The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria Preview
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After watching the battle with the Watcher, the nameless Dwarf adventurer finally enters the "real" Eregion, travels through the Western Gate and enters Moria proper. The entrance hall is a majestic path carved into the living rock lit by huge iron spheres embedded with glowing crystals that hang from chains. "Pull back and look up," Steefel says to the Turbine demonstrator running the demo. He does so and we're immediately overwhelmed by the vastness of the space. Steefel laughs a bit, "That's the reaction we're going for all the time in Moria... that sense of awe and wonder."
On being questioned about the dangling spheres, Kerr chimes in. "One of the big themes of [Mines of] Moria is the idea of light and shadow." In many ways the development team took this literally as one of the biggest questions about adventuring underground is just how the players see. As Turbine powers through several of Moria's regions this question gets answered in myriad ways. In addition to the ubiquitous glowing crystals, other areas are lit simply by torchlight, clever arrangements of mirrors, skylights or natural light sources such as lava flows or phosphorescent fungus. Many of the expansion's quests will actually revolve around the idea of light and involve getting glowing crystal samples or bringing some sort of light into darkened caverns.
The idea of light and shadow also plays out on a gameplay and a story level. The big gameplay addition to the game is the amount of shadow damage inflicted by Moria's inhabitants and the need for players to protect themselves against it. On the story level, the team is looking toward exploring the darkness in all of us. "Khazad-dum was once a great city beloved by its inhabitants," Kerr said. "One of the things we're looking to explore is the darkness of the dwarves. Why did Khazad-dum go so wrong? The Balrog was the reason why it was abandoned, but the Balrog was awakened by the greed and hubris of the dwarves. We want players to realize just what it means to 'dig too deep.'"
