Discount Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

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I had the pleasure of play-testing this game in its final weeks of development.

For starters, the game is based on the book and not on the New Line movie. As a consequence, you will find a number of story elements in the game that were not in the movie, such as the Old Forest, Tom Bombadil, and the Barrow Downs. The novel has been expertly translated into a 3rd-person action adventure, and there is a lot more action in the game than actually occurs in the book.

In this game, Middle Earth has been faithfully rendered (under the watchful eye of Tolkien's estate) by the talented 3D modelers, graphic designers, animators, game designers, and developers at The Whole Experience. The first thing that really struck me was the sheer beauty of the game -the score, the environmental details (run through a pile of leaves just for fun), the textures, the fluid character animation. Some of the more interesting elements of the book also shine in the game. For example, the sense of foreboding, fear, and deadly seriousness constrasted with the light-hearted nature of the hobbits. The Black Riders are quite intimidating, especially at first. And there are climactic moments in the Barrow Downs that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The One Ring, of course, plays a large role in the game. When used, the world changes, becoming shadowy and revealing secret areas of the game. The tension between the advantages and cost of using the ring creates interesting tradeoffs.

The gameplay is 3rd-person, similar to the Tomb Raider series. When you are targeting something with a ranged weapon (like a rock or a bow and arrow), it switches temporarily to first person. In each section of the game, you play as either Frodo, Aragorn, or Gandolf. The three characters are substantially different in their capabilities. Frodo is presented as an agile hobbit with plenty of jumping, leaping, climbing, etc. He's not great in melee combat, but excels at thrown projectiles. Aragorn is an impressive warrior, as well he should be. Playing Aragorn is empowering, with a thrilling and deadly sequence of sword strokes that makes him the best at melee combat. Gandolf can also fight well with a sword, but his primary weapon is magic, and he's got a cool set of spells he can cast to vanquish his enemies.

Of course, the game is not only (or even primarily) combat. In addition to general exploration and adversaries, there are a number of well-designed puzzles to be solved. Some of them are potential stumpers, I suspect.

In short, there is nothing earth-shatteringly new from a gameplay perspective. Nevertheless, the game excels as a wonderful and emotive adaptation of a much beloved book.

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JRR Tolkiens "Lord of the Rings Book 1 'The Fellowship of the Ring' storyline is closely followed in this Xbox adaptation (allows some Xbox magic with great sound track, music & above average graphics). The animation sequences between scenario runs are delightful with audio dialogue. The whimsical artwork used was nice, aimed at the younger audiences to reduce the blood/gore, slash/gash & the frightening darken minions of the Dark Lord.

That ends this great attempt to make a great game from the greatest fantasy trilogy of all time. Peter Jackson's movie trio lives up to JRR Tolkiens work with a few film adaptations to make each film a stand alone art form.

Summary; This game is best reviewed in the PROS vs CONS format to best describe the game players expectations of this XBOX game.

PROS The background music is awesome. The animation sequences of the characters is quite good (great transition between scenarios). The characters voices & dialoque are very effective to the story being told. The games storyline is true to the author. You can SAVE OFTEN (and you must!!!!).

CONS LONG & FREQUENT Game BOOT (loading) between scenarios. NO Middle Earth Maps to be used. NO mapping or auto mapping features (as in MORROWIND) (you must memorize quickly or die). This means NO REFERENCING for location. NO GOING BACK or EXPLORING. Limited Inventory features. THIS IS ONLY A CONTINUOUS SLASH/GASH GAME. You only play FRODO, STRIDER & GANDALF at specific check points (NO OPTIONS). (for example; Frodo from start to BREE. STRIDER from BREE to RIVENDELL etc. no other choices) LIMITED path advance (NO ROAMING as in MORROWIND). ONLY FRODO USES STEALTH. STRIDER & GANDALF MUST FIGHT or RUN or be KILL by EVERYONE (this is NON-STOP). Almost everything is resolved by killing, destroying or dying. (again only FRODO can use stealth). You must move quickly or die!! You must CONSTANTLY search for food, health & magic potions (this distracts the game player from reaching specific scenario goals). VERY FEW rest points to enjoy the game. CANNOT STOP or GO BACK AND EXPLORE MIDDLE EARTH!!

These are only the most frequent perks & annoyances while playing this game. It is to bad so much effort went in, the basic game is there, but the features are to limited to make this a [current price] must have Xbox library game. If you want detail, free roaming, the ability to be cunning, a great investment would be "MORROWIND".

I am truly disappointed in this Xbox games attempt to tell the "CLASSIC" JRR Tolkien "Fellowship of the Ring" story. See the movie, skip or rent the game. ENJOY.

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To begin, this game is not for those who cannot problemsolve, by themselves. This is not a puzzle game, but you do need to explore in order to get to the next level. Unlike the second two movie-like games, this isn't a rambo style 'kill'em all game' but a true hobbit's game.

If you can get to this point in the review, you will probably like this game. It sticks to through the original chapters of the story, such as the Old forest, Tom Bombadil, Barrow Wights, and many othe small intricasies of the original Tolkien novel.

The warning, I say once again, is you need to figure things out on your own. Watch out for the shadow of the black riders!

Honest reviews on Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

This is the most miserable excuse for a video game I have ever played in my life. If you expect it to be anything like the movie your going to be let down terribly. Saying it follows the movie at all is a bit of a stretch. I beat the game in about 6 hours time. The loading time is too long and too frequent the only thing I found even slightly entertaining about this game was plugging a bad adaptation of the Cave Troll with arrows. The graphics were acceptable but with so many great games out it's not about the graphics as much anymore. The game play is slow and the character control is clumsy and annoying. There are no cool features or great weapons just a ton of mushrooms (life restoration) that you don't even need. I read some of the other reviews on this game and I swear those people must be getting paid hype it up because I laughed through there reviews. This is truely a testament to why you should always rent a game before buying it... I'm out to try Two Towers next but anything would be better than this game.

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I recently had a chance to see the Xbox version of this game next to the PS2 and PC versions. All I can say is -the Xbox Fellowship of the Ring blows the other ones away. The environments are huge and on the Xbox there is no fog to prevent you from seeing all the way to the horizon. The graphics are sharper, the effects are more dazzling, even the in-game sound effects work in full Dolby Digital surround sound.

As for the gameplay, the Xbox version seems to have all the action of the PS2 and PC versions, but also adds some additional quest and puzzle-solving elements. This breaks up the gameplay and really fits the mood of the books.

For example, as Gandalf you will go from blasting Orcs with your powerful spells to deciphering a clever puzzle involving beams of light and rotating crystals.

Frodo can also fight, but has more of a platform style of gameplay -you can jump, push, pull, lift, carry, hang, shimmy, etc. Playing Frodo feels a lot like the Zelda games on the Nintendo 64.

And of course, with Aragorn it's all about kicking ... His devastating sword attacks combined with ranged bow attacks (with multiple arrow types -even flaming arrows!) make him the most satisfying character to play.

Definitely a good purchase for fans of the original books, as this version of the game has material that is not in the movie-licensed game from EA, including several levels in the Old Forest that include Old Man Willow and Tom Bombadil!