The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

"Gandalf rides to Isengard, NO longer seeking your counsel!"

Yay!, this game turned out just as I hoped for. After viewing The Two Towers, I bought the video game, The Two Towers and it was great. I beat it after a while and couldn't wait for the Return of the King. It was even better then The Two Towers. It has more characters, levels and features.

Gameplay

This game is very fun and there are many players to be. The game is divided into three sets of levels. The first set is to be played by Gandalf. The second can be played by either Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli. The last set is to be played with the hobbits. It is very fun once you get used to the controls, which is not hard as the controls are great. A good new feature that was added to this game is the action button(Z). Which allows you to perform different actions like pushing rocks over a cliff onto Orcs, or picking up a war pike out of a dead body and throwing it. This game can be very hard if you do not parry and get surrounded. Though it will not take you a week to beat. It took me two days. A few levels may take many tries to beat, but it is not the kind of game where you have to solve puzzles to get through levels. LOTR fans will find this game even more fun, but anyone who likes to hack and slash at guys will be very entertained.

Story

This game has a great story, because it follows a great movie that won a whole lot of awards. What like best about this story is that it does a very good job at not spoiling the movie as much as possible. This way if you want to see the movie, it will still seem very unspoiled. The game does have a lot of stuff added into it that is not in the movie. Though this is probably nessecery to make the game longer. Overall, a good story.

Graphics/Sound

This game has greatly improved from The Two Towers in terms of graphics and sound. The characters are much more realistic looking and the moves more smooth. The sound is from the movie and I personally like it a lot. Some people may find it annoying but I don't think it is that bad. The effects are great because instead of the game taking a split second to load after a cutscene you start as soon as the cutscene is over. Sometimes you don't even know it's time to play because of this cool feature.

Replayability

This game has new secret characters that you can unlock and there are still more upgrades to get after you play the game so it has a great replay value. You can also play a co-op game. Which allows you to play side by side with another human player. This added to the replay value.

Final Word

I say buy it. It will be worth your money with the co-op added too. If your are a big LOTR fan then there should be no question, buy it. It is a little short, but that is the only reason that would make the game a rental game. Most people will enjoy it if they like good action games. That is pretty much it, I hope you find this review helpful.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/28/04