Many years ago J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a series of
books that created a tremendous fan base over the years, known as: The Lord
of the Rings. When the movie, based on the novel, was released in December
of 2001, it made the popularity of the series explode. When a movie like this
hits it big, there are sure to be games modeled after it. This time around there
are two different games based off the same series. EA’s Lord of the Rings games
are modeled after the movies, while Surreal game’s are based on the books. Will
Surreal’s game follow closely to the book, and will it retain the sense of
adventure the books had? Read on to find out!
Although many people know the story line, with the help of the recent movies,
here is a recap of what happens. Eons ago there were rings given to each race:
Elves, dwarfs, and humans, to help them rule and keep control. The Dark Lord
Sauron made another ring in the volcano of Mordor, one that will rule all the
other rings. A great war ensued trying to overthrow Sauron, and after a fierce
battle the people of Middle Earth accomplished their mission. Time has passed
and now the Dark Lord has risen again, looking for his ring, so that he may
complete his body with his soul. The only thing that prevents him from
accomplishing this is a fellowship of people. Three of the most distinguished,
characters in the game are: Frodo, Aragorn, and Gandalf. The only way to defeat
Sauron is to cast the ring into the fires in which it was created. The constant
reminder of impending evil is written on the ring: "One ring to rule them all,
one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind
them."
Each character has a different set of weapons. Frodo’s weapons are a walking
stick, a westernesse dagger, and sting. The walking stick is a wooden stick,
mostly used for walking, and is a weak weapon. The Westernesse dagger is a short
dagger made by the mortal’s humans of Earth. Sting is a great weapon forged by
the Gondolin black smiths, and it will glow blue when Orcs are present. Aragorn
has a long sword, which is commonly used by many people in the land. He also has
the Anduril, which was originally called the Narshil, but was broken in the
fight with Sauron. Later on, it was reforged by the Elves and is a very powerful
sword. Gandalf has a long sword called Galmdring that glows when enemies are
near.
Besides all of the melee weapons, each character has projectiles they can use.
Frodo will throw rocks at his opponents. Aragorn will use his trusty bow and
arrow to make his presence known. Gandalf uses offensive and defensive magic
such as fire, lighting, heal, attack, and staff strike. Fire Blast will create a
fiery projectile which is hurled towards the enemies. The Chain lighting will
strike many enemies at once, causing horrendous damage. Gandalf is able to heal
himself with a healing magic spell. Arrack will grant him the power to strike
fear in the hearts of all enemies in close range, and they will begin attacking
one of their own members. Staff Strike occurs when he hurls his staff to the
ground knocking enemies off balance, making it easier for players to kill
enemies when they are off guard.
The controls for the game are as follows: Left analog stick will move the
characters around, while the right one will move the camera. X button is for
kicking or jumping, and the triangle is the action button. Square is a melee
attack, and circle is a projective attack. Moving the D-pad to the left or right
will choose a different item or weapon; up and down will change the item
categories. L1 is block, L2 will make players go into first person mode, R1 is a
target lock, and R2 will give players a quick access to the inventory.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is rated T for Teen due to
blood and violence. The game will take 250kb on your memory card.
Gameplay: 7.3
The game plays very similar to The Legend of Zelda, or more recently, Dark
Cloud. The only bad thing about this game is that it is set in Middle Earth, and
is not as fun as the other two games. The control for the characters feels a
little stiff at times, but it will not hinder the gameplay in any sense. The
ability to play as three different characters, with completely different ways of
getting things accomplished is really fun. Frodo is the weakest of the three
because he is not able to use magic or bows and arrows; and instead he throws
rocks. Since he is the holder of the ring, he can use that in battle. It will
make him turn invisible, but he can only use it for a limited time before he
might be in serious danger. Gandalf is a blast to play. Not only can he fight
with swords, but since he is a powerful wizard, magic is at his disposal.
Aragorn is all about hand-to-hand combat, he is excellent with the sword and has
an infinite amount of arrows at his disposal. In other words, he is the ultimate
fighter.
Unfortunately, the game can get repetitive and mundane quickly. The combat is
too simple, and takes the fun out of killing the hordes of demons sent to take
the ring back to Sauron. The missions themselves are redundant, for example, it
seems that Frodo always has to look for his idiotic hobbit friends. Another one
of my "favorite" mission types is what I call "telephone search." What this
means is that players talk to one NPC, and they give him an objective. To
finally complete this first objective you will have to talk to at least 3 more
people to help them out before they give you what you need. This gets extremely
boring fast. It is such a shame because the game has a lot of potential, but a
few gameplay quirks ruin it.
Graphics: 7.9
The game looks pretty nice. It offers huge levels that are nicely detailed.
With all the fog that is hidden within the levels, players might think that the
developers are trying to hide in the draw in distance, and prevent popup. Seeing
as this game is set is in a dark mystical world, it works out perfectly. The
character models are nice and have a high polygonal count. The only problem with
this game is that since the release of the movie, players will always associate
Frodo Baggins as Elijah Wood and no other character will be the same. This is
one aspect, which is not the developer’s fault, but the fact that the movies
were released before the games.
Sound: 7.0
The sound effects and music are nice throughout the game. Again, what kills
the score is that the movie came out first. Therefore there are certain tracks
people expect to hear in specific areas, (like in the beginning of the game, in
Frodo’s village). The music sounds similar, but it just isn’t the same as the
film’s soundtrack. The voice acting is mediocre, but at times, some of the
characters voices do not match up to the actual characters. Overall Surreal did
a decent job in this department.
Difficulty: Easy
The Fellowship of the Ring, was a little on the easy side. The missions were
too repetitive, and not challenging. The fighting engine itself seems like it
was dumbed down for the lowest common dominator.
Concept: 7.7
The game mechanics give off this "been there, done that" feeling. The game
itself feels like a poor rehash of Zelda, which is not entirely a bad thing.
There are many things that Surreal could have done to improve the game, and make
it seem less simplistic.
Overall: 7.4
Seeing The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring will ruin this game
for you. Even though this game offers many things that are important to the
story, those things are not in the movie. I have become a victim of brand
recognition. Therefore it is extremely difficult to distinguish any other
character model, voice, or anything else that is associated with the game, other
than what was in the movie. This game does follow the book closely, and players
will see certain things that have been omitted, which will answer a few
questions. All of the brand recognition would not be a huge deal if the game was
not over simplified and extremely short to play. This game will only suit
hardcore fans of the J.R.R. Tolkien series.
