First of all, and probably most important of all : DO NOT GO INTO THIS EXPECTING TO PLAY LOTR LCG.
This game's mechanics are nowhere close to the physical living card game.... Oh, you'll see the same card titles and illustrations, and keywords' names, but that's about it...
This would, for me, warrant a red flag already, because when i put time, and money in something called "The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game" i want to play the lord of the ring living card game.... but hey, in any media transfer, changes are to be expected.... let's keep an open mind...

It is a standard opposition card game with symetrical gameplay but asymetrical cardpools. You and your ennemy each have a different deck (you create yours based on your card.... 3 heroes you will start the game + 30 other cards) and the computer has something in store based on the quest you're attempting but your turns will play the same : collect 3 ressources, draw 2 cards and play one action each until both players pass.

The pros :
- As its RL counterpart, this game is beautiful ; the cards illustrations and backgrounds wallpapers are really cool-looking, in theme with Middle Earth, and not too much inspired by the movie so they still stand on their own.
- The music is immersive, whimsical, and has enough different themes so you probably won't be turning it off too soon. I'm pretty much considering buying the soundtrack.
- The narration at the begining and end of quests and between stages is immersive and well written. It mixes text specific to this game and excerpts of the books, giving a middle earthy feel to the game.
- The AI, while still being a procedural checklist, has been given thought and doesn't always attack when it wouldn't be smart for it to do so, picks targets somewhat intelligently, and so on.
- You can pick between 3 difficulties level when you play a game. It changes the number of ressource points your opponent is given on each turn. I would prefer for it to change cards available to the AI or even change its procedures rather than "changing the rules" but hey, can't fault them for giving new players an option to gain experience with the game at a more friendly pace.

The design cons :
- The UI, while simple and clear enough to understand easily isn't on par with the overal beauty of the illustrations. It's all flashy, ugly color boxes and, to me, break the immersion quite a bit.
- While it can be considered minor by others, this is really driving me nuts : to see a card details, you need to click it, not to mouse over it. So, to play a card, you have to drag and drop it, you can't click it in your hand then click it where you want to play it.... makes it easy to screw something up...
- There are no tooltips to explain the keywords of a card, if you want to know what's what you have to hit ESC to open up the game menu and search through a glossary you'll find there. While i do think a glossary is a good idea, tooltips are much more newcomers-friendly.

The gameplay cons :
- The game is overly simplistic.... it's a watered-down version of any other CCG you can find on your computer with the added twist of playing action per action instead of turn per turn (which, in itself, could be a good idea if the game was better).
- It is designed to be a PvE game, not a PvP one. Having to play, albeit different quests, against the AI over and over again will end up being a bore because you'll end up catching on to its flaws and will kinda sorta end up being procedural in your plays yourself.
- The tutorial.... There is one, that's a plus, and it takes you by the hand to show you the basics.... but it falls into the trap of showing you everything you have to do until the last turn or two.... It gives you a handle (albeit not very strong) on the mecanics, but not on the decision process...

The elephant in the room :
If you want to play this game with any semblance of seriousness, be prepared to grind yourself to the grave. You are given 1 quest, 4 heroes and 26 cards x2 (and you need 30 cards in your deck, so there are at max 9 cards you won't be putting in your deck to begin with.... sheesh), and 3000 coins (valor points).
- buying 1 new quest is 3750 coins
- buying 1 new hero + 5 cards is 3750 coins
- buying 1 common card is 375
- buying 1 uncommon card is 750
- buying 1 rare card is 1500
the first time each day you complete a quest, you can expect to gain 200/250 coins, subsequent times, you gain less than 1/10th of that amount. MAKE SURE YOU BUY THE QUESTS BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE....
While i understand that a compagny gotta make money off of microtransactions, this is ridiculous.

Overall :
It's free, so check it out, but don't fork money in the game... play once or twice, realize you like middle earth but the game doesn't do it justice, and that you're not prepared to give away your whole life to grind what you'd need for the cards...


