Lord of the Rings:Third Age is a great game. Nowhere near as great as it could have been, but they had their hands tied.
User Rating: 6 | The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age PS2
I am a Huge Toilken fan. I own All of the books, and yes that includes the Simirilian. I own all the extended versions of all three movies. both the books and films were epic. this game, unfourtunetly, is not quite there. First off, the story. The Story starts out very promising, and kept my interest for most of the game, as I waited to see just who Berethor Really was. Honor-bound knight? Yellow-bellied coward? or a wolf in sheeps clothing? Sadly, this became the driving force of the story, so that the characters who join up with you in your quest get lost in the shuffle. They manage to surface every now and then, but even the supposed 'love-triangle' isn't really very believable. Near the end, that's exactly what i was wanting from the story...it to end. And that's a sad statement. The graphics. They are very pretty to look at, and there were a few times when my jaw dropped open, once at the begining, fighting the Balrog(beautiful) and the last Boss(gotta see that to believe it). but other than those times, the graphics didn't really look like they were Trying to impress me. They were merely adequate, and seemed content to stay that way. I will say, that having each individual peice of armor show up on each character was very cool..and very cool to look at, too...and the activation of special skills was always accomponied by some really nice effects, Idrial and Berethor having the best. The gameplay. I don't like being told where to go. And i certainly don't like it when i am forced to go that way. Why then, does this game see fit to put you on 'rails' as it were, as far as where you can go?You have two choices: you can either go forward, or you can move back(sometimes).Aside from that, the combat is pretty straightforward. Although the enemies HP grows by around 300% unexpectedly in the latter third of the game, there's really not much you can do about it, because the concept of 'random' escaped the programmers when it came to encounters. there are almost no encounters that are not scripted into the game to happen at such-and-such a place, and it is extremely difficult to raise your warriors stats high enough to deal with later threats. The Sound. The voice-acting is all very well done, in my opinion, and the grunts of Orcs and Urak-Hai during battle mingle well with the clash of steel and the thunk of arrows(or the sound said arrows make when pulled back on the quiver). the music, while not my favorite, fits each scene fairly well, but it tends to get repititave quickly. replay value. Although EA added a mode where you can play as the enemies your party fought in many of the battles, and the rewards for winning each chapter's battles are nice, it would take someone better at this game then I to explain how the same enemies that almost whipped you when controlled by the A.I. could be so weak against the A.I. controlled party, who, i might add, know skills and abilities that your party did not have access to during that fight. And as for when the game ends, let's just say that Quest 64 had about the same amount of reward for finishing. Q84 had 1 screen ending, and then it was back to the main menu. TA offers a nice speech by Gandalf, but after that is over, main menu. no clear save. no new modes unlocked. no art gallery. no reason to ever play it again. Overall, this game is as faithfull to the story as the liscense allowed it to be, but it is a real shame that in the end, that's the best thing i can say about it. 
