The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

"Fight for Middle-earth! Send the enemies back to the shadows!"

Ever since the movies, many have been waiting for the releases of the video games. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring wasn't a huge success, in fact, quite poor. Can The Two Towers deliver the goods? Find out with my review on the game.

Graphics
Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, aswell as other characters in the game, are all performed to the highest detail graphically. They look kind of exactly the same as in real-life, you won't be disappointed with how the characters and the enemies look in TTT. The enemies look scary and well fierce, i admit, i get pretty scared when a huge Orc walks up to my character. They look so real, it makes you live the movie. As well as playing the movie, you will also see clips from the actual movie, yes, the movie! So it's like watching a half DVD and half Video game, it's cool.

The scenes in the game are also performed to the highest detail, so such places like Helm's Deep look tremendously realistic in the game, as well as the rest of the places. I'm impressed with the graphics.

Sound
The music from the movies is in, and it does really give you an extra-feeling to the game. Some pieces of music aren't featured in the game, but some are, basically the main ones.

Characters say their own speeches as they use in the movies, so for example, Legolas will say stuff like ''Back to the shadows!''. I'm really impressed with how well EA Games have done to make this give you a great feeling to the movie. There is tons of speeches in the game, and each character sounds exactly the same as the movies.

Gameplay
The controls can sometimes get awkward, on some occasions it's quite tough to perform great combination moves, and you could find yourself just pressing one button to kill the enemy. There is a hell of a lot of moves, and it's really hard to say that you have done all the moves in the game. You gain experience points after you've completed a level, and then you can buy new moves and also level-up your character. It's pretty much like an RPG blended into an Action/Adventure.

If you're a huge LOTR fan (like me), then you will totally love this game, i guarantee you that. It's extremely fun, and puts you under pressure, into the seats of the main characters. Can you save Helm's Deep? It's all down to you.

Story
It's much better to go and see the movie first, as the game could spoil most of the movie for you. Well, you have a choice to play as Aragorn, Legolas or Gimli on each level, and you must complete each level with each character to complete the whole game, as well as unlock new options. You fight in locations such as Helm's Deep and Rohan, and try and protect Middle-earth from evil. It's exactly the same story as the movie, and it could spoil it for you, if you haven't seen the movie yet, so you have been warned.

You start off at the beginning of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and you are fighting in hell, attempting to rid Middle-earth of evil. The game ends at Helm's Deep, when you must protect the women and children and fight evil for good. It's excellent.

Replayability
Once you complete all of the game, you can replay any mission and try and get a better rating, as well as top up your levels. You can also view interviews with the stars of the movies, and many other options aswell. It will keep you playing for long, and the end mission is quite tough, so you will have trouble on it.

Buy or Rent?
If you're a LOTR fan, definitely buy the game! Trust me, you will not be disappointed. I'm impressed with what EA Games have produced here, they've done a fine piece of work, by producing a movie into a video game. As always, if you're not too much of a LOTR fan, rent it.

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As i'm a huge LOTR fan, i totally love and enjoy TTT. It's an excellent game to add to your collection, and i'm sure you'll be impressed with how well EA Games have done by making a movie into a video game.
Rating: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/02, Updated 12/28/02