| Game Reviews From a Parental Perspective! | |
|
|
|
| Home | Forums | Review Archive | Columns | Feature Articles |
|
Home >
Review Archive >
Video Games
> Results: Hobbit, The
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Scroll down for our Kid Factor. 
Non-Hobbit FormingProfessor Tolkienﾒs debut novel had goblins, elves, wizards, dwarves, and hobbits, but it wasnﾒt the Lord of the Rings. It was a humbler adventure, one aimed at children and neatly setting the stage, providing the foreshadowing for Tolkienﾒs more famous sprawling epic now appearing on DVD (and soon in, again, in theaters). The Hobbit, best known from the adequate Rankin Bass animated film, tells the tale of how 13 dwarves and the wizard Gandalf pressed fussy and overly polite Bilbo Baggins into the role of burglar, for their quest to take the dwarven gold back from the massive dragon Smaug. En route they meet Trolls, goblins, wolves, a man who can transform into a bear, giant eagles, giant spiders, elves, men, and the drake itself. Oh, on the way Bilbo also meets Gollum and finds a certain Ring of Power. Itﾒs not the kind of story thatﾒs easy to make a video game about, especially one thatﾒs skewed toward the kids. You could go the now out of fashion point and click adventure route, or you could maybe do a 3D platformer. Sierra, former masters of the point and click adventure, opt for the platformer. Is Bilbo ready to take his place among Rayman, Mario, Sonic, and that bandicoot named Crash? Weﾒll see.  The game starts oddly. A cutscene tells the story of how Gandalf and then the dwarves appeared at Bilboﾒs round green door, and how they wrecked the place. It tells that Bilbo has agreed to join them on the quest and then Bilbo has an interactive dream. Itﾒs time to fight some goblins. Maybe the developers wanted to throw some combat right at you because thatﾒs all this dream battle is good for. Finally the main game begins, and Bilbo learns about collecting coins and crystals. Heﾒs armed with his staff and some rocks he can throw and then he has to journey around the Shire solving jumping puzzles, playing step and fetch for various hobbits, and fighting with the poor camera, limited view, and dropped frames. The Hobbit has some graphics glitches, and they tend to be the type that makes the game much more difficult than it should be. Much of the game involves the designers, sometimes cleverly, sometimes annoyingly, cramming platform style gameplay into situations from the book. This involves lots of combat, and plenty of stealth and sneaking (made even easier considering the Ring of Power is a Ring of Invisibility). Eventually Bilbo has to take on the dragon.  As a platformer The Hobbit is only mediocre. The clipping issues, dropped frames, and poor visual feedback (you can actually get stuck on lines in the walls, or small rocks) make us wish this Hobbit had spent a bit more time in his hole. The shelves are crammed with far better and more inspired examples of the genre. Additionally grown ups might find the game too kiddie to enjoy, or just too easy. But kids steeped in the animated film or the book will enjoy seeing familiar characters on the screen and interacting with them. It might even let you introduce some ﾓfairnessﾔ into the game room, if older kids, or gamerdads, have been playing the more adult-oriented Lord of the Rings games. Kid Factor If your child can handle the animated film or the book, the game wonﾒt shock them too much. There are nasty trolls, goblins, a scary dragon and the giant spiders are pretty creepy. The game is combat oriented but the violence isnﾒt over done and thereﾒs no blood. Another problem is that the game is a little too challenging to be a kids game it looks like it is. Reviewerﾒs Recommended Ages: 7+ ESRB: E-Everyone Gene: Platformer Developer: Inevitable Entertainment Producer: Vivendi Universal Score: 3 of 5 Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Hobbit, The |
Read the GamerDad 2007 Holiday Guide!
|
Please Note: GamerDad is not intended to be read by anyone under 18. We stay clean, but be warned! Content Management System developed by Redbird Solutions. |