I've tried to distance myself as much as possible from the real life LotR LCG to write my review but this is where FFI failed the most in my humble opinion :
The LCG has a large fanbase, and many peoples play it solo, so a computerized version of the game obviously would have a built-in community. Trying to cash in on it isn't, in itself, a bad idea. But, by changing the game mechanics so drastically (and for the worse), you're leaving yourself open to displeasing the fan of the games (which will be the one jumping on it day one and giving the early reviews.... so, might not be the smartest of moves). And calling your product the same as a "board game" we know and love proves you were trying to cash in on it... it's not LoTR digital card game, it's LoTR LCG... Luring us into your microtransacting arms...

I like playing CCGs against a computer rather than live players because i'd rather play RL against living beings, so i'm not minding the PvE aspect of it ; but i've played only a handful of games and i'm bored already.... There isn't much challenge in fighting an AI that will always be the same for a given quest and the grind factor doesn't even allow me the sweet taste of collectionning.

Would the game be drastically different from its RL version, i wouldn't have complained. Unfotunately, this game varies enough from its cousin to bother RL LCG fans and not enough to offer them a new experience.
The RL LCG is perfect for solo / cooperative play because there is no AI involved, the game doesn't make any decision, it's all player based. Every choice you make will impact the resolution of your quest : chosing a card over another, attacking with this ally or defending with this hero, and, of course, enemy cards you reveal. i've played the same quests in RL LCG dozens of times and minute changes in your deck or even in the draw can lead to totally different experiences this would have been perfect for a game that requires you to do the same thing over and over again...

I would even have welcomed some of the changes made for this game.... the guard / range mechanic is interesting and the "pooling" of the ressources does make it easier to understand and less frustrating...

I'm not a purist of the card game who believe that this game should be a 1:1 recreation of the card game. I was fine with changes made to make games go quicker and such. However, I have two big gripes about changes made to this iteration of the game.

1- The threat meter is now just a timer. In the card game, strong enemies ignore you when you threat is low so taking weak heroes with low threat level and rushing the objective is a valid strategy. Since this doesn't apply here, just take the strongest hero 100% of the time.

2- Deckbuilding is made way shallower because the ressources are now generic. In the card game, ressources are tied to your heroes sphere. Meaning, if you have 3 tactics heroes, you get 3 tactics ressources per turn. Meaning you have to choose wether you want access to a big library of cards or if you want to be able to play costly cards in a sphere. Since ressources are generic, it is now better to pick heroes from 3 different spheres 100% of the time.

Right now the production value are low, the server is down half of the time and the microtransactions are ludicrously expensive. These elements can be improved however.

What has me extremely pessimistic toward the future of this game is that deckbuilding and gameplay are shallow and uninteresting and even with the game being in Early Access I don't believe it's going to change.

Game was bought by a second studio (Antihero Studios) after the first (Asmodee Digital) decided to sell it. However, after getting a road map and more Antihero inexplicably dropped off and abandoned it. The game was left in an incomplete state and is more the ruins of something that could have been great than any actual product. As someone who has the physical edition and played it religiously I'm sad that Antihero just left us like this. It's an incredible game but I would NOT recommend buying it in this state.

You only get 1 quest (30 min of gameplay) for free. With the Shire Pack (and registering your account) you get enough points to buy two more quests for a grand total of 1.5 hours of gameplay for 8 euros. If you want more each quest is 2 euros or 10 hours of grinding the same few early quests to earn the points in the game.

Edit: I will leave my original review, but do note that FFG has unlocked the campaign for all. I'd say thank you, but that should've been a given from the start. However, I do thank FFG for their extremely quick response. That does mean they are listening.

Buyer beware, not all is as it seems.

I spent $50 on the most expensive pass, and after buying all of the characters and most (note, not all) of the cards available to buy, I soon find out that the locks on the campaign are not locked because I need to beat the previous section, but I need to buy them. Each. Each level out of a campaign must be bought. I sunk 50 dollars right off the bat, and I am already not allowed to play the content without paying more.

Not to mention, this is LotR: Destiny, not LotR LCG. I have almost all of the tabletop cards, and this feels very different.

This is not a bad game by any means. There are minor UI issues I have, such as not seeing a card from hovering over it (you must click it), and rotten card sorting when deckbuilding.

And the fact that it is very different than the tabletop version isn't bad, but they should definitely play that up.

