An impossible difficulty makes this abomination the pillar of bad games based off movies.
Sadly, I'd rather watch those gems than to torture myself with this pile of ****. This game adaptation of an amazing movie is sickening, I loathe it's creators and punishing difficulty level. This is the motherload of bad games based off movies. The game based off Wanted was great, X-Men: Origins was great and even the game based off Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was passable compared to this abomination.
In fact, the only reason I'm reviewing this game is to warn others, even die-hard Tolkien fans to stay far, far away from this. Not even when you see the game for $2,5 you shouldn't pick it up. You could save those $2,5 and save a little more to buy the actual movies. Believe me, it's just not worth it.
The graphics are a little lego-ish and challenge the infamous Uncanny Valley but to me, they are acceptable for late 2003's standards.
The story starts off vigorously enough in the middle of the battle for Helmsdeep, which isn't such a bad thing. You will start off with Gandalf the White as he's coming to The Fellowship's aid. After a relatively simple but nice mission you'll get to a level up screen where you can spend points for a better upgrade and you will get to a level select screen where you can choose between some actual and fictional missions of the movies.
This all sounds very nice and it could've made this game a must-buy if it just focused on some complex button-mashing, but it isn't. No matter what level you choose or what difficulty you are choosing, you'll spend days on it. Days. Just running past the orcs and other enemies is a simply impossible task. Your enemies are in seemingly infinite numbers and hit so much all the time. This could have been avoided if the parry-move worked for a change, but it doesn't.
The checkpoint-system is inconsistent but mostly non-existent. You'll crave for another checkpoint but mostly your prayers won't be heard.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a horrible game and not worthy of it's license, to say the least. It's painful and all bad all the time.
TOTAL SCORE: 45%