| The Lord of the Rings Online: Before the Shadow | |
| Developer: | Standing Stone Games |
| Publisher: | Daybreak Game Company |
| Engine: | Turbine G3 |
| Platforms: | Microsoft Windows |
| Released: | November 15, 2022 |
| Genre: | MMORPG |
| Modes: | Multiplayer |
The Lord of the Rings Online: Before the Shadow is the tenth expansion for the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online, released on November 15, 2022.[1] It did not raise the game's level cap or advance the current storyline, but instead added a new starting zone for the new player experience, with a storyline set prior to that of the Shadows of Angmar.
Before the Shadow added two new game regions: Swanfleet and Cardolan, described by the game developers as one of the largest landmass additions across the entire history of the game.[2] Both are located in Eriador and are adjacent to the original game regions such as Bree-land, Lone-lands and Trollshaws. The two regions contain quests in the level range of 1-30, thus providing new characters with an alternate leveling path to that from Shadows of Angmar. Newly created characters of all races can select to bypass their race-determined starter area in favour of Before the Shadow, the storyline of which is chronologically a prequel to the Shadows of Angmar. Existing characters can also travel there and experience all quests except the starting instance.
For high-level characters, the expansion introduced a "Delving" mechanic to the Mission System, enabling players to increase the difficulty of the Missions by up to ten tiers in exchange for progressive rewards.[3] It also added a new 6-man instance and a new skirmish for the skirmish system.[4]
Music for the Before the Shadow expansion was composed by Standing Stone Games' in-house composer Bill Champagne who has been responsible for all new LotRO music since 2018. The complete score of almost four hours in length was released as a playlist on the game's official YouTube channel.[5]
The expansion was positively received despite it limited benefits for the level-capped characters. Justin Olivetti of Massively Overpowered described it as having "so much stuff to explore that you hardly know where to start".[6] Joseph Bradford of mmorpg.com described the new areas as "beautiful" and "absolutely breathtaking", while expressing that the new starter experience provided a much-needed contrast to the comparable regions from 15 years ago.[7] Mark Steighner of COGConnected concluded that the expansion "continued to evolve the look of the game while keeping with the original vision".