More of a trailer for the film!
If you have played the previous game you will probably settle into this game in a couple of minutes. Controls are pretty much the same. You gain experience from killing enemies. The better the combo and technique, the more experience you will receive. This allows you to upgrade your fighting skills after each level. You can use more of your gained experience to upgrade the entire fellowship ( This costs more of course ). Now this may seem interesting, but you will probably find yourself using certain combos more than others, they will allow you to reach PERFECT mode quicker, so why use the others? You can upgrade combos, ranged attacks, special move and health. It is all very basic though so don't expect something like the upgrades in Oblivion! There are three paths you can take - Path of the Wizard allows you to play as Gandalf, probably the best character to play as he is very powerful of course. You will follow his path from the end of The Two Towers, up until the final battle of Return Of The King. Path of the King allows you to play as the main three characters from the previous game, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas and the final path is the Path of the Hobbits. You will play as Sam and with the help of Gollum and Frodo you will play all the way through the game to the Crack of Doom. This is a good idea. It varies the game a bit and will force you to spend your Experience wisely! After completing the game you can play any level on any path with any character. So if you want to fight the King of the Dead as Gandalf...you can!
Graphics - 7/10
Decent graphics for the PS2. Nothing special. It has improved a little from the previous game but will still seem a bit samey. The movement between film and in game gxf is still very well done.
Sound - 9/10
The sound is very well done. All the actors have recorded their voices and it definetly makes the game better. Sound effects of large battles sound very good and will give the game an "Epic" feel as if you are actually up against thousands of enemies. Music from the movies also plays its part. Definetly the high point of this game.
Value - 7/10
Did you like The Two Towers? Then you will definetly like this. There has been some changes, but not THAT many. You will pick up the controls etc in less than half an hour if you have never played the previous game. The difficulty is rather easy, even on hard mode...and you can complete the game in one sitting. It is definetly not a classic. The game seems to focus more on showing clips from the movies...you will see what I mean as there are tonnes of videos you can unlock which just shows the actors talking...pointless. There is no point warning you about spoilers from the film that the makers obviously didn't care about. Luckily I had already read the books, but I find it shocking that all these clips were used a month before the film was even released. All in all, a fair game whcih will keep you happy for a few hours at least!