Publisher: EA Games
Developer: XXXXXX
Rated:

"Return Of The King" [submitted by xboxdude ]

About three years ago New Line released a film based upon the literary works of J.R.R Tolkien. The film earned praise for its closeness to the book and great acting and writing, Along with earning tons of cash. EA took notice and snagged the license to the films and before the second part of the Trilogy was released EA released there videogame based upon the second film. Of course both movie and game did great. Now EA has again released a game based upon the third and final film, Does it live up to the LOTR name?

As in the last game The Return Of The King is a straight old school hack and slash adventure through the films vision of Middle Earth. There are five characters to choose from at the start of the game as well has 4 hidden characters and 15 levels to conquer. The game is split up into three parts which have there own levels and can only be attempted by certain characters (Until you beat the game and can then do any level with whomever you like) there is the Wizard Path, The Kings Path, and the Hobbits Path. Wizards path being Gandalf, Kings being the remaining Fellowship and the Hobbits being the Ring bearer and Sam (Along with Smeagal). The game is a slightly more advanced hack an slash, There controls are easy and comfortable while having some advanced maneuvers to master. As you travel through the game you gain experience that can then be used to purchase upgrades like more health, combos, arrows, as well as others. The game is fairly short spanning somewhere between 8-10 hours, But that is mainly due to the difficulty level. The difficulty is very uneven in this game, Some levels are easy while others are extremely difficult. Games usually begin easy and work on up. But in Return Of The King the difficulty is spread around, so early levels are hard while some later ones are very easy, And some are cheap, escaping the dead�s cave had me wanting to burn the game with its cheap enemy�s and falling obstacles that you cant see because of the camera (Get into that later). But besides the wavering difficulty it�s a pretty short but solid action game.

The presentation is solid. This is what movie to videogames should look like. The characters look exactly like they do in the films along with the actors lending there voices to make it even more authentic. The levels look like they do in the movie and in-between levels are shots taken from last years Blockbuster. While the graphics are good they wont make your jaw drop, That being said there was one level which I actually did take some time to admire the scenery and craziness going on, Gandalf�s path in which he is going to Saramons castle after the Ents have leveled it in ruin, Some parts of that level do look great. But all the action does take a toll on the framerate which stutters at points in the game and really detract from the overall experience. While the Xbox version looks the best and has the most consistent framerate the PS2 version sports Internet Multiplayer for the games Co-Op play which lets you take the Kings Path with a friend which adds some more life into this title, the Gamecube version looks slightly better than the PS2 version also but the controls take alittle more practice.

Besides the sometimes problematic framerate the game also suffers from some camera issues, At certain points the camera is fine but at others you cant see what your running towards which lets you run right into enemies and can cause your life to end pretty quickly. It would also be good if you can play Co-Op on Gandalf�s or the Hobbits paths and it would have been nice if the Xbox version had Xbox Live compatibility.

Besides those annoying little problems the Lord Of the Rings The Return Of The King is a pretty solid hack an slash adventure that will keep LOTR fans drooling and everybody else glued to the television. With the last of the films done this will have to be your LOTR fix until EA�s next offering The Lord of The Rings Trilogy which will come out on all next gen consoles some time next year. Lets hope it turns out as good as this game�.

Graphics: 8
Sound: 9
Control: 9
Replay: 7
Overall: **** / 5

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