The Lord of the Rings, The Third Age

"An interesting look at possible going-ons behind the Fellowship."

Many moon ago, RPGs were for nerds, while most kids were outside playing ball, we fanboys and fools were inside wasting our lives beating bosses and completing quests. With our progression as fans we were treated to a progression of video games, where the games grew with us: graphically, story-wise and difficulty.

But for the last few years things have started to change. Really I'd blame it on Final Fantasy X, quickly the RPG genre was falling from its pedestal as the geekiest of geeks as more and more people began to rent the games from Blockbuster. While graphics continue to improve, bearing testament to the mainstream's unquenchable thirst for glitz and glamour, the stories and challenges are quickly passing like a kidney stone. No longer am I sweating bullets trying to beat out ridiculous bosses or praying I get to save point before a random battle hits. I've become a less religious man now, and mostly in part to the ease of video games today.

Sadly, Lord of the Rings: The Third Age is no exception. While solid in terms of being a successful copy-cat of previous games, it is a copy-cat never-the-less of previous Suikoden games. I found myself intrigued with the idea of a group of travelers (you) following a band of nine (the Fellowship) seeking to cast the ring of Sauron (them) into the fires of Mount Doom. But I turn away from the overall sheer boredom of fight, win, treasure, fight, win, boss gameplay so cherished by today's mainstream video game makers.

It is quite obvious that someone down at EA Games had read The Third Age at least once, which is a big plus- seeing how I'm a big fan of Tolkien. And for being a game that steals ideas from other series it's a good sign that they stole most of the good ideas and left out the bad. I generally am not amused with turn-based fighting anymore, I feel that the genre of RPG fighting has gotten to the point that they need to move on and originality should either seek to improve turn-based or go into real-time altogether. The music is great and some of the choral pieces are Howard Shore's best (to those theorists out there you might find it interesting that Shore used what is known as Parallel 5ths in his Elven songs to create a sense of unrest).

I am turn off by the original but ultimately failing thought to have 109 movie clips with Ian McKellen, Gandalf the Grey, narrating as well. By the fifth clip I was growing bored with portions and anyone who has read the books will too. Also, there is room to grip about how straightforward it is and how there needs to be more shops and less save points.

All in all, I give this game a 7.5/10 rounded down to 7. While a good rental to the serious gamer, it will pose no challenge and can be completed fairly quickly. To those who are new to RPGs this will be a solid buy for anything $20 or less, as this can be finished eventually by anyone around nine and above. Patrick Welsh, out.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/05