Helm’s Deep Story Overview

LOTRO Players was glad to get invited to a press event for the epic story coming with Helm’s Deep.

Spoiler Alert!

“A storm is brewing.  All good people must stand together or be destroyed.”

The Helm’s Deep epic story starts off sending us to the edge of Western Rohan.  We quickly make our way to Edoras.  Once we arive we go straight to Meduseld to talk with King Théoden.  When we make it to the hall we realize we are not the only ones who desire an audience with the king.  We are told that there are others already having an audience with Théoden.  We quickly make our way inside and as we get closer to the throne we see an old grey cloaked figure with a man, a dwarf and an elf.  They are talking with the king and his adviser, Gríma Wormtongue.  When the conversation starts to go down hill, Gandalf the Grey decides to reveal himself as Gandalf the White.  In one quick motion Gandalf is transformed and causes Gríma to be knocked out.  Théoden realizes at this moment the hold Gríma had on him and turns back to his old self.  One thing that is very different from the films in this scene is that Théoden is not just a puppet in this version.  He simply had is mind confined.  Gandalf comes in and shows him the light.  The rest of this book will be cleaning up the mess of having a misguided king.

 

“Now I see the shadows for what they are, Gandalf.  They are fleeting, like a grim memory.”

The second book will revolve around  Éowyn and her mentor, Fríthild .  Fríthild is a new character Turbine has crafted as a hero figure to Éowyn.  Fríthild is a strong shieldmaiden and represents something Éowyn is not allowed to become at the this time.  This will likely be a long theme that will develop more in later books.

 

“No, Gríma.  I will ride to war, as I should have done long ago, and you will ride with me.”

The third book focuses on the battle for Helm’s Deep.  We were able to see a pre-battle instance where Aragorn tries to improve the morale of the troops.  While we were not able to see the epic battles in action, we did get to see the scale of Helm’s Deep.  All of the images you have seen do not do justice as to how big this area really is.  Between the dykes and the outer wall, there is room for thousands  of orcs.  I didn’t realize just how big this area really is until the developer started walking from the outer wall to the dykes.  This place is huge!  There is nowhere in LOTRO where you get this level of scale.  Keep in mind we didn’t see any orcs or any battles.  Just the landscape is impressive.  If Turbine can make the battles half as interesting as the Helm’s Deep structure, the new system will be great.

 

“Arise, Riders of Théoden!”

Turbine did reveal that there will be five epic battle locations.  Each location will have a variation between 1,2,3,6 and 12-person groups.  Keep in mind each variation in group size be custom built for that group.  This means there will be plenty of variety with the system which is exciting.

Turbine also mentioned they are trying to make epic battles feel chaotic with plenty going on at once.  This means it will be adding plenty of variety with various things your group can do at any given time.

The battles will take place at the dykes, with Gimli in the Glittering Caves, on the wall and a couple other locations.  The dykes are not good for defense at all and quickly cause the retreat to the outer wall of Helm’s Deep.  Having these diverse locations will keep things different and interesting for the player.  I am very curious as to how the epic battle system will work in the caves.  Will the scale still be epic in the caves?  Will there still be thousands of orcs?  Will they even fit in the caves?

Turbine did state that there will not be mounted combat in any part of the epic battles system.  I am glad this is the case because coding mounted combat for a battle this large would likely cause a whole host of problems.  They also mentioned that mounted combat will not be getting any big changes with Helm’s Deep.

One very controversial thing with this expansion is that Turbine is charging for the epic story that comes with Helm’s Deep.  When asked if it was only a part or the entire thing, the said it is the entire epic even though epic battles are not at the start.  It is so well tied in with the area that they are simply throwing the whole thing in with the expansion.  One of the developers did make a point to say that this is in no way a policy moving forward.  They will judge the future pricing as it comes.Staying on mounted combat, Western Rohan will support around 75% mounted combat.  Western Rohan will continue to support warbands as well.  The developers seem to be really happy with the system.

One interesting thing about the story line with Helm’s Deep is King Fulca.  While Turbine didn’t mention how they will be bringing him in, they did say he would be in the story somehow.  Who is King Fulca?  He is the 13th King of Rohan and ruled for 13 years.  He vowed to keep all orcs out of Rohan after his father died to them.  He vowed not to hunt until the task was complete.  After 13 years he actually achieved his goal and hunted a large boar.  He died shortly after being wounded from killing the boar.  He left Rohan free of orcs.  This caused him to be known as Fulca the Hunter.

Turbine also let us know about several things unrelated to the story.

Housing is still planned for this year but will not come with Helm’s Deep.

There will be some kind of mystery to solve in Western Rohan.  They did not go into detail about it though.

Turbine is still looking into an official GLFF.

There is new music in this expansion that is done by Turbine.

There will be another tier of crafting.

There will be three epic story books with around twelve chapters each.

Sapience did say that there will be more expansion code lotteries in the future.

The fall of Isengard will not be part of this expansion.

Players will be able to visit the burial graves but will not witness the burial of Théodred.

Epic battles are not like skirmishes, that is just the easiest thing to compare them to.

There are no raids coming outside of epic battles with this expansion.

There are not any hobbies with the expansion.

As a whole, the expansion seems to be coming together quite nicely.  While we did not see any epic battles, we did see the amazing scale of Helm’s Deep.  We were able to see Gandalf reveal himself and save the king. We saw Aragorn inspire the men for the battle to come.  Helm’s Deep is looking to top Riders of Rohan in a big way and that makes me excited to find out more.

What do you think?