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Thats right; another The Lord of the Rings game. Arent we lucky that most of these games are excellent, and that the developers arent shovelling out below-average games like 3DO did with their Army Men series? Hot on the heels of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is yet another Action Adventure game based on JRR Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings: The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King will be quite similar to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which is, of course, a very good thing. The game is largely action-based, having you run through various locations and levels slashing and stabbing Orcs, Cave-Trolls and more, while the story is told through cut-scenes featuring footage from the movies. The games levels will be based in twelve locations from the series, telling the story of the upcoming movie that bears the same title.
In similar (albeit upgraded) fashion to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, youll be able to play as nine different characters (three of which are hidden) in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, including Gandalf the wizard. As you progress through the games levels youll be able to upgrade various features of your character, such as his moves, skills and spells, allowing you to easily take down the more powerful enemies found later in the game.
Brilliantly, the developers have added a co-operative multiplayer mode to The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, allowing you and a friend to fight the armies of Orcs together - this is sure to extend the games lifespan by a mile. Unfortunately, I found the control system to be quite tedious; in an odd move, the developers have tied in the mouse with the common gaming movement keys, W, A, S and D, so that both the mouse and these keys are used for movement. Basically, the mouse turns your character and the W, A, S and D keys move him towards or away from the cameras position. For example, if youre facing to the east of the camera and you hold down W to move in the direction that your character is facing, youll instead move away from the camera to the north. This can often be confusing and frustrating, although youll get a slight hang of it after a few minutes of playing.
As in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, most of the battles in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King will be very hectic; everywhere you look are burning buildings, fights between your comrades and enemies, and hordes of Orcs rampaging around the area. To keep variety flowing, Orcs come in different shapes and sizes and sport different types and amounts of armour and weapons. By using the two mouse buttons, youre able to use one of your two weapons (in Gandalfs case) or pull off all kinds of different attacks and combos by pressing each in quick succession. Each character has a special move, which is pulled off by holding down the right mouse-button; Gandalf raises his staff and slams it into the ground, causing a radial shockwave to blast out, knocking down any surrounding enemies. Its not always easy to pull off, though, as it takes a few moments to prepare - a few moments in which youre completely open to attacks.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers featured a special move that would finish off any downed enemies. This move has returned in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, which is nice to hear - it can be pulled off by simply tapping the Spacebar. Another nice battle-related feature is the ability to knock off parts of the enemies armour - while slicing and dicing, youll notice helmets, gauntlets and more being strewn across the ground as theyre knocked off enemies by your attacks.
Upon choosing to begin the first level of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King I was presented with a cut-scene to introduce it. The camera swung over burning houses in the war-torn city as villagers ran away from the main gate, hoping for safety; soon enough I found myself standing in the centre of the entrance area - playing as Gandalf - attempting to protect as many villagers as possible as they fled in the direction of the others.
Let me tell you: the fire in this game looks amazing - it is, quite literally, photo-like. The lighting effects are also amazing; moving towards a light-source or fire casts a shadow of your character in its respective direction and his clothes light up realistically. The animation is also very well done, even at this stage of the games development; each character moves very realistically and fluidly as they carry out their many animations. The developers have added a small amount of environment destruction; swinging at a wall or pillar causes chips of rock to spray out in all directions. There is still a bit of work to be done on the graphics before the games release, however; the characters need a bit of detailing, the graphics are slightly muddy and some more anti-aliasing is needed in some places.
You can expect to find a great The Lord of the Rings score being played throughout The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and many clangs of swords being hit against Orcish armour - much the same as in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The sound is shaping up very nicely so far, although some grunts and groans from the enemies would be excellent.
I was very impressed with The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King as I thoroughly enjoyed The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and the two games are very similar, which, as I said before, is a very good thing; the same fast-paced, action-packed gameplay and brilliant graphics have returned. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is due out in November 2003 on PC, Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox - because of the control issues mentioned earlier on the PC version, I, personally, will be picking up one of the console versions. This is sure to be a hit; add it to your Christmas list.
Game Review: Lord of the Rings: War of the Rings - PC
Hybrid Mode
