Lord of the rings - The third age Nothing more than an average, nothing we've never seen before, using al
As the hero you will meet some characters who will join you in your quest that leads you right after the fellowship of the ring.
You will be guided by Gandalf as a narrator, using parts of the movie to tell you your story.
The game exists out of 9 city's/parts of Middle Earth, in each of which you will have to complete a certain amount of chapters to finally reach your 100% completion. The battle system is a very standard turn-based one. When you defeat an enemy you will earn experience points, after a certain amount of these, you will gain a level. Luckily this levelling keeps some pace in the game, for it doesn't take too long to level up.
Each aquired level up, will gain you points which you can appoint to your overall stats like strength, health... you know the drill.
For every skill you use in battle, you will get a skill-point which teaches you even better skills.
Each of your characters has its own weapons and armor, and there are load and loads of them. A nice touch to this system is that you will actually be able to see the difference between the armor you apply, in-game.
Graphically this game is absolutely ok. Middle-Earth looks a lot like the Middle-Earth we came to know by the film, and the orcs and trolls and other enemies and friends too.
The sound in this game is taken right out of the movie, just as the fmv's, so no complaining there either.
As far as the story goes, it is moving on rather thin ice which will eventually break... There is no real character development in here, you'll just do as Gandalf tells you to. And accept for some small introductions your party members will stay rather anonymous. As a Tolkien reader I was dissapointed in the storyline, but the surroundings, the narrator (Ian McKellen), the shots and music from the movie and the pace of the game make up for it.