I'm glad to see that my brief preview was not the complete experience. The 3 player co-op sounds really good in this game.

Combat question - they've described it as 'brutal' and the combat trailer showed de-limbing, decapitation and other things like that. Based on some other stuff I've read, it seems like this only occurs with a strong, finishing attack. Is this true? How gruesome is standard button mashing/combo attacks? I ask because my wife doesn't like heads and limbs flying everywhere, and I want to know if we can play this, because it sounds AWESOME!

I was actually just about to head out to pick this game up, and decided to check you guys first... It's like I'm standing outside the co-optimus office window, watching... waiting...

Anyway, great review and thanks for the insights!

The reviews at other sites were scaring me away from this game, but I think I will have to check it out after all. It is too bad it doesn't allow four players in co-op.

Thaaaank you!
Finally a good review. I'm at me third playthrough now and I simply love it.

The problem with the other reviews is quite simple imho. You clearly read there that they MOSTLY play it solo and just tried it out in coop a bit.

This game really is supposed to be played by 2-3 players, that's where the fun starts and really flourishes. It is simply so much fun.

And it gaps a nice bridge between the movies and the stuff that was missing there, like radagast, elrond's son etc as well as having many hints at the lore in general and the hobbit.

Simply a great experience.

Great review. Thanks.

Great game indeed. The only problema I had was that the experience is not splitted equally between members. The one who kills gets the most of it. Also, the game could be a bit longer.

HEY-wait just a damn second. World of Warcraft is busy screwing up their franchise with pandas, back off.

Glad to hear this game turned out well! Sounds like it takes a little getting used to, which would explain why my brief time with the game left me underwhelmed. It's back on my Christmas "nice" list.

Oh... I got that "waiting at checkpoint" message too, but there is a workaround the other player that dont have the meessage have to come first at the teleport part and set to teleport to any place, then cancel when the message shows. done

@ pofigster Yes, most of the gore happens when you trigger a finishing move (e.g. severing limbs/heads, blood splattering). However, you may be interested to know that there is a "gore" option in the settings. Though I never actually fiddled with it, I believe this would make the game substantially friendlier to those who don't like such things.
@ Kradath - I completely agree. I was shocked that so many reviewers gave it mediocre scores, and chalked it up to the fact that it sounded like they were playing it solo. As a solo game, it's decent, but as a co-op game, it's GREAT XD.
@ Rafoca - Thanks for the tip! I'll try that next time it glitches out!

@ pofigerster (again) - I tried playing a minute with the gore setting on "no." Though I noticed an occasional blood mist in the air, there weren't severed limbs and splattering blood anymore. Note, though, that the character animations for the finishing moves are still intact, however (e.g. stabbing an orc on the ground in the stomach with a staff). Hope this helps.

I wouldn't play through it 3 times when playing it solo, that's for sure, but as a coop game it's a blast.

But you have to ask those reviewers if they only test competitive multiplayer games only against bots as well.

Could we please quite giving 5 star co-op reviews to games that don't have offline co-op? If a game doesn't have both online and offline co-op options, it's not a 5 star co-op experience in my book. Games like Dungeon Defenders,Borderlands, and Uncharted 3 are so terrific because you can play either way. Just some thoughts.

--- Replying to kersplat12785 -----
but there is 2 player offline co-op...

@kersplat12785
No. We're not going to pigeonhole ourselves because a game does not have local co-op. Just like we won't punish games that lack online co-op. I suggest reading the full review, and not judging it solely by the numbered score. That's why we put those 1000 to 2000 words before the number: to justify the score regardless of whether or not the game supports local or online co-op.

And as smurphster said, this game has local co-op, online co-op, and the sweetness that is combo co-op.

I'm glad that the co-op holds up. Like others, I was a bit worried when I saw the mediocre review from other sites. I can live with most of those bugs/issues and I'm sure they'll be patched out soon enough (before I end up buying this game). WitN looks like it's a nice blend of Borderlands and Diablo. Looking forward to this!

--- Replying to Cubninja -----
I'm not so sure about that. The Space Marine review seemed to detract for being online only. The Payday review actually mentioned that it "should have had local co-op".

I think, rather than giving a blanket "no, it's not our policy" (especially since, yes, it IS a factor), that it should be made clear that a game can overcome the deficiency of being online only. It's contextual. See the Dead Island review for an[other"> example.

Rating the game -1 because of the missing local aspect is ridiculous if you ask me. That's 20% you take off the final verdict.

I mean, you can just click on console you prefer for the reviewed game and directly see if there's you prefered coop type.

@txshurricane
Actually, Jim, you can see all of Space Marine's co-op faults in the eight paragraphs on that very page you linked too. The lack of local play had nothing to do with that score.

I felt that Payday would have benefited from local co-op, moreso than other titles. I felt that game called for more camaraderie than others. Still, that's not what affected the numbered score.

