The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

"One word to describe this game? INTENSE!"

Wow, I've gotta say that I'm pretty impressed by what EA did with this franchise. The Fellowship of the Ring i.e., the first Lord of the Rings game, which was made by VU Games wasn't that great. However, EA took over and now they've made 2 awesome and intense games in The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Of course, EA's again made the game multi-platform, which is good because if you don't have a PS2, or if you don't have an Xbox, you could always play and enjoy the game on another platform.

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King closely follows the storyline of the movie. It's gameplay is very similar to that of the The Two Towers and players who've mastered that game won't have much difficulty in putting away The Return of the King.

Gameplay
Return of the King's gameplay is mainly hack&slash with almost no path finding or strategy. However, there are times when you may not know where to go or what to do, which may lead to you failing the mission. The good thing is that this is only in about 2 missions. All the other missions have the path laid out for you, and you just have to travel through it, killing enemies and gaining experience points.

The combat system is pretty simple, but it's solid and the combos and link moves are good and not too hard to pull off. Each player has a melee weapon and a projectile weapon. There are, of course, differences. Aragorn has a single sword with normal arrows while Legolas has two swords and he can upgrade his arrows and Gandalf has his sword and his kickass staff, which doubles as a projectile weapon shooting lightning bolts, etc.

Another feature of RotK's gameplay is that you can gain experience points to level-up and buy new upgrades. You earn experience points by killing enemies. The better the kill, the more experience points you get. For example, if you kill an enemy and get a Fair rating, you get only 90 exp. points, whereas if you kill an enemy with a perfect rating, you get 600 points. You also have a circular bar which shows what rating of kill you're gonna get. The bar fills as you kill more enemies in succession. As the bar fills up, your rate of killing improves, and thus you can earn more exp. points. Then, you can use the exp. points you earned to unlock upgrade which are in the level which you are in. For example, if your character is in Level 3, then you can unlock upgrades which are available only in Levels 1,2, and 3.

The addition of a co-op mode is nice, as you can play with friends and be two heroes. I found playing some mission like Pelennor Fields is easier in co-op than in single player.

Overall, the Gameplay is fast and intense and makes you(well, at least made me!) feel like you're actually in the battle fighting alongside scores of warriors. The overall experience is fantastic and I certainly didn't feel bored playing this game.

Graphics
The graphics are very nicely done here. Everyone looks real and life-like.The environment are splendid and the battle is awesome. You might have some camera problems though There were times when my view was blocked a wall or a horde of enemies. I spent a lot of time trying to see where my character was. Other than that, the game's graphics are nice, smooth and fluid. No complaints here, really.

Sound
The sound in this game is simply amazing. Well, what can you expect from a THX-Certified game. All around you can hear the shouts and screams of fighters and it's simply amazing. It really pulls you into the world of LOTR. Even when you fight and do a parry, you can hear the clang when your weapon and your enemy's clash. The sound of your weapon going through your opponents body when do you Finishing Attack on them sounds really.......... well, bone-crushing, which is a GOOD thing!

Controls
The controls in this game are pretty simple and straight-forward. Although you won't have a tutorial, and it isn't shown in the options menu, you shouldn't have much trouble getting used to the controls. You should be able to figure it out yourself. Like I said before, if you've played The Two Towers, this game's controls will be easy.

Replay Value
This is where the game suffers. Badly. Aside from a few extras like a few interviews and game concept art, there really is no need to play through the game again, unless you want to play as another character and find out his upgrades.

So, should I get it?
Well if your a fan of the series, or if you're a gamer who's looking for an intense action-adventure game, I'd say you get it. If you're a picky choosy gamer who likes to spend hours choosing a game, skip it because this game isn't the ''perfect'' game you're searching for. In fact, even if you are a picky choosy gamer, I'd suggest you do the former,at least when the prices come down, because this game is just plain good.

Hope this review's been helpful!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/24/04, Updated 02/25/04