The Hobbit

"In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit..."

As I put down the controller and replaced the CD in its case after beating the game some minutes ago, the game left me with a good feeling after playing through this epic adventure. However, it really wasn't that way when I started playing the game some two weeks ago. At this time, I loathed the game and wondered why I wasted my money on this. That was after playing the 3 first levels, which had left me a very bad feeling about the game. I thought the whole game would be like that and stopped playing for a while, but boy was I wrong. As I went further into the game, it started to pick up and I couldn't stop playing. The morale of this story is; by all means, give this game a chance.

Gameplay 7.5/10

Following the story of Bilbo from Tolkien's novel, your quest starts off in Bilbo's house where Gandalf and the dwarves announce Bilbo he is going to be their burglar for the quest to the Lonely Mountain where Smaug the dragon lies. The first level, set in Hobbiton, is probably the best level of the game. It's artistically very appealing with tons of sidequests to do, interaction with the villagers and a pretty large area to explore. Sadly, once you leave Hobbiton, the following levels are plain boring and this is where I thought about giving up on the game. The game felt so uninspired and unoriginal from this point. Instead of being what it is supposed to be, an adventure game, it was more like a boring platformer. Indeed, all those levels offer are a straightforward path you must follow while avoiding the obstacles and solving some very basic puzzles.

Hopefully, later levels really put the game back on track while you traverse Mirkwood forest, pay a visit to the Elves, stop at Lake Town and enter the Lonely Mountain. Puzzles become more complex and interesting, obstacles are more challenging and the level designs are really better, offering a bigger feeling of exploration. While you journey through Middle-Earth with the Dwarves, the story, which follows the book very closely, is showed to you via storybook illustrations with a narrative voice. After each of these cutscenes, you are left alone in a new area, where you must find and collect Courage Points, treasure chests and coins.

Collecting these aren't necessary, but you'll need the Courage Points to gain new heart bubbles. You can find the Courage Points laying around, after puzzles, or by defeating enemies. You'll also need to look for treasure chests, which contains coins and potions. These coins are used to upgrades your material or buy more potions and antidotes via a screen that shows up after each level. At the beginning of the game, Bilbo only has a walking stick and some rocks to defend himself, but as the story unfolds, you will get in possession of Sting, Bilbo's Sword. The combat system pretty much works like a copy of The Legend of Zelda, you can target your enemies and use sword techniques to defeat them.

You will explore the same locations Bilbo visits in Tolkien's book, and you will obviously encounter Gollum and gain possession of the Ring. You can wear the ring at any time and it will make you invisible so you can get past the enemies without being noticed. The game makes pretty good use of the ring, especially in the level with the elves, where you must constantly get past guards. The game also features some fun puzzles, mainly in the last levels, and also a clever way of opening treasure chests with a series of mini puzzles.

The biggest complain I have about the game though, is the fact that once you leave a level, you can't go back to it. The game incites you to collect every items and chests in the levels with a total screen at the end of each level, but it's frustrating when you find out that you missed something and can't go back to the previous levels. This also lowers the replay value quite a bit. I also didn't like the way the game was divided in levels instead of offering a large landscapes to explore like in The Legend of Zelda. Exploring Middle-Earth would have been really better that way. The game feels way too linear for an adventure game. In fact, if it wasn't for the potions, treasure chests, puzzles and the epic quest, the game could almost pass for a platformer.

Graphics 7/10

Opting for cartoon-style graphics for The Hobbit game maybe wasn't a really good move from Sierra's part, it's definitively not that way I imagined Bilbo's world while reading the book, but it still does the job well. Some areas have nice backgrounds and the lightning effects are good, but character models are quite bad and there is a lack of details in the environments sometimes. It often feels too generic, with nothing special to make the visuals look more attractive. There are some very good FMVs throughout the game though. It's too bad the cartoon art style isn't really appropriate for an adventure game though.

Music/Sound 8/10

This is without a doubt the best aspect of the game. The music is simply gorgeous and fits Bilbo's universe perfectly. It's fully orchestrated and changes depending on the situation in each level. It's a shame though that the best tunes only show up once or twice for a very short time in the game and that sometimes there's just no music at all. The sounds are great hopefully and the voice-acting is pretty convincing and the voice casting for each character was really good.

Overall 7/10

To be fair, the game deserves a 7 out of 10. It's nothing really spectacular, it's even quite mediocre at first, but if you give a chance to the game, you'll find out that the second half of the game is really great and worth of The Hobbit name. If you're a Lord of the Rings fan, make sure to add this game to your collection.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/17/05, Updated 02/22/05