But in its current form, this is a money grabbing scheme that Battlefront II is jealous of. It is ridiculous that in good faith, because I love the tabletop LCG (and have sunk hundreds of dollars into that), that I find later that I cannot play all of the content. It's pathetic, and it stinks of desperation, especially on their maiden voyage into digital card games.

Shame on you, FFG. I want to like this game, but I cannot support the business model. But I guess you don't care right? You already got my money.

Buyer beware.

Let me preface this by saying I was absolutely delighted when the news first broke that Lord of the Rings LCG was coming to digital. As someone who loves the paper card game I was really looking forward to a digital version that would save me the trouble of set-up and tear down time. Unfortunately, as time went by I realised that the vision for this version of the game strayed further and further from the original. Regardless, I still wanted to give it a go and so I bought the top tear version of the game to support FFG and show there is desire for these games in digital format.

Now, after playing through the tutorial, the first 2 quests and unfortunately being kicked off the server during the 3rd quest I can say that, upto this point, this digital version shows none of the invention of the paper game. Each turn of the paper game is a puzzle of weighing up risks and strategies, daring to quest or conserving actions for potential encounters in a later round. Each quest in the paper game is unique in its own right with clever innovations that alters the gameplay and keeps the game feeling fresh. The paper game is really beautifully realised. Disappointingly, the digital version lacks the innovation that keeps the paper game so fresh and interesting. Up to the point I have played it feels as though each phase of each quest is simply a fight to the death with little tactics or strategy. Indeed I have had no trouble finishing quests with the starter deck and have given little throught to the actions I've taken during each game. This really is a distilled version of the paper game - and actually, I'm not even sure it can be called a version of the paper game at all.

Furthermore, there are other problems with the game. The presentation of the board and menus are fine, but the cards themselves are poorly considered. The frames crowd out the beautiful art from the paper game and the characters jump into action with clear appropriation from Hearthstone.

There is no tracking of stats in the game currently, no way to see which quests you've defeated and what scores you've acheived.

The upside of this all is that this is still an early access game and perhaps more invention will come in the future. However, the foundations look like they've been laid down and there doesn't appear to be anywhere near the complexity, depth or difficulty of the original game.

It's a shame. I wish this was a faithful recreation of the original so that more people could experience its brilliance - but I can't currently recommend this digital version. I will persevere and will revisit this review if my opinion changes.

I'm deeply conflicted about the Lord of the Rings Adventure Card Game. On the one hand, we have a digital version of a game whose theme and mechanics I love, without any of the arduous and time consuming setup and tear down of the physical version. What's more, the UI has all the love and polish of Hearthstone or Magic the Gathering Arena and some much needed improvements have been made to the deck building component of the game without fundamentally changing the underlying mechanics. Brilliant and clever.

Unfortunately, some entirely unnecessary changes have been made to the game, presumably for the sake of simplicity, that do it a disservice. Threat is now just a counter until the next bad thing that happens to you, culminating in your loss. Gone is any concept of optional engagement or avoiding certain enemies by keeping your threat low. Questing, a rich and thematic mechanic by which you placed progress tokens (with little footsteps on them) onto location cards has been abstracted behind a meaningless "fate" value that robs the game of much of its flavor.

All of this could be forgiven, I think, if the attempt to create a more accessible, streamlined experience came with friendlier encounter design but, alas, it is not so. In my opinion, the designers of the Lord of the Rings Adventure Card Game have become so desensitized to their most hardcore fan base constantly complaining about the game being too easy, that they simply lack any perspective about what the experience is like for a new or casual player. As someone who engaged casually both with the physical game and the digital, I can tell you that every brief moment of triumphant success is almost always immediately crushed by a new stage or phase or enemy, often appearing without warning. It's soul crushing, it's not fun, and to add insult to injury, the "narrative" setting does little to alleviate the difficulty, leaving you feeling bad about being unable to play the game on a mode that is a thinly veiled euphemism for "easy".

And so we are left with a game that has the polish and accessibility of a Blizzard offering but the unforgiving depth and complexity of whatever fun-adjacent game Valve has most recently published. Its unnecessary simplifications to the game mechanics will drive away the hardcore players and the encounter design will have casual players putting the game down forever after their third or fourth consecutive loss. It's a game with heaps of potential but, sadly, is right for no one.

