The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Fantasy meets epic. The 80's was full of medievil fantasies, and those of us who loved them, fantasized that they were this good. It is everything you want it to be and more. People who aren't avid fans of the series might think the last 15 minutes drag, but its a small price to pay for the rest. For those who are avid fans, the last fifteen minutes is necessary closure.

The video game is awesome. The graphics are great and it follows the movie which is good too. Plus, you get bonus footage of the Return of the King movie too. It's all good in my book. I give it 2 thumbs up. It's a game worthy playing.

The comments here and everywhere else speak for themselves and words cannot descibe the magnitude of influence that such a film, nevertheless triolgy, filmmaker can have on history, art, the world. Return of the King draws you in further and beyond by having the absolute power to keep you engaged with the characters and this epic sotry. You'll leave the theater pondering its magnificence and perhaps saddened that Peter Jackson's mastperiece series has come to an end. For me it reminded me of the potential for the resilience of mankind and the genuine sadness of the brutality of war yet the hope for something better. My admiration and apprciation for the fruition of the literary masterpiece into this movie has only grown and will continue to do so. To be awed, seeing Return of The King on the big screen is one that should not be neglected.

If you think of the EA Lord of the Rings games as members of the Action/Adventure genre you are in reality wrong. Since the dawn of video game history, there has always been a genre known as Hack 'n' slash. The Hack 'n' slash genre is basically meaning that the game does not necessitate much mental input, but instead requires the player to use a certain amount of button bashing. Button bashing games however have always had the tendency for getting dull very easily, with this game however, that doesn't seem to be the case. With 9 characters to play with, all wielding their own unique weapons and special moves, this game doesn't get tedious for a long while. Fun-wise, the Return of the King keeps the action velocity up long enough to constantly keep you interested. Should it be fighting an assemblage of fierce Urik-hai, or spear throwing at some nearby goblins, this game succeeds in the keeping-the-player-interested section. As for the upgraded features from the previous Two Towers game, you can now fully interact with the scenery around you. Characters can now pick up spears and fire catapults, as well as lower drawbridges and cutting roles holding up huge chandeliers (Ah… memories.) As for warfare, it is much swifter. You get the Lord of the Rings fighting style in a much more stimulating and further moving perspective.

For me and of course many others, sound is one of the most important aspects of a game. Without a first-class main theme, or an exhilarating and heroic character melody, a game is, in essence, pointless. Being the licensed movie game, Return of the King was therefore given the rights to use the soundtrack from the movies, composed by Howard Shore. This was a huge excitement for me, as I worship the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, especially the main theme. Should it be the Shire melody, or the terrifying Nazgul tune, the soundtrack from the Lord of the Rings is truly amazing, and of course, fits this game perfectly. My only disappointment however, was that the main theme is only played briefly once, during the after-level screen. I feel that inserting it into some major battles would keep the player's morale up, just as the Legend of Zelda overture would keep a Zelda fan happy if it was played during a conflict or Ganon battle. (Heh, wouldn't it have been nice if the overture was played in a final Ganon battle…?) Sound effects are taking from real weapons, which I learnt whilst watching a bonus movie having completed the game. This adds to the whole experience and only makes the sound better.

Here, EA have really proved what they can do. This game is graphically beautiful and amazing to look at. The character models have been created with amazing detail. Just look at Sam's face and see what I'm talking about. Another thing I thought was pretty cool, which has been improved drastically from the previous game, is the way that the game graphics flow into movie clips from the actual film. Those who have played it will know how awesome this actually looks.

J.R.R Tolkien is the master of fantasy writing, and having read the Lord of the Rings book after I watched the first film, I was gripped by his extreme ability to write. The world of Middle-Earth is indeed an amazing and fantastic place; full of adventure, monsters, beauty and of course heroes. The game focuses on the warfare aspects of the film mostly, but for knowing that there is a much more detailed and epic tale inside of it all, it truly makes the experience worthwhile. Hands down to you Mr. Tolkien.

In conclusion, the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King isn't the best game of all time, nor is it the worst. By far, it is probably one of the best Hack 'n' Slash games yet. With a memorable cast of unique and wonderful characters, a plot to die for, and of course one of the best soundtracks to grace the video game industry, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is truly magical.

It seems a common malady of modern video games, but what we have here is millions of dollars worth of voice actors, graphical rendering, sound engineering, and licensing in search of any level of fun. To its credit, the game finds it for the first few levels, but once it tries to recreate any complex aspect of the novel or the films, it falls flat. The battle through Osgilliath is a good example of this. Video games are meant to be entertaining, relaxing, above all fun. Osgilliath stops this game from being fun. Instead of having fun, we're constantly running blind through the ruins, unsure of which way to go, trying desperately to get somewhere before the time runs out and the Ringwraith takes Frodo.

Needless to say, if it were possible to save the game at any point and return to a viable moment just before the cock-up, it might have been possible to overlook this. Unfortunately, the ridiculous system of only saving at checkpoints that plagues console games is in force here, and there are one or two such points in the levels, if that. So if you should happen to die just before the end of the level, and I garantee that you will, you lose all the work you did in the last half-hour and have to repeat everything you just did once more. Such repetition is exactly what is killing video games in this era. Would it have been too much to ask for a Resident Evil style of game saving, which does the great job of combining gameplay elements with keeping the game playable?

Another thing makes the whole affair annoying is that the game offers no control whatsoever over the camera. Some of the positions we see the heroes and their targets from are so annoying that it's a wonder people played this game fast the first few levels. A close tracking shot behind the character, or even through the character's eyes, would have been nice options to start with. Maybe the people at Electronic Arts should have taken a look at Silver, possibly the best console game revolving around small-party adventure. While that style isn't strictly a good one for a game in this frantic setting, they still could have learned things like keeping a clear view so that the player can see which direction he is meant to swing his sword in.

It's also worth noting that Silver was a lot more fun to play in combat, in spite of being noticeably slower. The reason for this is that slow, deliberately paced combat allows the player to make tactical decisions, accept the consequences of those decisions, and even learn from their mistakes. ROTK as a video game borders dangerously on being one of those "mash the buttons to win" games where the player frantically wiggles sticks around and bashes the buttons in the hope that the outcome might be favourable. This takes the control of the player's gaming experience out of their hands and makes it even more annoying. Considering that ROTK is one of the most, if not THE most, expensive games in Australia at $110 in Australian funds, this is just adding insult to injury.

Small wonder, then, that sites which post walkthroughs and cheat codes for video games are still so incredibly popular. Being that I was a child during the Intellivision days, I can remember when video games didn't need to be cheated on or hacked in order to be fun. The proliferation of sources for information to do these things in the modern era is probably the saddest indictment of all against modern video games.