The Lord of the Rings: War in the North Preview
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There will always be three characters, so whether you are playing online or playing with the AI, you will always have three team members. Co-operation is key, and you have to take into consideration each character's skills and what scenarios are best fitted to them. For example, the Dwarf could stay at the front, being the tank for the team, whilst the Human can stay at the back and use his long range weaponry, and the Elf can heal them both. Using an example from the gameplay shown to us, there were two big crossbows fixed to the ground, whilst two of the characters are attacking with them, the third player has to defend his team mates from the Orcs that slip through their line of fire. You can either use the split screen (a feature for the consoles) or play online. If someone drops out, then that person will be replaced by an AI.
You have actual criteria to fulfil rather than just "go in and kill some bad guys", so instead it's basically "go and do this whilst fighting off hordes of enemies". The objective we were shown in the gameplay demonstrated was that you had to protect a door from Trolls whilst there was an onslaught of Orcs to try and divert your attention. The fellowship had to then divide themselves up to do certain things like attack the Trolls, or defend the others from the Orcs.
There are critical finishers when attacking foes. When they aren't quite dead, but in a vulnerable position, you can finish them off in a more brutal way. This really brings out the violenceof the game and they could bring it out more if they play on this when the game is released.
