But here's the best: There is team play! You and your significant other (who obviously wouldn't be your significat other if they didn't love LOTR) can now play right along side of your character. Legolas and Gimli back to back fighting trolls as the city burns around them! (And in one full screen -not some disorienting split-screen.)
Sorry, you will have no choice but to buy this game and you will never see the light of day again.
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The release of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King for xbox was much anticipated by many avid gamers, myself inculded. When I first purchased the game, I was amazed that there were three different paths that you could take in the game (unlike the Two Towers). The three paths are: The Way of the King, the Way of the Wizard, and the Way of the Hobbit. The first battle you are automatically thrown into, however. This is the end of the battle of Helmsdeep! You are playing as Gandalf the Gray and must thwart the orcs and save Helms deep! After you have beaten this level, however, you are free to chose which path you want to take first. The Path of the King is the hardest and starts off with Aragorn, Gimili, and Legolas going to the undead to enlist their help to fight the Orcs. The Path of the Wizard is slightly shorter, but not easy. Here you play only as Gandalf the White and are involved in everything from the destruction of Sauron's tower, to Minas Tirith where you have to run around and knock off the orcs and the bombard towers, to the Courtyard of Minas Tirith where you are charged with protecting the women and children from the orc onslaught. Lastly, the Path of the Hobbit is hard, but fun. You play as Sam, most of the time and have to go through everything the hobbits went through in the movie.Once you complete all three paths, you will be able to play the Black Gate level. Here you can pick from any of these characters (Gimili, Aragorn, Gandalf, Sam, Legolas) and you will have to fight , along side your allies to defeat the armies of Sauron outside his own Gates.
On Completion of this level, you will be able to partake in the final level of the Game (The Crack of Doom). Here you will play as Frodo and have to fight Smeogol inorder to kill him and destroy the ring. Smeogol is particuarly difficult mainly becuase he is so fast and his hits take down your health fast. Once you have beaten this level..CONGRATULATIONS!! Now you can use cheats. There are two bonus levels (the Palantir of Sauroman) that you can fight to get all of your characters up to max. level 20. Now you can use all the characters (Gimili, Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pipin, Legolas, Aragorn, Feramir, and Gandalf).
As a last note...after the completion of any level, you will be able to buy upgrades for your character with exp. points! And even better..you can go through the game with a friend! Co-op missions allow you all the same level, except with a friend by your side!
PROS:
Excellent Graphics
Co-op missions
Tons of Levels to play
After you complete the Crack of Doom, you can go back and replay any mission you want
Great and useful upgrades
CONS:
On Co-op its not split-screen, you and your friend are on the same screen (which I like but some might not)
Hope this helps!
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First ImpressionsAs soon as you put the CD in the Xbox it starts the game. You have to sit through almost 2 minutes of inescapable logos and stuff until you get to a kind of prologue bit. Then your stuffed right into the middle of a battle as Gandalf! This adds to the sudden excitement of the game.
Graphics
The graphics are state of the art and they surpass even Xbox's usual brilliance, EA Games has another award winner here. Everything is just so realistic! The settings match the film perfectly, Helms Deep, Osgiliath, Minas Tirith to name but a few! The characters are amazingly exact and you really feel like you are the person! There are small commentaries before each level read by Gandalf over the top of real footage from various parts of the three films, then you are lead into the game by means of the film kind of merging into the game graphics, the join is unnoticeable, honestly!
Game play
The game play is even better than the graphics, if at all possible. There are three different "paths". Path of the wizard using Gandalf; Path of the King using Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli; path of the Hobbits using Frodo and Sam. You basically fight your way through Orcs, Uruk-Hai, The Dead, Spiders, Easterlings, Cave Trolls and various other evil creatures to complete your goal. You can interact with items around you as well; spears, ladders, rocks, catapults, levers, ropes...etc. You get to fight Bosses such as Shelob, the king of the dead, Sauron's messenger and even the Ringwraiths themselves. Of course you get to battle the evil Gollum on the very edge of Mount Doom. There are also levels that your characters can aim for, you start at level one and then can go as far as level twenty. As you're battling you are earning yourself experience points. The more points you have the more combo moves you get and the better you can be. There are four different ways of killing a foe, fair, good, excellent and perfect. You get more experience points the better you kill someone. Then you can play a co-op game with your friends and try to get more kill points than them, which is very fun!
Storyline/Plot
The story line is filled in in-between levels by the use of scenes from the actual film, a voice over provided by Gandalf tells you the story so far. This is the only storyline/plot element, but it works well because it does not interfere with the game play and it adds to the realism of game and film.
Sound/Music
The voices for all the characters were done by their counterpart actors from the film, making it very, very realistic! Also the original musical score from the film is in the game too, so it really does feel like you are part of the film! All done excellently, all sound fits together perfectly and the music is in all the correct places for top dramatic affect!
Things that have been done really well
ü Graphics Settings are beautiful
ü Sound All music and voices are exquisite
ü Game play Endless fun, lots of variety
Things that have been done really badly
û Combo moves can be tricky to pull off
û Beginning Titles cannot be skipped
Conclusion
An overall excellent game! There is absolutely nothing that I can fault with it! It really feels like you are there fighting alongside your companions at the Black gate or trying to find a way into the tower of Crith Ungol to rescue Frodo from the Orcs! The graphics, game play and perfect sounds all fit together to make up this award winning game, which you will never tire playing.
