always to out-muscle your foe. One such task may be “keep your heroes safe for 4 full turns.” After that you can continue on the next task.
The entire way you play against creatures that Sauron himself controls and he always has more of an advantage than you. For example, you don’t spend any points on your turn you get 1 point that’s carried over into your next turn but Sauron gets 3. Also remember that the main point of the game is not to kill all the monsters but to clear the main goals as soon as possible so you’re not detected by Sauron.
The gameplay is fluid and quick. Much quicker than other TCGs where it’s more turn based and trying to bring your opponent’s HP down to 0.
Storyline
I’ll be honest. If you know LOTR, you know the storyline to the game. It takes place years after Bilbo went home after his first adventure with the dwarves and continues from there. There are small, fun, little pieces that are read whilst the loading screen is up but the story is very very basic.
That isn’t an issue though because the gameplay is so good. I found myself not caring much for the storyline anyway. I just wanted to get to my next objective.
Review
Overall, this game is very enjoyable. Like I said before I was put off a bit by the price at the start but it’s definitely worth it. it’s great fun and something new in the TCG business which is saying something. I have a PS Vita which I was playing it on and opted for the PS4 version (because trophies) but you can get it on Switch which I am seriously considering now that I know how well it plays on a handheld.
You could lose yourself in this game for hours. It has plenty of content for you to do so too.
I will admit that the tutorials did drag on for a very long time. I had to be patient with the game in order to get to the good stuff. Having said that, it is necessary. Because the game is so unique with it’s gameplay mechanics it’s 100% necessary to pay attention to the tutorials. Which, is genuinely not something I’d ever hear myself saying…
