The Video Games

[Knight of Gondor]

I am a gamer of a lesser sort; I only play PC games. Which makes me quite unhappy that The Two Towers (and Fellowship combo) was never released for PC.

However, I love Return of the King. Next to the Spider-Man video game, it's one of the first epic video games I played, and it was fantastic.

I don't believe I recognize the serious deviations from the books/movies, necessarily. Gandalf going to Isengard was more of a flashback than a deviation. Obviously, Aragorn didn't really have to fight the King of the Dead, and obviously Sam didn't have to kill a hundred orcs to get to Frodo, but these are all within the range of expected changes for a fighting video game.

I was driven quite mad from trying to finish certain levels. It took me a long time to defeat the King of the Dead, and I died dozens of times during the escape sequence. I did not figure out until after beating the game that you had to do a "swift attack" to make Gollum unsteady. I had a very hard time defeating that level. The computer-guided Sam did just enough auto-attacks to get me through the first time.

Fortunately, now it's all a breeze for me.

The most valid criticisms I heard on RotK were the lack of exploration and the fact that some of the voices weren't real. For my part, I just can't get over how all those orcs pour RIGHT THROUGH the Black Gate. Why all the trouble to lay siege to Gondor if they can walk through walls?

One of the things I like about the video game is how it shows a snapshot of movie production. For instance, the Witchking's helmet. The film makers realized it looked too much like Sauron's, and might confuse audiences, so they changed to the more open design of the movie. Having to escape the collapse of the Paths of the Dead came more from the extended scene of wading through skulls. And the Watchers from Cirith Ungol, that drives me crazy. They begin to animate the whole sequence (you can actually see the eyes of the statues light up as they turn!) and then they just skip past the whole thing. I don't understand why they did that in the movie either.

My younger brother is just now getting a chance at the video game, so I'm rediscovering certain things about the game. Like, how you can kill one of the Ringwraiths on Top of the Wall and then build up wads of experience points on top of one of the towers.

My favorite levels are The Courtyard (it's basically a big cage match with no other traveling or interference!), The Pelennor Fields (easy if you have Legolas's arrows) The Southern Gate and the Black Gate.

[Elladan and Elrohir]

I enjoy the Vivendi FOTR game, and have in fact been playing through it again just for fun recently. It features some pretty rich landscapes, solid character models, and a faithfulness to the book that's downright juicy. I love getting to go through Hobbiton and Bywater and talk to folks who are only even mentioned in the genealogies of the book, such as Milo Burrows and his son Minto.

The game, of course, also leaves in Tom Bombadil, and while he comes across as fairly ridiculous in song (imagine that), he's reasonably well-voiced and looks just like I pictured him.

The gameplay leaves something to be desired, though. It's action-adventure, which means you'll run around a lot, do some little quests, stealth your way around the Black Riders, and fight quite a bit. The characters each have only one button for attack, which means you'll go through the exact same combo over and over again in battle, no variety.

To me it's a must-have game for fans of the book, even if it's subpar, simply because of the amazing attention to detail and juicy bits for fans. But I think the gamers went to such lengths to make it fan-friendly that they didn't work very hard to give it a broad appeal.

So I like it, but it's not the best.

A better game is The Hobbit, also produced by Vivendi. It definitely remains faithful to the tone of the book, producing a nearly cartoony rendition of Middle-earth that works beautifully for its subject. You get to go all over the places from the book, and there is again a tremendous attention to detail. You'll hear the names Angmar, Arnor, Bree, Erebor, and Thranduil, even though none are mentioned in the book, and that means a lot to me. Plus the gameplay is better, even if it resembles Zelda. I heartily recommend both games to any fan of the books; neither approaches top quality, but I really enjoy them.

EA's Two Towers and Return of the King games feature more polish and just better gameplay, even if they are based on the films instead of the books. Hack-n-slash is the name of the game; if you don't like it, you probably won't like these games. If you do like it, it will be a joy to slash your way through Pelennor Fields as Aragorn, take down numerous Orcs at Cirith Ungol as Sam, and clear trolls from the courtyard of Minas Tirith as Gandalf.

The graphics and sound are absolutely amazing, and even though both games are fairly short, they provide a lot of fun and definitely some difficulty.

Another LOTR game I've acquired more recently is The Third Age, an RPG based on the films. I was a total rookie in RPG, but it wasn't hard for me to pick up. The game is pretty fun for a fan but gets kinda tedious eventually, but features great graphics and the opportunity at a couple of points to play as actual film characters such as Gandalf (the Grey and the White), Aragorn, Legolas, and Eowyn. I recommend at least a rent, if not a buy.

But what can I say? I'm a sucker for LOTR video games. Would Tolkien have liked them? *shudder* Well, no, I'm sure he wouldn't have, but I do. So it's OK to like them, right?

I was an Alpha and Beta tester for Lord of the Rings Online and it was a nice change of pace. If MMO's are your thing you may want to try it out.

[MatthewM]

Originally Posted by Elladan and Elrohir

Another LOTR game I've acquired more recently is The Third Age, an RPG based on the films. I was a total rookie in RPG, but it wasn't hard for me to pick up. The game is pretty fun for a fan but gets kinda tedious eventually, but features great graphics and the opportunity at a couple of points to play as actual film characters such as Gandalf (the Grey and the White), Aragorn, Legolas, and Eowyn. I recommend at least a rent, if not a buy.

Ah, when I said "Quest for Middle-earth" in my first post I meant "The Third Age". I hated this game! No offense.