| Game Reviews From a Parental Perspective! | |
|
|
|
| Home | Forums | Review Archive | Columns | Feature Articles |
|
Home >
Review Archive >
Video Games
> Results: Lord of the Rings Tactics
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Scroll down for our Kid Factor. 
The game industry loves a franchise just as much as the film industry does, so it is no surprise that there have been seven games based on Peter Jackson's interpretation of Tolkien's masterwork since it arrived nearly four years ago. Lord of the Rings Tactics marks the first PSP game based on the franchise, and it's an interesting take on fantasy turn-based strategy. Unfortunately, while it has a good combat system, it also has a bland and dark presentation and makes poor use of the Lord of the Rings license.
Players can choose whether to choose the path of ﾑThe Fellowship' or the ﾑHost of Mordor', and all of the famous heroes and villains from Sam Gamgee to Sauron are available as playable characters. Video clips from the films play before each battle, providing context if not much of a story. After the successful completion of a battle you are awarded experience used to gain levels and funds to use for buying skills and items. The amount of experience and gold you receive depends on how quickly you achieved the task and how many of your units survived. Completing one battle opens up the next area, and occasionally an optional area. The turn-based combat system is the best part of the game. You are given a group of heroes and assorted soldiers to controlﾗsometimes you get to choose which heroes, other times they are assignedﾗand into battle you go. Although the game is turn-based, actions are resolved simultaneously, separated into ﾑMovement' and ﾑCombat' phases. So while you are giving movement orders, so is your opponent. When you press ﾑGo', both sides move or engage in combat. This is a nicely challenging system, as you will often find yourself planning a ranged attack only to find your opponent has trapped you into melee combat. Your mission goals vary, but the difficulty is always to complete them in as few turns as possible while keeping as many of your units alive as you can. It is intriguing and challenging, and makes playing the game worthwhile.  There are no severe problems, but there are a host of nagging issues that conspire to make the game forgettable. While the characters look, sound and act like the main characters from the Lord of the Rings films, there is never any reason to care about them. They have no personality, no dialogue or interactions outside of the movie clips shown between battles. They also never really die. For example: Your first mission objective is to do 30HP damage to the Witch King. Even if Frodo and Sam die while accomplishing this task, the mission is a success, and they will be back at full strength for the next mission. The game is good technically, but the areas presented are artistically dark and bland, and it is often very hard to see what is happening. Even with the maximum screen brightness many of the areas are just too dark to enjoy. Another issue is that the game doesn't give you enough funds after completing missions. I found myself replaying missions as much for the extra gold as for the added experience and challenge of getting my completion status to ﾑexcellent' for time and survival. Combining the drab areas with the need to repeat for gold makes the game feel like a grind at times, which could have easily been fixed with better lighting and more gold. Replaying missions for the challenge and competition is entertaining, doing it to afford a new skill for Legolas is not. The chance to play both the good and evil paths provides excellent replayability, as does the ability to take different heroes into optional missions. Having to replay missions to earn adequate gold takes away much of the replayability for each path, but that is made up for by the inclusion of a very good multiplayer mode. Featuring battles across local ﾑad hoc' connections or over the internet using ﾑinfrastructure mode', the ability to skirmish with friends is a very satisfying addition that exploits the game's best features.  Lord of the Rings Tactics is a game for turn-based strategy fans more than Lord of the Rings fans due to the mediocre use of the license. The joy in this game comes from working through the combat system, leveling up the heroes, and trying out different skills and strategies in the various battle settings. If you are looking to play as Sauron and slaughter Frodo and Aragon you will be disappointed. But if you want to engage in nicely varied turn-based battles featuring heroes and soldiers in a familiar fantasy setting, the game provides hours of fun in single and multiplayer modes. 
The intensity and violence of the Lord of the Rings films made them strong PG-13 material. There are numerous clips from the films presented here, depicting the same flavor of intense and brutal violence. In addition, while this is turn-based strategy, the animations of characters in combat are detailed and can be gruesome, making this game appropriate only for gamers in their teens and older.
This review edited by Dave Long Comments? Chat about it in our forums! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Lord of the Rings Tactics |
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. |
