Twelve long years ago, Interplay has released a game called The Lord of the Rings, which was based on the first book of Tolkien's trilogy. The game was a culmination of a long development process of games based on Tolkien's books. These games ranged from text-based adventures, such as The Hobbit, through role-playing games to an odd, yet very well designed mix of adventure and strategy in War in the Middleearth. Lord of the Rings was a top-down role-playing game, which followed the book rather loosely, adding a multitude of new, interesting quests. When I heard that this new version of the game was based on the book instead of the movie, I got very curious and went to buy it as soon as it hit the store shelves. Much to my dismay, the game turned out to be a complete waste of money.
Lord of the Rings - the game
According to the publisher, Lord of the Rings is an action-adventure game. From what I could tell, however, it is a pure action game, very poorly created. You start out as Frodo Baggins, and over the course of the game you will also have Aragorn and Gandalf under your command. In a third-person view, you will follow the story of the book pretty closely, with a few optional quests on the side, supposedly to make the gameplay more interesting.
The game consists of a number of levels, which you have to finish to move on. Most of the time, all you have to do is to reach the exit from the level, but sometimes you have to finish other tasks first, such as finding a certain item or people. Considering the fact that Frodo runs faster than almost anybody in the game, most of the time you will not have to fight at all, but simply run in the right direction. Only a few times, you will have to defeat a level boss before moving on.
On the adventure side, there's really not that much. The optional quests are mainly of a fed-ex nature, where you run from one person to the next, carrying messages or items. The rest of the quests is on par with Doom or Quake: pushing buttons and pulling levers to access another area. Probably the only interesting puzzle is the one where you have to throw stones to distract other monsters, so that you can sneak around them. In addition, you will have an inventory, where you will be storing mainly healing items and items that restore manna for Gandalf. You will collect these and other items by simply walking to them, so even this part doesn't offer any intellectual challenge.
The special feature of the game, which attempts to set the Lord of the Rings apart from other action games, is the use of the ring. When Frodo uses the ring, he becomes invisible, but his purity meter decreases. Once it hits zero, Frodo is corrupted by the ring and the game ends. There are actually two purity meters. The first one decreases very fast, limiting the time Frodo can have the ring on. However, it replenishes almost as fast when he puts down his ring. The other meter decreases slower, but doesn't replenish, limiting the number of times Frodo can use the ring. Due to the fact that the reward in most quests is replenishment of this purity meter, you will always have more purity than you'd wish for.
Interface
The game is presented in a third-person perspective, but you'll be able to switch to a first person most of the time. However, the field of view in the first person mode is so narrow that it can be used to a little effect only when shooting; otherwise the first person view will only get you lost. In addition to basic movements, jumping and climbing, Frodo will be able to bash monsters with his stick or throw stones at them. Aragorn is able to shoot arrows, fight with his sword and stun enemies with his kicks. Gandalf is the only one who can cast spells, in addition to fighting with his staff. He has five spells, ranging from healing to casting an area spell that stuns all monsters around him. While the controls are fairly standard, I found it very hard to actually hit someone. Aiming at a certain monster when surrounded is nearly impossible. However, there are two problems with the interface, one of which completely destroyed the game for me.
The minor problem I found is that whenever you access your inventory, your game pauses. This allows you to heal without any interruption in the middle of the worst fight, and greatly decreases the authenticity of the game for me. By far the largest problem with the game, however, is the camera. It stubbornly hangs behind your character, causing it to get stuck behind walls or trees quite often. As a result, you will often see a big black screen in front of you (if you are lucky, with some nice texture), and hear the sounds of fighting from behind the wall. The already hard task of hitting opponents thus becomes impossible.
Authenticity
The lack of authenticity in this game is such a serious issue that it requires its own heading. The first major problem is apparent right at the beginning: the conversation between Frodo and Gandalf lasts maybe three minutes, during which Frodo immediately knows what to do and why he has to do it. These mental shortcuts will be quite prominent in the game, making it much less believable. There are not only mental shortcuts, however. Some of the levels are not well connected, and people who didn't read the book may get confused from time to time. The most glaring example is when the party miraculously moves from Rivendel straight to Moria, skipping over fifty pages of the book and twenty minutes of the movie.
