The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

"A great game that was just lacking on a few levels"

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was an exceptional movie based on an exceptional book. Unfortunately, the game did not live up to the above. That is not to say that the game is poor; on the contrary, it is a great game to say the least, but it was just lacking on a few levels that would have brought the score up to 10. There was a major hype about this new LOTR game, and it was not supposed to be just another movie rip off. I find it a little annoying that some may be disappointed.

Graphics
Wow. The visuals in the game are exceptional, and though they could be slightly better, the graphics did not disappoint. Each character looks as they do in the movie, as do all the environments featured. Your cloak may even blow in the wind, and all movements were realistic and not stupidly superhuman. The levels design was well done, but did require improvement. They were filled with objects to interact with, powerups to find and people to save, and they were rarely repetitive. The main problem was that they were linear. All you needed to do was to charge in a straight line, killing everything on the way, and you would probably have the level complete. More exploration would have been nice, but not so much that aimless wandering was a common occurrence. On the bright side, the FMV sequences were quality pieces of work. Gimli may have looked a little odd on some, but that was simply overshadowed by the breathtaking visuals. The movie sequences were not simply shown, but instead were linked with FMVs that looked nearly as realistic as the movie! I disliked, however, that the gameplay was sometimes interrupted by an abrupt FMV, which became quite annoying and disruptive at times. An example is at Balin's tomb, where you fight for a while, and then see an FMV. You would commence fighting again, and then another FMV would start. Fight again, and then see yet another FMV. After that, you would only have to fight twice more and watch 3 FMV scenes. They also could have been more emotional; Aragorn is more of a medieval Terminator than a warrior, and it would have been great just to see one of the characters' jaws drop while their eyes reflect the oncoming fearsome enemies. I know, that is more like a movie, but it would add a lot more depth to the characters. The cut scenes were welcome, but overused at times.

Sound & Music
This is another shining section that was again impressing. The sounds were realistic, and consisted of clashing swords, cries for help and arrows zipping through the air. The strongest part of the section, though, was the voice acting. From Orlando Bloom to John Davies to even good old Ian, the actors from the film are all here. There could have been a little more expression, as Legolas would usually spout some Elvish phrase in monotone. Still, it was well done and also added to the special features (more on that later). The music was also of high quality, as it featured some of the songs from the music and a few unique ones especially for the game. It inspired a lot of intensity while playing the game and really suited the level it appeared on. Unfortunately, many of the levels were basically the same, so the music could get monotonous and repetitive sometimes. Still, the audio held up and was very impressive.

Gameplay
The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers is just a simple hack and slash game, which runis it in areas. It is extremely fun to hack away at hordes of enemies, but that was the main objective for every level. To lessen the impact of this, a few different levels were implemented, such as, ''destroy the gunpowder carts,'' or ''protect the women and children by protecting the door''. These did give us a break, but still involved hacking and slashing. A lot more variety is needed, and something like a puzzle or two would have helped. On the other hand, the game did boast quite a few levels and 4 playable characters (1 was unlockable), which was a real strength. The story basically follows the movies exactly, though this game features around 5 levels from the first. The RPG style was well done, but I would have liked more customization to be available. It would have been great to choose the equipment to use, so you could purchase different swords, axes, and other equipment and outfit your character with it. This would not stray too much from the movie's example, and would add some much needed customability.
On the plus side, there were 3 characters that had different weapons and personalities, but they each had the same combos, so Gimli would have ''Balin's Judgement'' while Aragorn would have ''Isildur's Judgement''. They were the same moves, but just with different names. There were around 5 moves (among many) that were unique in style and reflected the characters traits. That said, I did like the range of the characters; Legolas is very speedy but has a lack of power and armour while Gimli is tough but slow.
Overall, the gameplay was addictive, fun and very enjoyable, but required a few elements to improve it.

Unlockables & Easter eggs
The Two Towers boasts a lot of unlockable items, as well as a few surprises. The main ones are the interviews with the actors used in the game, several slide shows of the scenery and a few 'making of' cut scenes. As if that were not enough, you can also unlock a new character, an extra level and a host of cheats worth using to spice up the game. The main problem with this section is that the bonus character was not Gandalf (as I had hoped) o even Frodo, but Isildur. That may sound great, as you are playing with the warrior who killed Sauron, but he has the same voice, moves and performance and Aragorn. Think of him as level 10 Aragorn in armour and you have Isildur. Aside from that disappointment, the unlockables were impressive and made you play for that little longer to win them.
The controls were simple and easy to use, and the combinations did not require too much practice, so it was easy to jump into the game and get hacking. I disliked that this was a button mashing game; rapidly pressing all the buttons was usually very sucessful, which meant that not a lot of skill was needed to beat a level, so therefore the game was easy.

Replayability
Here is where the real problem lies. The game does have quite a few levels spanning 2 movies, but they only require about 10 minutes of intense gameplay to beat. There are 3 characters, but he game is not too hard so 1/2 and hour is all you need to totally need to beat a level. Getting high scores on every level with every person does not unlock anything, so I doubt that will keep you playing for much longer. As for the bonus level, that takes around 15 minutes to do. So all in all, this will last you a maximum of 2 weeks before it gets too tedious.

Overall
The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers was impressive on many levels but was just all wrong on tohers. Because of its poor longevity, this will not be worthe the purchase unless you are a die hard fan of LOTR, but for everyone else, this is definitely worth the rental.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/11/03