Review: Dragon Ball Z – Ultimate Tenkaichi (PS3)

This is the first, in a three part series that will look at the verious parts of the new Lord of the Rings Online game. The game is set for release in mid to late April. The game is currently in a beta, so anything in these articles could change in the release version of the game. Also, any pictures that you see are thumbnails and you can get a larger version by clicking on them. The full size versions are at a 1920×1200 resolution (thank you Dell 24″ LCD monitor).

Creating a character in Lord of the Rings is a three step process, that has you select the race and gender, their professioin and finally customizing their look. So lets go through each step of the creation process.

So here we are at the race selection screen. You have four main races to choose from, all offering a male and female counterpart with the exception of the dwarven race. Not sure why their are no female dwarves in the game, but that may have more to do with the mythos of the series than the game creation. As you can see, there is a fair amount of detail in the characters and you can rotate the view to see the character from all angles. On the right hand side is a nice addition, and that is a video preview. Any race you select, you have the option of playing a video that will explain and show the strengths and weaknesses of each character race. It is a novel idea and something that should be well received. This screen will also tell you what the playable classes are for that race.

When you have finished deciding what race your character will be, you come to the profession screen. Here, we are going to select what profession we will select for our character. First off, you will only see the profession choices that can be performed by the race you selelcted. The classes themselves are different to some degree from normal Dungeons and Dragons prefessions. We have the Captain, who is a natural leader, whereas the Guardian is more along the lines of a Paladin. You again, have the option of watching a video that describes the plusses and minuses of any of the professions. Just select a profession and click on the video link.

So here is the final step before we have a character. This is the customize character screen. Here we start by naming our character, which is monitored for obscene or sexual references. The origin section allows you to choose one of four origin points. These origin points control your skin color. Colors from pale white to bluish-red are possible selection. On the right hand side, you get all the options you could want to personalize your character. This is true in theory, but there are only a handful of options under each category. So don’t be surprised if you see a characters that look close to your look. When you get one of the looks you want, you can lock that category to make sure you do not change it.

After all of this, you are ready to enter the world of The Lord of the Rings Online. The character creation interface is rather intuative and shows a lot of work. I have only used The Matrix Online, Star Wars Galaxies and Everquest II, but this is the best creation screen I have worked with in some time. I also liked the way you could preview each class and race in a video showing you what they are capable of. I am not sure why a female dwarf was not available, so maybe someone else can clear that up for me. Also, it would be nice to see the developers add more content in regards to character customization. There are a fair amount of items to get your own look, but not enough to really be individual. I would love to see a tool like the one used in The Godfather game that had sliders for each attribute so you have near infinate possibilities. But it is a good start and will definitely hook in the neophytes that have not gotten into the MMORPG scene.