The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

"Great graphics and enchanting sound can't save repetitive gameplay"

Introduction

The Lord of the Rings games from EA have gotten some pretty high ratings, so I naturally decided to check the game out. I was originally going to rent the game, but I found it used for 14 bucks, so I thought 'Eh, what the hey?' and bought it. After beating the game the very day I got it, I realized there was something wrong with all of the reviews. All of the ones I read failed to mention any of the daunting things in this game that help to make this game terrible. Unfortunately, unless you're one of those crazy, die hard fans of Lord of the Rings (the type that would accept The Fellowship of the Ring for PS2), there isn't a great deal to like in this dull, difficult and repetitive hack and slasher. Heavy on the extras, yes, but this game does little to improve or change the basic hack and slash formula which has been used and overused countless times. It's unfortunate, as after playing the first level I knew the game had potential. But all that potential is washed away after you play the fifth level of the same old, same old merely with some new enemies (that still kill you the same way) and new levels (which are designed poorly and are difficult to navigate).

Graphics

However, on the bright side, the graphics of this game are great. The levels may not be laid out well, but they sure do look nice, with great detail and wonderful textures. I can't say it looks realistic, but it does look fantastic, and seems to be an achievement. All of the characters have faces that replicate their real life counterparts to add to the feel of the game, and the models themselves look excellent. The enemies are well detailed and look like they were taken from the movie, morphed into a GIF or JPEG file and then thrown in the game (which doesn't have half bad results). And, while occasionally stiff and choppy, the animations also work very well, with quite a few different animations for the many attacks in this game, a good walking/running animation that looks different for each character, and seemingly realistic enemy animations that make them seem even more like their movie counterparts. If this game does anything well, it's definitely the fact that it looks and feels like the movie, I'll give it that. There are also some good effects in the game - if you pay attention to the fire, you can see it's well animated, and the lighting is very well done with a realistic feel (I almost wanted to shade my eyes on the opening level with Gandalf and his blinding stick thingy). Fog keeps some of the finer detailed objects and textures hidden, which is a shame (try and get into a position where there's no fog and you can't get hurt, then just look at the textures and the looks of the background - cool, isn't it?) but it's obviously nothing to cry over. This is the strong point of the game.

Sound

Not to say that the game sounds bad. Actually, the sounds sound very good here. It has the trademark Lord of the Rings theme from the movies that's so awesome just to listen to that lays throughout the various menus of the game, and then some great other background music for the level up menus and in game levels that sound like they were taken right from the movie. The music is the sound of adventure and romance, be as stupid as it may sound, it actually works very well. It helps to connect you to the game, which would work amazingly well if the gameplay wasn't so tarnished. Aside from the excellent music, there's the sounds, like the hacking and clanging of the swords on shields, swords on swords and swords through orc/enemy. That all sounds nice and fine, but isn't something you're going to buy on soundtrack any time soon (obviously). There's the voice actors from the movies that play their roles here. While they're acceptable and do work, most of them don't seem like the effort is going into them (especially since the models in game don't actually move their mouths to the speech. The mouth remain shut all the time), except for Frodo's voice, who actually sounds like he's trying way too hard, and yells very often. Depending on various things, like if you've seen the movie and you have to believe the words to enjoy the story, the voice acting and be positive or negative. On the whole, the sound isn't half bad.

Gameplay

Of course, where the game suddenly drops and begins to disappoint. The gameplay works as follows - you choose one of the many characters to control in the game, and set off on your own little quest consisting of X number of levels (roughly 7 or so for the character with the largest amount). You play the levels, walking (or rather, running) around killing a countless number of orcs by jamming on the gamepad. The game tries to add a layer of depth by including combos, where you press certain buttons in a certain order to execute a special move, but this ends up feeling both clunky and like a memorizing game, much like the Mortal Kombat games (except it's even worse and even more apparent here). After a few minutes that seem like hours pass, you come to a boss (or mini boss, depending on he level) and engage in a hard struggle against it. After winning (normally after a few tries), you either end the level, upgrade your character and move on (if it was a boss), or keep going until you reach the boss (if it was a mini boss). Sounds fine, right? Wrong. Running around for what seems like ages jamming buttons (I tried memorizing the game's combos, and actually managed to get a few, but in practice it took too long to pull off and was way too clunky) killing countless, faceless orcs is boring. It's novel for the first level, but past that you see this game for what it truly is - a gimmicky, repetitive hack and slasher. You may argue about the boss fights - I will admit that the boss fights take more skill than the simply ability to jam on the gamepad, but they're still either ridiculously easy, hard, and either way annoying. The boss battles seem to drag on and on, lasting for quite a while. Often times I'd quit in the middle of a boss battle and play another game to regain some of my gaming stamina, and then come back, replay the level and hopefully have enough will left to finish off the annoying boss. But then, you could argue about leveling up your character, how it's so 'RPG' and really works here. Well, it does really work here - both leveling up and playing are equally boring in this game, so it's a perfect match. All that leveling up did was give me new moves, which play out like combos (which you generally don't use anyway), so it's useless. This game tries to trick you into thinking it's some mega-awesome and genre defining hack and slasher, but it really isn't. Underneath the great graphics and behind the enchanting music, this game is just another Chaos Legion. But it drags more. And it's duller.

Replay Value

While this game lacks any real respectable gameplay, it does have a huge amount of unlockables. There's interviews with the actors (characters in the game), features on how they made the game, and a bunch of junk like that you can unlock by playing the game. This game, however, is terribly short - you will likely beat it on day one. If you're able to accept that and are a Lord of the Rings fan, then dive right it. Everyone else, steer clear. You won't play it more than once, if you even go through it once.

Verdict

Great graphics and sound can't save bad gameplay. In respect to those two bits this game manages to pass, but the game itself simply isn't that fun. It is a shame, as with varied levels, totally different characters that play in totally different ways and some awesome Mario like bosses (but, you know, in a Lord of the Rings setting and without platforming gameplay) and this game could've been the awesome game everyone claims it is. Unfortunately it isn't. It may be a rental on a very boring weekend, or a purchase for a Frodo freak. Otherwise, just ignore it. Final score: 5/10.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/27/05