Honest reviews on Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King
Lord of the Rings Return of the King videogame is now out for just about every platform. You can be Aragorn, Sam, Gandalf or other characters on your quest to save Middle Earth!Made in the same style as Two Towers, the game covers the third movie complete with video clips from the movie, actor interviews, voice-overs by the original actors and much more. Gandalf's actor, for example, jokes that the wizard in the game seems to be far more agile than the wizard in the movie was :)
The gameplay is very similar to Two Towers and apparently they made many improvements based on user feedback. For example, when you do character upgrades, you can choose just to upgrade the character you are currently playing with (say Faramir) or to upgrade ALL characters for that ability. That makes the upgrade paths VERY interesting.
There are three main event paths. There is the way of the Wizard, where Gandalf takes on the Gondor defenses. There's the way of the King, where Aragorn builds up his army. Then there's the way of the Hobbit, where poor Sam and Frodo struggle their ways into the depths of Moria.
It's a great preview of the movie, showing lots of film clips of the various battles and scenes. There are many very slick changes between video and gameplay that really make you feel involved. The character movement is great, between the combo attacks and killing blows.
It's not just a hack and slash, there's a fair amount of strategy involved, both in in-game handling of the enemies as well as how to upgrade to get all characters to the end point. And once you reach the end the game isn't over. There are characters to unlock, and special skills to earn for each one. You go back through the various levels with each character, trying to get even higher scores and build up your characters.
Co-op mode adds to the fun pair up Aragorn with Gandalf and wade your way through massive piles of orcs. If you want to see something truly impressive, wait until you get to the final battle at the black gate and SWARMS of orcs, each an individual AI person with its own direction and attitude are seething around you. Now THAT is impressive.
The sounds are amazing, the blasts of smoke, fire and thunder surrounding you truly give you the sense of battle shock. The game plays fast and can be replayed indefinitely. A definite must-have!
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The second Lord of the Rings game, "The Two Towers," belonged to that rare group of worthy film-based games. How many movie tie-in games have been less-than-stellar garbage capitalizing on a film's popularity? With "The Return of the King," EA follows up their excellent effort on "Towers" with one of the best games of the year. A warning to those who have not read the books and do not know how the trilogy ends: As expected, the game contains many spoilers.The biggest difference between ROTK and its predecessors may be the amount of action: Fellowship was mostly plot-oriented, and Two Towers featured many small battles and one great action piece--Helm's Deep. ROTK, however, thrives on action. From start to finish, this game is non-stop action and adventure: gargantuan Siege Towers, monstrous trolls, bloodthirsty Uruk-Hai--this game gives you all you can handle, and then some. You'll be thankful for the occasional pauses to rest your thumbs--before the next attack begins. The game features voice-work from the film's actors and some of the most amazing backgrounds and environments I've ever seen in a video game, with perfect contrast between light and dark elements. Like the films, there's meticulous attention to detail. Character design and appearance is first-rate, and character animation (thanks to motion-capture technology) is smooth and even. In addition, the sound quality (THX, no less) is outstanding--every roar, every clash of steel resounds through your speakers.
ROTK features three distinct playable storylines: The Path of the King, The Path of the Hobbits, and The Path of the Wizard. One can play as Aragorn, Legolas, Gandalf, Gimli, Frodo, or Sam, and beating the game unlocks three new characters. Follow Aragorn on the Paths of the Dead and recruit the undead to fight alongside you, from Minas Tirith to the Black Gate. Follow Frodo and Sam from Osgiliath to Shelob's Lair to Mount Doom. Take the wizard's path, and have Gandalf fight from Orthanc to Minas Tirith. There are thirteen levels, and the three storylines converge in a final level only accessible when all thirteen are finished. Some levels are relatively easy (Shelob's Lair wasn't too tough) and some are barbaric in their difficulty (Paths of the Dead took me six tries before I beat it). Each character has their own unique style and weapons, with plenty of enemies to battle: Shelob, Orcs, Mumakils (Oliphaunts), Uruk-Hai, The King of the Dead, and more. Attacks are pretty straightforward: Quick attack, Fierce attack, parry, or fire (arrows and the like). As you gain experience points from defeating enemies, you can acquire better weapons and skills (such as invisibility and the truly awesome Balrog's Revenge) to combat the increasingly difficult foes one faces as the game progresses. And, one can choose to retain those points for oneself, or share them with other characters.
The game has three difficulty settings: Easy, normal, and hard. Easy is just that: easy. Normal is moderately challenging, but beatable for most average gamers. Select hard, and you're asking for it. The enemies seem to never end, and even the lowliest orcs take incredible amounts of punishment before falling. Hard difficulty may be best tackled with the game's Co-Op mode, which allows a friend to participate. A major problem with the game, however, is that you can't replay a level until you've beaten it. But once you complete it, every level opens up and can be played by any character--which gives the game better long-term replayability than most movie titles (and many non-movie ones, as well). One thing I didn't like was the occasional difficulty caused by the game's third-person perspective. Like most TP games, certain positions or angles create blind spots. In close combat, this can prove to be a major aggravation. But those are relatively minor things that detract little from the overall quality of this game. For anyone looking for an excellent action/adventure game, this can't be beat. Highly recommended.
I hope this review was helpful
--Christian Wheeler, gamer and games retailer
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