The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

"Great game, but gets tedious after a while"

Graphics -- 7
The graphics during gameplay is not great, but it's average. Sometimes the enemies look the same, but they are two different kinds of orcs. However, the cut scenes and brilliant. It looks like just a real picture from the movie. It's amazing.

Sound -- 9
The sound of this game is excellent. For those who love the music from Lord of the Ring movies, it is well capture in this little cart in the game. The opening tunes are inspiring as well. The sound of the orcs, bows, and other in-game sound are immaculate.

Control -- 8
I feel that the control is tight and perfect. However, for some people it might be annoying to have an auto targeting for Legolas which makes the game less challenging. That's why I am not giving it a 10. But other than that, the control is as good as it can be.

Replay -- 7
There are some replay values on this game. You can choose between 5 standard characters to start your adventure and each character has their own unique spell and skills.

Gameplay --7
Let's start from what I like. I like the fact that this game has an RPG aspect. I like the variety of monsters. I like the increasing difficulty. However, I don't like the repetitious game play over and over again. You move from area that you have cleared to another with minimal variation. The mission objective is not very clear either. As long as you can find a way out from the current area, you will move on to the story.

I like the anti-lost arrow in which an arrow will appear if you don't move after a while indicating where to go. But, doesn't this better replaced by an automap? A map is a better tool to find a spot that hasn't been visited in an area.

Overall -- 8
The game is great, but it could be better. It gets tedious after a while since all you do is hack and slash (or shoot and shoot for Legolas). However, the RPG side of the game makes it less boring. The addition of a battery-save feature with 4 slots is a warm welcome. It allows you to save anywhere in the game. To improve a game, I would love to have a monster list so that I recognize each of the monsters. Last word, a great game, but I would choose Zelda over this since Zelda is out tomorrow anyways.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/02/02, Updated 12/02/02