The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

"One ring to rule them all..."

For those of you who have been hibernating the past few years, the Lord of the Rings is a very popular book, created by J.R.R. Tolkien, turned into an even bigger movie. The movie is actually a trilogy (like the book), that follows a hobbit, named Frodo Baggins and others on their journey to defeat evil by destroying a magical ring. The game attempts to follow the movie, and in my opinion does a great job at that.

The game picks up right at the end of the magnificent battle of Helm’s Deep, and doesn’t stop until the Crack of Doom. Throughout your journeys in the game you will choose either of three paths, related to the movie. You can follow Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli through their trials in the path of the dead and march to Minas Tirith. Or, you can play as Gandalf, holding off the vast hordes of Sauron’s minions at Minas Tirith until Aragorn and his party arrives. Or you can start playing as Frodo and follow his quest to destroy the one ring.

While the Return of the King movie is not out yet, I’m going to assume that the game follows the movie very well, just like the Two Towers did. I do know what happens in the book, because I’ve read it, but there are changes from book to movie that occur. As a stand alone game without knowing the movie, the Return of the King is a fine game.

EA has upped the ante this year with allowing for nine playable characters. You can play as Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Faramir, Frodo, Merry, Pippen, or Sam on each of their unique journeys. As usual, all of the characters have strengths in battle. Aragorn and Faramir excel with the sword. Legolas is swift with the bow. Frodo, Merry, Pippen, and Sam are weak but quick and can cloak. Gandalf is great with magic and Gimli’s strength and damage are unmatched. After the game has been completed you can come back and play all of the 15 levels with all of the characters, some which were previously locked. This also brings up my biggest complaint with the game. While it is intended to play each path separately, to me, the pacing of the game feels choppy. For example, when you finish Aragorn’s quest you have to jump back in time to Gandalf’s quest. When you completed Gandalf’s quest you have to jump back to Frodo’s quest. It makes the rest of the game feel disconnected especially when playing Frodo’s quest. I would have liked more of a meshing storyline, but that’s just my opinion.

One of the best parts of the Return of the King is the character building. Like the Two Towers, after playing levels with characters, you can buy new skills from the experience points you receive. Allow me to elaborate. Lets say the while playing a level with Gimli, he levels up to level three. This comes from the experience points gained from killing enemies, with these experience points you can purchase new skills for that character. Such as, health upgrades, damage upgrade, and new combo skills, up to a certain level. The higher your levels, the more experience points you will receive, the better the skills will be that you purchase up to level 10. I personally would have liked to have seen a few more skills after 10 but I hold nothing against this game because there isn’t.

After purchasing these new skills you can test them out in battle. One of the best things about this game is the non-stop orc killing action. There can literally be dozens of enemies on a screen at one time for you to hack and slash. You can use your new combo’s that you purchased to help effectively dispatch foes. This can be done in a number of ways and is controlled with ease. First you have your standard attacks, Y in a fierce attack which breaks shields, but is slower. A is a standard speed attack, less powerful, but efficient at taking out shieldless enemies. X parry attacks, while B knocks back opponents. The black button interacts with the environment, largely new to this year’s game. Opponents can dump fire on enemies, push barrels on them, shoot catapults, throw burning spears and more. This adds a new element to the gameplay and is successfully incorporated into each level. Back to the buttons, white is jump back button, new to this game. Holding down L and hitting A uses a ranged attack such as arrows. And finally R, is the killing move. Combination attacks are a combination of some buttons. For example A,A,Y is orc hewer, or X,R is orc bane, which instantly kills an enemy. Combos are very useful but some are hard to pull off in battle. Especially because of how easy it is to be hit by other enemies while pulling off a combo. Some combos can’t be used on larger enemies until a higher level of the combo is purchased. To me some of the combos are not necessary and are hard to efficiently pull off in battle. On the other side, some of them are very useful and almost necessary to fight off enemies. While some of the combos can be tough to pull off, the game controls like a dream. Your character will move precisely to where you want it and will perform the inputted attacks with ease, unless of course you button mash. This game can be a challenge but being able to perform combos will make it all the easier for you. My only complaint with the control is how long it takes for you character to get up after it has been knocked down. In the other movies, characters don’t take their time getting up, otherwise they would be dead. While this is minor, it can be frustrating during battle.

While in battle you will definitely notice the rich graphics and sound. While I know the Xbox is graphically capable of more EA either doesn’t know that or doesn’t care. But even if this game has PS2 type graphics, they’re still pretty darn good. The environments in the game are beautifully created, directly from the book itself, and undoubtedly from the movie. The level of detail in the levels is striking. You will notice the crumbling ruins of man, to the spider webs of Shelob’s lair, to molten lava from Mount Doom. The levels really almost capture every imaginative ounce that Tolkien had created them to have. This also applies to the characters. All of the characters look almost exactly like their movie counterparts, with the exception of golum. For some reason I just don’t like his character model but I can get over it. All of this detail and architecture is pulled off with almost no frame rate drops. Even more so than the graphics, the sound is top notch. You will hear and become engrossed by all of the sounds off battle. Swordfights, soldiers yelling, orc bellowing, ents stomping, and golem’s putrid cry, are just samples of what to expect during battles. Also in the main menu’s expect to here songs from the other movies soundtracks along with what I’m assuming are some new songs from the Return of the King soundtrack. The sound is simply stunning.

This brings to my most favorite addition to the game: coop. Now you and a friend can go through all of the missions together, hacking and slashing. And believe me, you won’t want to stop until the ride is over. All of the missions and secrets that were available in single player are available in multiplayer. Speaking of secrets…EA once again did an excellent job in the unlockables category. The Return of the King has all new interviews, movie stills, art concepts, cheats, and other unlockables throughout the game.

To wrap up I will address a big concern with this game. That concern would be length. It is true that many gamers will pass through this game in a few great hours. For the perfectionist, however, like myself, there is plenty to come back for and keep you going, for example, receiving every skill for every character, completing every level with every character and unlocking everything. It will take up a good chunk of time to complete everything. If you just like to play a game to complete it, I would recommend renting this game for a weekend, as you will have plenty of time to complete it. If you are a hardcore Lord of the Rings player, I recommend buying this game as there is enough here to satisfy. One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them, in the land of Mordor, where the shadows lie.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/17/03