A pretty good game that suffers from bad camera, bad AI, and several other flaws...
After the Two Towers it was obvious that they'd finish off their line of games for the Lord of the Rings. However, the Two Towers had several obvious flaws that made it worse as a title. The bad camera angles and the combat being made simply for one-on-one fights did nothing to help the game. Now EA games is back with The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King. Did it improve upon the rent worthy Two Towers and spring into the must have area?
-Storyline-
The story of The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King is not satisfying. The Two Towers made you feel like you were playing the movie. As if you were actually there during the movie scenes and helping out. It was satisfyingly close to the film. The Return of the King fails in that aspect. It is a whole different plot entirely. Gandalf planned everything in it. Frodo was always meant to be the Ringbearer. Sam was always destined to go with him. Aragorn was meant to summon the army and Gandalf was meant to play his little part in it. Since when was the whole plot of the films a plan of Gandalf's design? Due to that element, and Gandalf's voiceovers in areas where he doesn't belong, the story falls short of the film. It makes it look like they knew everything that was going to happen when in the true story everything that happened was of their own individual decision.
STORYLINE SCORE: 4/10
Reason - Not close enough to the film's story. That ruined the film-like experience.
-Controls-
The controls were actually carried over from The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers. With three new additions. The ability to jump back from enemies, the item interaction button, and the 'Character Special'.
"A" is your standard attack button. 'Quick Attacks' as they are called in the game. They are just underpowered assults that you can do quickly.
"Y" is your power attack button. 'Feirce Attacks' as they are called in the game. They are just higher powered moves used to break shields but are pretty slow to execute compared to the Quick Attacks.
"B" is your blocking button. 'Parrying' as they call it in the game. It gets a bit of use during boss battles but is esentially useless because your attacks block the enemy attacks most of the time.
"X" is your final attacks. 'Physical Attacks' as they are called in the game. (So swinging a sword is not physical?) These are mainly useless to you unless you are playing the Path of the Wizard. You knock down ladders on the walls of Minas Tirith.
"C-Stick" The C-Stick also controls your weapons. It'd have been more useful as a camera control feature but beggars cannot be choosers.
"L" The L button loads an arrow or an axe or a knife. 'Ranged Attack' as they are called.
"L+A" This combination of buttons fires a ranged weapon. Hold down the L button to load them up and press A to fire.
"R" The final attack you can perform is the Finishing move. This is where you end the life of your enemy while they are on the ground. Simple as that.
"Z" This is the item interaction button. You interact by knocking things over, throwing spears, and other interactions.
"Control Pad Down" This is where you 'cowardly' jump away from your foes! Okay it's not that cowardly and is more strategic. It allows you to jump out of the way when you know you cannot block. I found little use for this button during my play through.
"L+R" This activates the character specials. A timer will go displaying how long the special has left and when it is over you have to wait before using this again.
"Start/Pause" Pauses the game and goes to the pause menu.
The controls fit the style of the game but I still wouldn't have minded a little change to them. But they are comfortable to use and get the job done.
CONTROL SCORE: 8/10
Reason - They are comfortable but you would really get tired of how they haven't done anything to improve from The Two Towers.
-Sound/Music-
All right the Lord of the Rings films have some of the best music and sound effects used. The game follows suit with great music and sound effects. The voiceover work of Gandalf could use a little work on some levels but other than that it is fine. The biggest annoyance is that Orlando Bloom couldn't be bothered to play his own character for the game. And the sword SFX aren't anything special. But the music is similar to the movie, if not taken exactly from it, and is amazing.
AUDIO SCORE: 9/10
Reason - Great music, great voicework for most of the game but bad in some levels, actors can't play all the roles.
-Graphics-
I won't sugar coat this. The graphics are nothing special. When you turn on a game like Metroid Prime or Metroid Prime 2: Echoes or even Resident Evil 4 you go 'wow' by the graphics. When I turned on The Return of the King I was silent. It wasn't amazing but it improved on the Two Towers. The textures on the enemies and the environments are nice but the few slowdowns the game does have really is annoying. The main character s really aren't that good. They don't move their mouths when talking and the only time they look amazing is ... never. The most amazing thing, graphicswise, would be the environments. Other than that and the improved enemy s you really aren't getting something worthy of a "WOW!" Not to say it doesn't put up a good presentation. The game came out a few years ago and things have improved since then. Several moments do give you a "Wow" feeling, however, like the Pelennor Fields level camera making if seem epic and when you run from the collapsing caves. But there are very few "Wow" moments.
GRAPHICS SCORE: 8.5/10
Reason - Good graphics but nothing special.
