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> Results: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Scroll down for our Kid Factor. 
Finally, he gets to be the King!Read the movie review These movies have been an experience that we Tolkein-freaks will revel in for the rest of our lives. In the case of this game, we get the only thing that could top those movies - the ability to actually be there on the battlefield and go sword to sword and do those great deeds for ourselves. The Two Towers (also by EA) was a good game, but there were a few problems in the way the story-line was implemented and the engine. Those are no more, and we get a near-flawless rendition of the events in an eminently playable form.  The sound-work was just what you would have hoped for. They used the actors from the film to voice the characters, and it's not just the five lines they gave Eric Bana in the Hulk game. The argument between Sauruman and Gandalf that was removed from the movie is given back to us as the backdrop of a level. The pieces of the score they borrowed from the film were appropriate and really gave a tie-in to the atmosphere of the film. Another sparkle in the shine on this game is the character design and modeling. The characters are frighteningly realistic. Even with the game-weight models it is obvious who is who even when Sam and Frodo are following Gollum through the falling walls and waves of orcs besieging Osgiliath. The game-weight Fell Beast is just as noxious as you could hope for (as we found out several times more than we wanted to). Gandalf in particular is an amazing job. Outside of sheer geeky pixel-pushing, there's a method to the madness. You get shown in the first minute or so why they invested the effort. They use actual footage from the films as their cutscenes, and they blend them into the game sequences. No loading screen, you're just right there. They start off showing the charge of the Rohirrim to the rescue at Helm's Deep, and then all of a sudden you (as Gandalf) are in the middle of the action having to mop up the battle preparatory to heading off to the rest of the story. No drop in framerate and no jarring transition. The game starts off with five characters of the nine unlocked, with the appropriate ones confined to their story-line. You can play two-player, which helps significantly. They handle it by bringing in some of the other characters as necessary. For example, if you're going two-player in a level on the path of the Hobbits, you get Merry or Pippin in addition to Sam as a playable character for that level. For Gandalf, you can choose between Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli to give him a hand. It works seamlessly, and the ramp-up in difficulty is handled well. Keeping the different threads of the story woven together is a hard task in the books and trying to make a playable narrative would be a nightmare. They handle it by not doing it. The game is played on three "paths", with the characters that were actually present at those specific events unlocked for that level. No crossing over, but there are some added pieces that aren't in the narrative that are necessary from a game perspective. Just keep at it. At the end, they all come together to play that final awesome level in front of the walls of Minas Tirith and then we head off to the Cleft of Orodruin to destroy the Ring (you hope - nothing is certain, not even at that point). But that's not the end. Once you complete the last level, the unobtrusive White Tree carved into the wall above the main screen comes alive. You unlock the rest of the characters, open all the paths to all the characters, and add two more levels to play. You also unlock a screen of cheats that are not available unless you've completed the game first (though there are others available online before then). The two hidden levels are stage-based gauntlets designed to test the mettle of a fully-developed character (and they do). You also gain the ability to play all the characters at every level in the game. In his interview Billy Boyd recommends that you take Pippin back to the Paths of the Dead level, and we did it just to see why. That was interesting, to say the least. Taking a very short character through a fog-shrouded level makes for a cool but also creepy experience above and beyond the story. I think that pretty much characterizes this whole game. Above and beyond. It's got the story, it's got the voices, and they went the extra mile to really make it an experience in and of itself rather than just a re-hash of a story we all know. Kid Factor: Not a lot of specific things to worry about, but I just don't think younger kids are going to like it all that much. The levels are quite intense, but it's not all just hacking and slashing. There are puzzles and maps to decipher and a whole lot of distance between the health-ups and save points in some of those levels. And it's not just a case of "you live through it and all is well". Many of the levels require you to protect others while still trying to get through the level and if they die you start the level over. It adds difficulty and frustration. We had one 10 year old who was playing over here (with his mom's full permission), and he gave up when Frodo kept dying in Osgiliath. Another sticking point is the RPG-aspects of the game. If you avoid combats, and don't serve the time in the trenches on the way to the next level your characters are going to get their hats handed back to them in the later stages of the game. My daughters had a dreadful time with that - they didn't do it and Shelob kicked other their butts separately. They had to go back and level pretty hard. Once they bought into it, it was "Watch out orcs!" though. On the other hand, the boys were running a kill-count contest from the get-go so they were right there and ready to go when they were finally forced to finish the Path of the Hobbits to get to the last level. For a hardened sword-swinger this one was hard enough, for the younger set who aren't used to enemies that really will kill you and it will stop the story dead, it's a deal breaker. Not an undue amount of blood and guts, but this is a war. I'd stick with the rating or play with them. The two-player system is excellent for this.  Reviewer's Recommended Ages: 13+ ESRB: T for Teens Genre: Action/Adventure Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: Electronic Arts Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King |
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