The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

"King of the dragons > The Two Towers, though..."

Yes, TTT reminds me a lot of King of the dragons, an old hack n'slash/beat'em up coin op that I really loved.
I saw a preview video of TTT and I was drooling, the atmosphere was exceptional and the gameplay reminded me of KoD, plus it looked like you could have some cooperation with CPU controlled characters. Not to forget that I wanted a new version of KoD. Well, TTT kept a lot of its promises.

Graphics 9.5/10
This game looks awesome! Great atmosphere and environment that look as good as in the movies. The FMV's have been taken directly from the movies too, so they are obviously great. They are really short and they just tell a bit of the story, they aren't annoying as they are in FFX. The cutscenes are good, although the models sometimes don't look that great and they are pretty dull.
The animations are good, but I feel like they are too fast or that the framerate is not that smooth. Globally the graphic department is really well made and EA did a good work recreating the LotR world in a videogame.

Music/SFX 10/10
Contrary to the graphics department, the sound department is literally perfect. The music is the same as in the movies, well orchestrated and it fits perfectly into the game. In some moments the music reflects exactly the moments of suspense of the action. The voices are from the same actors of the movies. Since 99% of the sound is taken directly from the movies there's nothing more to say.

Gameplay 8/10
Ok, this game doesn't fail at all, it's good and playable. I wanted to give it a 7 just for the structure, in fact I didn't like that the game was divided into mission. I prefered a complete action game with a good amount of levels or an action/adventure game with less linearity. I changed my idea because the games still gives you the chance to replay any level with any character, so you can still play it (pretty) freely. Apart from the first 2 missions where you have to use Isildur and Aragorn, in the other missions you can choose between Gimli (the dwarf with an axe, really strong but slow and...short :-) ), Legolas (the archer, fast but not really strong) and Aragorn (the fighter, a half way between the other 2 characters). Apart from these few differences, the characters are pretty similar, same moves but just with different names and animations.
The missions are just hack n'slash style, but there's variety between them. Taking advantage of the different situations in the movies, the environment changes between the mission and in some cases you have to defend people, your friends or demolish something. There's enough variety to not get bored during the game.
During each mission you will take experience points depending on how you killed an enemy (good, medium etc.) exactly like in DMC. At the end of each mission these points will be converted into points that you can use to buy new moves, combos and stronger arrows, axes or a better shield.
The controls are really simples, 2 different weapon attacks (weak and strong), the kick, the guard and the back step. Really easy to control, the basic combos are easy too, but I found the advanced combos and moves tricky and in the most crowded moments where you take a lot of hits it's not easy to do them.
The difficulty level is ok, I'm beating the game at normal level and it's pretty hard! I thought it was a short game at the beginning because the first missions were easy but the late missions were hard, especially the last 3. I'm not sure if it's because ok me that I have problems with the combos :-p

Replay value 7.5/10
This game has only 13 missions, but as I said I found them hard enough. You have 3 different difficulty levels, you have to beat each mission with every character to unlock the secret mission and a secret character. The you can unlock a lot of DVD extras (interviews, pics etc.) by beating the levels under some conditions.
After that you can replay each level as you want. Well, apart from a few extras there aren't many reasons to replay this game, if not just to replay the levels.
The true shame about TTT is the absence of a multiplayer mode!! Yes this game could have been perfect to play with 1 or 2 players in co-op mode, but not, EA made it just one player game. I remember how KoD was great to play it with 2 other players, TTT could have been great too.

Overall 8/10
This game has it's main strong points in the technical departments, but it also surprised me with it's great gameplay. Contrary to popular belief a game from a movie can be really good, and TTT is one of these cases. TTT just fails in the structure, as I said I prefered if it was a true action/adventure game with less linearity, without binaries and only one path to follow. The replay value may disappoint you, but I think it can be replayed sometimes, although the absence of a multiplayer mode is inexcusable.
I'm obsessed by KoD and TTT still reminds me a lot of it, I don't know why. Same fantasy atmosphere, almost the same genre, almost the same feeling that KoD gave me eons ago. Too bad TTT is not as good as KoD and this one will still remain my favorite fantasy hack n'slash game.

Buy/rent?
I don't feel to recommend this game to anyone, if not only the fans of the series or of the genre. This game is not that short I think, but it's not really a must buy that will make you busy for months. Probably a good rent can make decide to buy it or not.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/02/02, Updated 12/02/02