-Gameplay-
All right I won't sugar coat this. The gameplay is not the best in the world. The game takes a lot from the Two Towers but has also improved things. Wave after wave of enemies will come at you but you are more equiped to fight them this time. The same gameplay mechanics are in this and you sometimes are wondering whether they just slapped the TT engine on and upgraded one or two things and produced it.
One of the biggest changes you'll notice is in combat. You are now more suited to fight multiple enemies than you were in The Two Towers. The game allow you to block the enemy attacks while attacking without having to take a few seconds to attack again. You will find yourself surrounded and you will have more of a chance to survive than you used to.
The next change is item interaction. It plays a huge role in the game. You will find yourself sliding down ropes and climbing up others. Climbing ladders and throwing spears. You have a handful of items to interact with. However a handful is not much. You will soon find the recycled items in future levels and wish for more variety.
The biggest letdown though is the character specials. They all are pretty much... bad. Samwise Gamgee can hide himself using his cloak for a limited ammount of time. Gandalf has a shield that kicks the enemies around for him for a short while and Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli just gain extra experience when using their special. It is a letdown that you couldn't use a cool attack from Gandalf for his special and that Legolas doesn't do something with his Bow & Arrows. But these do come in handy.
The standard combat is taken from Two Towers. You have speed attacks and feirce attacks. Speed attacks are weak and fast. Feirce are strong and medium speed. Then you can use your physical attacks to kick at things. The physical attacks are practically useless. The Ranged Weapons are also back the same way they were in the Two Towers. No change to that feature.
The gameplay of The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King is pretty much basic. Defeat a group of enemies and move on. Once in a while you will have a greater objective, like staying alive and helping 200 people make it to safety or protecting Eowyn and Merry. But overal it is pretty basic and a letdown.
Another letdown isn't just the main focus of the game but the levels. While they are nice and true to the film they are just too straightforward. You never get to wander around Minas Tirith or Helms Deep. You are stuck on a forward path that never takes any branches. Aside from Shelob's Lair but that is a pretty short area and you'll find yourself moving on the only long path, which is forward. Certain areas aren't even true to the film, like Pelennor Fields.
The AI of the game is terrible. Your AI 'friends' will just sit there while you get attacked over and over. Their lack of help can even cost the level. It is truly annoying to know that the most lazy characters in the game have infinite health and barely help out. Even on easy mode they are just standing around. The enemy AI is pretty basic. Just attack everything that is not a fellow baddy or the environment. Bosses are easy to defeat due to the fact that they are programmed like the games of old days. Do the same thing as much as possible just increase your power while doing it. It doesn't work out and makes the bosses dull.
Aside from combat being a letdown and the bad AI and disappointing levels what else do we have? Well it is always fun to be locked out of a level until you beat the game isn't it! A feature that is the most annoying thing in the entire game. You beat a level and cannot play it as the same character, and if you beat it with all characters available you can't play it at all, until you beat the game.
That's not to say that the entire game is bad. It is still fun to take on a ton of orcs, surrounded, and defeat each and every one. There are some fun sequences of the game like the collapsing tunnel. The variety of characters is nice and when all characters can play every level it is a treat to take your favorite character into areas they don't belong. But still the game is pretty disappointing. It is fun while it lasts though.
Button mashing is a huge part of the game. Feirce Attacks and Quick Attacks can get you through almost any opponent in the game. Once in a while you'll have to parry and use ranged weapons and physical attacks but for the majority of the time you can button mash your way through it.
You may have hoped that the developers abandoned the camera from the Two Towers and gave us one we could control. There is no such luck. The C-Stick is, once again, a fighting button. And the camera angles can get in your way and annoy you to no end.
Co-Op has been added in! An entirely new feature that would save the game but it isn't done right. Because of the movie feel you must have you have one camera and both characters must move to move the camera angle. It also has all the flaws of Single Player mode. Straightforward levels, same controls, same gameplay. The difficulty doesn't even increase to make it more of a challenge! It was very disappointing but fun.
GAMEPLAY SCORE: 5/10
Reason - The gameplay is basic and button mashing can get through almost any opponent, the levels are too straightforward and only thing about comabt that is improved is the fact that you can take on more enemies at once.
-Replay Value-
There is very little replay value. Once you unlock playing all the characters you can go through the game and play as them but there is nothing to collect once you have beaten it. The cheats they give you only cheapen the game and the extra characters aren't really the best of extra characters. The replay value is very low, sadly.
REPLAY VALUE: 1.5/10
Reason - Barely any replay value at all.
-Closing-
The developers seemed to focus so much on giving us a movie-like experience that they forgot to improve entirely on the Two Towers. They even failed to make it movie-like with the new storyline. And the terrible lack of levels and how straightforward the levels are don't help. They left in everything good about the Two Towers, fun gameplay while it lasts, and a lot that was bad, camera angles and bad level design.
FINAL SCORE: 6.6/10