October 16, 2002

My Lotr (xbox) Game Review
Jeff C.

I would like to preface this review with the fact that I consider HALO to be the best game ever released for Xbox, and I consider it the standard.

I bought the LOTR ROTK game for the Xbox two days ago. As I first started the game the first thing I noticed is that the controls are really out of whack. The movement is fine, but the camera angle really needs improvement. You should also be able to invert the camera stick, it indicates that you can, but when I changed it in the options menu, no go.

The characters are typical graphic renderings and actually look pretty good. Of course, the faces all lack emotion as most video games do. It looks like all of the characters have had Botox injections, but that is the way most games do it.

The first encounter with Gandalf is ok, but they slipped up in the fact that they showed Gandalf holding the ring and throwing it in the fire.

I was impressed that there were many things in the Shire that you could interact with, even pictures on the wall. It was rather tedious trying to find your way around Hobbiton but once you start reading the road signs, it becomes much easier.

After dealing with all your little missions in the Shire, you finally move on to the old forest. Fight some spiders and bee's with your walking stick and apples and you finally run into Bombadil after you spar with Old Man Willow.

One should keep in mind, that the game does not autosave very often, and you should force a save from time to time, because an untimely death can result in a lot of wasted time.

Bombadil was actually done very well. In fact, most of the scenes are done very well, some especially well.

From Bombadil's house, you do the downs. This was rather fragmented, and seemed more of a waste of time than anything else and could have been done better.

From there you go to Bree, and aside from the fact that Frodo gets kidnapped temporarily, you pretty much head to Weathertop and then become Strider and fight the wraiths with a torch. I liked that section just about the best.

Eventually you make it to Rivendell, many scenes play out here. The voices of the characters are ok, but rather rushed. It works.

You basically go from there to Moria which as everyone probably guesses, is the best part of the entire game. Fight orcs, trolls and a balrog. Lots of spells and action.

From there you end up in Lorien, do the battle on the Anduin, and the game ends. You do manage to catch a lot of scenes with Gollum in it which is a plus.

The game only lasted my two days and in a scale from 1 - 10, I would give it a 4 (10 being best (HALO) ). Several times the game froze up on me, and I checked their support forum and many others had this problem.

Fighting in the game is tedious because you are always trying to turn the camera so you can see your opponent but fortunately the creatures you fight are rather stupid, and generally won't cross a certain line, so step back across that line and hit them with arrows or apples.

The game does stay close to the storyline of the book actually more than the movie, that is a plus. Honestly, if Tolkiens world wasn't involved in this game, I would have gave it a 1 or a 2.

I hope they do better on their next version.

Just my two cents.

- Jeff C.