I know some folks don’t want to read a long, meandering review, so I’ll abbreviate my experience thus far with this: I’ve found myself trying to learn how to use a fan made tabletop simulation of the tabletop version of this game because Asmodee Digital has committed to going in a direction with this game that will probably never "feel" right to me. This game lacks immersion and it lacks complexity, what I believe are the heart and soul which make the tabletop version so wonderful.

A longer summary:

I am a lifelong Tolkien fan who only recently discovered (and instantly fell in love with) The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game (also known as LOTR:LCG, the tabletop version). In addition to the core box, I own the entire Mirkwood cycle, as well as the Haradrim cycle. Much to the chagrin of my wife, I’ll probably be buying into as many cycles as Fantasy Flight Games reprints or releases. That said, it only made sense to jump into the Early Access of the digital version produced by Asmodee Digital.

Unfortunately, I have to ditto the assessment of many others who say that the digital game is only "okay" for now, or even just "meh," even at the relatively low $8 entry. There are a couple of major issues, in my opinion:

My first complaint, that I struggle to put into words, exactly, is stylistic. The digital version just doesn’t feel Middle-earth-y enough. I don’t know if this is because of Asmodee Digital’s choice of fontstyle not looking elfish or dwarfish enough to my eyes, or if it is because of the ridiculously fancy, lightsaber-esque lens flare effects whenever I hover my cursor over anything. Maybe, it is because of the bright primary color banners and icons on the cards. I don't know. I just know there’s just something terribly lacking in the immersion department. I love sitting in my cozy office, with my German Shepherd at my feet and a pipe clenched in my teeth, and sleeving the beautiful cards that come with the tabletop version. I love holding the cards under my reading lamp to admire the artwork, read the lore, and remind myself of the various effects the card brings to my decks. But in the digital version, none of the cards have lore and really very little in the way of complexity.

And this is really my main complaint. While Asmodee Digital could probably relatively easily add the missing lore and Middle-earth-ify the game a tad more, most of the elements of the tabletop edition which make it so fun, namely the mechanical depth, the nuances of deckbuilding, balancing the four resource pools, determining to quest or attack or defend, being careful to watch threat values, and the various wrinkles by way of planning out a hand and being encountered by shadow effects and the like, the developers have apparently determined NOT to add to the digital version of the game. I think this is a huge, huge mistake. I think most of the folks that invested in this Early Access title basically want a licensed, polished version of OCTGN, a fan-made tabletop simulation of the card game. What apparently a majority of us don't want (the game peaked at less than 30 players in the past 24 hours), is yet another Hearthstone -like game which, to quote other reviewers, is “distilled,” “watered-down,” “dumbed down,” “shallow,” and “soulless.” I think this lack of depth will be even more readily apparent once co-op is enabled.

I will continue to follow the game in its development, I'll piddle around with the new expansion packs (only if they are free), and I hope in time my review will reflect drastic changes in the direction that most of us fans of the tabeltop are hoping for... but right now, I’m afraid I can NOT recommend the game.

The core mechanics are fun, the art is beautiful, the narration, music and writing do a wonderful job of immersing you into the lore of middle earth. Sadly the grind required to unlock cards is perplexing. It feels like the developers were expecting players to put hundreds of hours into a game that has 10~15 hours of content. I think this becomes most obvious when you look at some of the games achievements.

"In to the West" for example, requires you to complete 5000 quests. Considering there are only 3 campaigns with 5 quests each, were the developers expecting players to replay each campaign over 300 times?

While I enjoyed the 3 campaigns that are available, I feel like I never really got to draft any interesting decks as half the cards were still locked away behind mysterious unlock conditions or a very poorly thought out in game currency system.

I played the physical Card game extensively so I've been waiting for this but the Micro Transactions will kill you. I'll keep it in my collection to see what happens but no way am I going to spend the kind of money you would need to get all the content. Grinding your way through the same content over and over again to get a few Valour every time would take you days just to get enough Valour to get somewhere.
Really hope they drop the prices of the content or seriously up the Valour you get for completing missions.

I've played Hearthstone for years and never spent a cent so I don't mind a bit of grinding but this is ridiculous.