The second problem lies in your companions. They seem to be nearly immortal, which allows you to stand back and enjoy the fight. Your characters are either weak (Frodo) or extremely slow (Aragorn and Gandalf), so letting others fight seems like a good idea. You'll soon find out, however, that a pissed-off hobbit can kill an army of orcs, and an enraged dwarf chop his way through the entire mines of Moria, without suffering a scratch. In other words, nothing can kill the non-player party members. True, they get knocked out here and there, but they always get up and finish the job.
And if you really don't want to fight, simply run. Frodo runs so fast that almost nothing can keep up with him. Once or twice he will have to use the ring to get out of reach of the monsters first, but then nothing can stop him. Considering that in most levels all you have to do is to reach the exit, you will end up actually fighting in less than a dozen of battles. I am wondering why the designers included fighting at all in the game...
Gameplay - 3
Overall, the gameplay is absolutely hideous. The camera will show you a stone wall instead of your character, and even when you are able to see him, hitting someone will be a miracle. Puzzles and quests are inept and the action avoidable. Even the story doesn't save the gameplay, chopped as it is.
Graphics - 7
Graphics, on the other hand, are excellent. It was here that I realized that the developer tried really hard to create a great game, not another heist this year has been famous for. The world of Middleearth is simply breathtaking in the game: from the lush fields of the Shire, through the ominous forests to the dark halls of Moria, everything looks very authentic. This game is also one of the few 3D titles where I noticed depth in the textures of most objects.
However, there are small problems here. Probably the first problem you notice is the outrageous hardware requirements. My home computer, which is slightly over the recommended requirements, was able to play the game only on minimal graphical settings at a frame rate of 10 to 15 FPS. In comparison, the same computer achieves a 40 FPS frame rate when playing Morrowind on medium graphical settings. The hardware requirements will exclude everybody with less than a 1GHz processor and 256MB RAM from enjoying the graphics. On my other test computer, a 2.5GHz, 512MB RAM monster, however, the graphics were awesome. The other problem is relatively minor: the character models are relatively simple, and so they look flat and have a few polygon clipping problems, but nothing serious.
Sound - 7
The musical score for this game is one of the best I've ever heard. The orchestral music changes with each setting and whether there is some action going on or not, setting the appropriate mood for the game. However, it remains in the background just enough to not break your concentration.
Sound, on the other hand, is a mixed bag. Most sounds are relatively generic, and voices just above average. The designers were clearly influenced by the movie, as everybody but Sam is trying to imitate his movie counterparts. Aragorn is the most extreme result of this imitation: he is so overdone that I amused myself by trying to kill him most of the time. The worst problem here, however, is the lack of surround sound. Even in the third person view, the field of view is relatively limited, and I would really want to hear whether a monster approaches from behind or not. I could not determine it in this game, which forced me to turn around constantly.
Replay value - 2
I thought that a game could not get worse than the recent offerings from Westwood, which take less than 10 hours to complete. I was wrong. If you have any skill in action gaming, you will finish the game in five hours. If you prefer doing all the quests, exploring every corner and fighting every monster, you will spend a grand total of eight to ten hours with this game. At the price of $50, this translates into $5 to $10 per hour of entertainment. The only form of entertainment that is more expensive is a trip to the Orbital Space Station.
Once you are finished with the game, there is absolutely no reason to replay it. The linear gameplay and very limited movement options (sometimes it feels more like Super Mario World, but without the monsters) will make the replay a matter of two or three boring hours. When you play the game the first time, however, you will be mildly entertained, which is why I had to give this category two points.
Final verdict - 4.8
I got the feeling that the developers tried very hard to deliver a game that we would remember ten years from now. While offering no innovation, they have created a game with awesome graphics and excellent sound. However, they seem to have missed a creative mind behind this project, who would design a more enjoyable gameplay, keep the story more coherent and make the game three times as long as it turned of to be. Unless you are a die-hard Lord of the Rings fan and want to keep the game for collector's purposes, don't even think about buying this game, unless the price drops to $5. I can only hope that somebody else will be responsible for the next part; otherwise The Two Towers will never find a way into my shopping cart.
