Intro
When I first heard about the Fellowship of the Ring game coming to the XBOX, two things popped into my head almost instinctively.
1. It was going to be a shallow attempt to re-create the movie.
2. It was going to be produced by THQ, makers of many and makers of crap.
To my surprise both of my assumptions were wrong. The game isn't based off the movie, but actually the book. This gave me a glimpse of hope, knowing the game wouldn't be confined to simply the "movies" thinness compared to the novel. Secondly, since THQ is well-known for doing stupid things like this, if fact, it was developed by some all-but-unknown developer, WXP and Black Label. So now, my mindset was more optimistic just knowing that these two outlets were out of the picture.
Lord of the Ring fanboys are a diverse group, and I've learned that. While I appreciated the book for its literary genius and just superb brilliance; I also loved the film for its cinematography and great character development. As good as the movie was, it wasn't even close to the storyline in the book. The diversity I've discovered is that many fans of the book hate the film thinking it ruined the legacy, but others like myself think it compliments the novel perfectly. With that said, LotR fanboys/girls are just as critical on LotR merchandise just as Star Wars fans are with the onslaught of SW based games.
As far as the storyline goes, it does follow the book with added characters and venue's. I'm not going to go into the complexity of the story, but for the eight people in the world who don't know about the series here is the total breakdown: Good vs. Evil... the end.
My precious (in my evil sly voice)
When I began to play the game, the play was much different than I anticipated. I expected more of an adventure game with RPG elements and maybe even a dash of platforming. But, what it is really like is more of an action game with simple adventure elements. At time it reminded me of a skinned version of Soul Reaver. The actually gameplay is quite clean and felt very responsive. The simplistic gameplay is refreshing. You have a button for attacking, defending and an action button that is used to speak to character, open items, etc., and the trigger button cycle through your inventory. Holding in the attack button causes a "charged" attack, and unlike my last game in this genre The nice setup works, but many gamers enjoy misery through complexity.
Since the gameplay is generally "book specific", you control different characters as the story continues. You start off with Frodo and later you are able to control Gandalf as well as Strider. Tying in with the simplicity is the combat style which runs parallel with the games style. There are never dozens of enemies on the screen, yet most enemies require multiple hits. I felt the combat was a bit dumbed down because of this. I was hoping that a critical hit (like an arrow to the head) would make a baddie fall in one swift motion. Even charged super-hits required two and sometimes three blows. As far as enemy AI,or lack thereof, it is fairly mundane. Enemies follow a set pattern and vary from it little if at all. The same can be said with the variety, for most of the bad guys can be categorized by either melee or projectile; with the occasional "special boss-type". When it's said in done, the game emphasized "action gaming" yet the combat failed to support this, especially the horrible AI.
Enemy reproduction is also quite laughable. Enemies spawn from certain "spawning points" and continue spawn until you destroy the epicenter. If you remember Gauntlet Legends, it is the same exact concept. To make the AI worse is when speaking of the allied help that -clears throat- assists you. All of the LotR crew is here, yet they fail to help you out. Boss fights especially are the most enigmatic. It would have been nice to see an ally pop up and step to the plate for you, but instead you are limited to attack solo. To put salt in the wound, the targeting system is equally as elementary. You can "lock on" to an enemy, yet you can't cycle through the enemies when targeting. This throws the wrench into much of the combat-thought that most games in the genre bring.
The AI and combat was the first street to the road to nowhere. The second biggest flaw was the straight-edged linear gameplay. At first I thought the game would have been much more open-ended, but I soon discovered that you had little choice in any arena. Not only is your adventure a one way street, so is the puzzle solving elements. In order to gain access to one area, you must complete that one puzzle before continuing. In games such as Fellowship of the Ring, I want a bit of freedom. The linear play hinders this from making it great. And even the diversity of gameplay couldn't save it from mediocrity.
My last beef with the gameplay is the lack of navigation. While many newer titles are incorporated a hot-spot type of radar, FotR lacks anything. Within many levels, it is hard to tell where you are and you end up going in circles. If they would have incorporated some radar or even made the environments more memorable (like points of interest), much of the play could have been less frustrating.
Oh yea? Well look at my graphics!
As with most mediocre XBOX titles, the graphics are usually the saving graces. LotR is no different. The graphics are quite spectacular. The draw distance is great, nice bump mapping and the color schemes fit the mold perfectly. The animations are smooth and you have to appreciate the entire Tolkien-esque environments.
If you have been playing the XBOX for any amount of time, you'll come across one thing that you haven't experience much since you've been playing. Load time. Once the level loads up, you are good to go, but just getting there takes Big Green some time to pre-render everything. To make matters worse, entering a building or structure causes the Box to load up and redraw everything. It seems to take forever. Another strike against the graphics are the less-than-stellar FMV which could have easily been improved. The developers tried to capture the essence of the movie with some pseudo-letterbox, but the shallow attempt is just not worth the effort.
Probably the best aspect of the game lies within the well-constructed soundtrack as well as brilliant ambient sounds. One thing I've come to expect with next-gen games is the inclusion of dynamically sounding games. I want a games music change dynamically according to the events surrounding it. The game really has some of the best audio coming from any game on the market. And the spatial effects are to die for if you have 5.1 Dolby going on with your system... The same goes for the great voice acting, which litters the game from start to finish.
Overall you have to give kudos to the sound development team, it's unfortunate that the rest of the game doesn't follow suit.
66 Says:
You gotta give it to WXP and Black Label Games, for they got balls. Anyone who tries to tackle a juggernaut like LotR has got to have balls the size of a grapefruit. When you produce a game with the following of a LotR, you already start off with pessimistic fans. Even with my biases aside, the game is just your average title with no real hook or spectacular aspect.
To add insult to injury, the game can easily be completed within 10 hours. If it wasn't for spinning in circles from lack of radar, I could have breezed through this in a whopping eight hours. The game is still worthy enough for a weekend rental, but a full fledged purchase would be ludicrous, for once it's over... it's over.
