Not nearly as good as it should have been. I'm disappointed.
User Rating: 7 | The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age XBOX
If there was any world that begged to be a background for an RPG it was Middle Earth and the world of Tolkien. Let's face it, Final Fantasy is great, but it's not the epic, high fantasy realm of elves, dwarves and fairies that we love. I've been waiting for someone to make a Lord of the Rings RPG since I was a kid and even more so since the movies came out. When I learned that the new RPG would be by EA Games and therefore based on the movies, I was excited and worried at the same time. Excited because I loved the movies, and worried because EA Games isn't the first group of people you think of when someone says great RPG. Turns out I was right to worry. EA proved they couldn’t make a great RPG, even with the best RPG world ever invented. In fact it's the story and world of Middle Earth that save this game. The way the game plays is 100% linear. You can't leave the main story path if you wanted to. It's really annoying too. All this game is really, is one battle after another. There aren't any stores or armories to buy items and weapons from. You find them in chests conveniently placed all over the world. Don't become to attached to any particular weapon or piece of armor either because you'll most likely replace it within 30 minutes when you find it's upgrade in the next level. At least you can see the change of clothing and weapons reflected on the characters during the battles. The battles themselves are pretty well done, but for some reason on some battles, to ratchet up the difficulty, the enemies will get 4 turns to your 1. Not only is this unrealistic, but it gets really annoying to watch the enemies attack you, seemingly, without end, while you sit there helplessly watching your group perish and die when they started out the attack with full health. The other saving grace of this game, besides the background story, is the sound. Can't say enough about it. The entire award winning music soundtrack from the movies is there and the sound effects are spot on. When you are walking around in a cave, it sounds like you're walking around in a cave. When you walking up to Gandalf battling the Balrog, it sounds like Gandalf is battling a 50 foot tall, fire breathing, demon. All in all this game is average. It could have been so much better. They should have followed Bioware's example and placed the game well before or after the War of the Ring timeframe. I think if they had done that it could have given them the freedom to make a more wide-open game. As it is, I'd recommend this game for any LOTR fan, but if you aren't particularly interested in RPG's or only enjoy the best, save your money for the next Bioware or Square Enix product. 