Giving a game a score based simply on its co-op features is clearly not our policy, as you can see from a wide range of reviews. You said yourself that "it IS a factor," but it's just that, a factor. A host of other factors come into play, as well. Sometimes the lack of a certain feature may affect the score, but that would be on a game to game basis. All I was saying is that a game can't be disqualified from a score of a five for not having a particular co-op mode. A reviewer may ding a game for that, but it's their prerogative. We are not going to say that a game can't possibly be a five because it lacks a co-op feature.

--- Replying to Cubninja -----
I don't get it. Are you saying you WON'T or you MAY NOT? I'm getting a vibe of disagreement in a post that logically agrees.

I played through the game single-player since no one on my friends list had the game at the time (though I'm working on that now if Gamefly pulls through). I enjoyed it enough in single player, but even without playing it I can guarantee that I would agree that the game is a much better experience in co-op.

@xelissa Thanks so much for tuning me into the gore option! I've blogged about loving that Gears can disable 'mature' content and I know my wife really appreciates that option!

I'm suprised by this review,

I have heard about plenty of bugs/glitches in this game including some game breaking ones.
Quite a few people don't rate the storyline at all.
The combat is supposed to be reasonsably fun but heavily repeatitive.
You have two attack buttons but hardly any combos and a very small list of moves.
When you unlock some skills etc the game does have some more variety but overall for a game that is mainly about close range combat it does seem very limited.
I have also heard that on later levels it takes around 3 minutes of striking a armoured orc to kill it.

Overall I have heard very little that convinces me this is close to as good as this review describes.

Most of the mainstream sites are giving it no more than 6's or 7's out of ten and some less than that.

Question to the reviewer of this game...

Did you encounter any bugs/glitches in your playtrhough of this game?
Any game breaking ones?

Prior to release I was considering this game as a three player co-op with two friends.

However do to repeativeness, replayability (combat not supposed to be entertaining enough to want to play it more than once) combined with bugs/glitches seems more like a "when its cheap" purchase.

I'm also skeptical that the game deserves a full 5 starts, but thanks for the in-depth review and it's great to hear a co-op perspective that was sorely lacking in reviews elsewhere!

It did seem to me that a lot of the negative qualities (repetition, bugs) might be offset by the co-op experience; which is sometimes very much the case in my experience. Hell, Daggerdale is undeniably a terrible game, but I've still had great fun playing it with a friend.

Nice review! I'd like to know if is it possible to connect 2 headsets to the same PS3 when playing split-screen online co-op in the same time.

PS3 only allows one blue tooth headset to be connected at a time unfortunately. Look around google though for some discussions were people figured out work arounds -- none very good.

On xbox360 it's possible plug a 2.5mm splitter into the main controller and connect two headsets to that to have 2 players share a chat channel.

I see..someone stated (in a forum) that it can be happened via 2 accounts on the same PS3. But I cant explain how to sign in with two accounts in the same time...Anyway, I wish that could be done, so both split-screeners could join the online chat.

Use a ps eye for your mic and it will pick up both people.

--- Replying to kevinclough -----
That's a great idea.

Can anyone tell me if the couch coop is split screen only? I hate split screen you might as well have two different games on the go side by side.

cheers

I'm about to start this game with two friends who are only so-so at playing action videos games. I'd love a recommendation whether it would be wise to start our game on 'easy' difficulty. Too much of a cakewalk is of course not so fun, but if it keeps the game from turning into a slog later that sounds like a nice perk...

--- Replying to TenFresh -----

Play it on Normal, also if you want to have a killer option for crowd control whoever is playing as the Dwarf spec for the Exploding crossbow bolt you will not be disappointed it can take down alot of the bigger baddies quick as well.

Thanks for thoughts Yeah, I figured that since it's more of an RPG the difficulty wouldn't be such a problem.

Good to know which skills are useful as well! I usually just go with my heart and what sounds fun, but it's also such a disappointment to invest in something useless...

My husband and I bought this game Dec 2012 to play exclusively co-op. It is the BEST co-op RPG we have ever played together.

HOWEVER, even after the patch released a year or so ago, it still has so many bugs (xbox) that it is unplayable. We reached a point 2 nights ago where we are permanently stuck.

I got off the phone with WB Games technical support and they have no solution and NO MORE PLANNED PATCHES. Our only option, being that we do not have a Gold account is to re-start and just pray it does not happen again. I instead plan to return it to the store and beg for store credit.

DO NOT BUY for co-op if losing your progress permanently is a deal breaker for you.

Buggiest game I've ever owned. I plan to think twice before buying more from this developer unfortunately. Very sad.

UPDATE - Dec 21: We have restarted the campaign, always using the SAME player as Player 1 and always reloading if we notice either player has lost any of the current quests in the quest list (losing completed quests is ok). We also back up our save games to an external memory card. So far... it's going ok, and we are much farther than when we lost our save. So... it's playable at least.