Customer Reviews

Lord of the Rings The Fellowship Board Game

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is the worst game I've ever played. There is NO strategy involved whatsoever. It's like a Lord of the Rings version of shoots and latters. Even the most hard core Lord of the Rings fan could never enjoy this game. Plus, this is only 1/3rd of the game. You have to buy two more boxes to complete the game. Children wont enjoy it because its superficially complex. Adults will not enjoy it because the complexity is pointless. Its pretty picutres do not make it less tedious and boring. Do not waste your money.

My kids have spent hours playing this game, along with the Two Towers game. In an effort to continue the game before the thrid set comes out, my son designed his own Return of the King game, complete with puzzle board sections to complement the Middle Earth map-board supplied by the first two games.

I think part of the charm for the kids (ages 7-13) is the set-up. They enjoy watching the board grow as they play, and have kept the game continuing for hours of fun.

This board game is wonderful to look at, there's no doubt about that. The idea of interlocking board sections that expand the playable area as the "plot" continues is original, and necessary to keep the board size manageable. That's about all that there is good to say about this set as it is otherwise not worth the investment of either time or money.

The first warning sign was that this game had potentially the longest out-of-box set up time I have ever experienced of any board game. My family and I spent almost as much time assembling the game pieces and reading, and trying to make sense of, the rules, which range from the cryptic to the absurd in their attempt to simulate strategy.

The game claims to have an element of strategy, but the hapless player remains at the mercy of game cards which end up being the true soul, whatever there is of it, of the game. The points system fails in every respect, be it a goal or a source of competition between players. In the end, the points system has almost no bearing whatsoever on gameplay. Where's the strategy? Where's the competition that keeps a game from degrading into collective solitaire? There is none.

Simply put, the game is no fun whatsoever, even for the truest Lord of the Rings fan out there. Each move does nothing more than tell a miniscule chunk of the story that most bothering with the game in the first place already know, and it does not even do that well. Actual interaction is at what seems to be a deliberate minimum (since the game is already constrained absolutely by the plot on which it is based), the players do little more than roll the die to reveal the next section of plot.

The game get low marks for durability as well. Despite the fact that most the board itself and the game pieces are made well enough, the board pieces must be punched out of larger sheets of cardboard, creating enourmous amounts of waste, and the three dimensional paper mountain takes quite a beating each time it is built and deconstructed. Furthermore, the box itself provides no separate compartments for the game cards or pieces, forcing the entire game to organise itself as a messy pile in the box, waiting to be reorganised the next time the player lacks the heart to spare his or her guests the agony of sitting through this game.

Overall, this is a poorly made game with the poorest of intentions. The lack of any semblance of gameplay and the need to purchase the next two installments to complete the game make it obvious that this game, and it successors, were slapped together with little thought other than profits and taking advantage of popularity. I am sorry that I opened it at all, instead of exchanging it for something that my family could enjoy. At least the box looks nice.

This game was a blast when I played it at a party two years ago, but even then I saw the flaws. This game is extremely predictable and is very lacking in stratagy. When I joined that game awile back I saw, however, that there was potential, especially in the excellent board itself. Being the hard-core gamer that I am, I bought the game with the intent of altering the rules and even expanding the game to a degree. I intend to re-write the ring cards and add some features that I have learned from my RPG experience.

That said the average gamer who picks up this game will be dissapointed if he never had the intentions I did. However, even if a person were to only swap out a few of the ring cards with some of his own creation every now and than, the replayability of this game would soar. I would recommend this game to any LOTR fan who wants a great party/family game and is willing to get a little creative.

I took some time and read the other reviews for this game. Overall, I tend to agree with the majority of the statements. There is a lack of strategy, often times leaving the players to succomb to the instructions on the card. And when there is an opportunity to deviate from the movie story line, it is decided by a roll of the die. There are attributes given to characters (i.e. speed) that don't do much since the character stops at the next unused ring space, sometimes one or two spaces away.

In spite of this, though, I have thoroughly enjoyed playing this game each time I've played. So, I give this 4 stars for fun. I do agree that there is little to no educational value. And the need to construct and de-construct Caradhras (which is slightly stronger than paper) can cause quick wear.

In my opinion, this game is great for anyone who wishes to relive the FOTR movie, without having to spend 3 hours watching it.

This was an interesting game, maybe the first couple of times. It is about trying to play out the movie as close as possible. You learn the "walk-through" a little better each time you play. After a couple of times, it is pretty boring.
Unless you are an all-out LOTR nut, pass this one up unless you just don't mind spending the buck knowing you will only play it a couple times and may not like it at all anyway.
Like I said, it's a walk-through of the movie and unless you own all three, you move charactors to a space and all of a sudden you just remove them from the game.
I cannot see this being a "hit" for anyone. It will either be a complete "miss" or a "miss" that keeps your attention for a short period of time.

I can't believe I stayed awake through this entire game! Let me tell you, I am an avid game player. Perhaps my standards are high and that is why I was bored to tears when I played this. My main complaint about this game is that it incorporates absolutely ZERO strategy whatsoever. NONE. NOTTA. The board looks fun and pretty, and it has cool 3-D elements to it, but basically you sit there and role the die and let the game take it's course. That's it. Role the die. When we played I had to be the keeper of the event cards (tells you where to move the players to) and I'm so glad because keeping them organized was the only thing that kept me awake through this game.

The educational rating of 1 was because of the zero strategy. I suppose a very small child could learn the art of taking turns and moving pieces, but what game couldn't teach them that? The durability rating of 3 was because the 3-D elements must be disassembled and reassembled every time the game is played, and they wear fast. Well, they would wear fast if I were to ever pull the game out of the back of the closet again.

I love Lord of the Rings and I think the books and movies are brilliant. The board game was a total and complete let-down.

I played this with my 12 and 7 year old and they both enjoyed it as evidenced by saying "I can't wait to get Part 2". Well that's not going to happen, but this board game did have some redeeming qualities:
My 12 year old thoroughly enjoyed setting up the game - lots to do and assemble.
Both relived the story as we were playing through.
There is a slight amount of strategy if you do not look ahead at what the Ring-cards say, because you have to select the correct player to move.
Slight educational benefits by having my 7 year old read the cards and perform some math additions (speed + die)
I think the game is made well with quality printing; however there is some printing that is ridiculously small.
The best part of this game was it kept the kids off of XBOX for 3 nights!

Problems are all that are mentioned in previous reviews: The scoring system doesn't work, the rolling of the die hardly made a difference, and there were impossible situations that occurred.

Overall, I give it a medium score. Not the best thought-out game, but good to relive the highlights of the movie/story and it kept the kids attention. Worth twenty bucks? I think so for a few evenings of entertainment.

I think that what the other people say about this game is ridiculous! I personally love chutes and ladders! I am a DEFINITE Lord of the Rings fan and this game is so much fun!
Some of you people are very weird.

I consider myself an avid gamer and have always enjoyed both the fantasy theme and The Lord of the Rings Universe so it was only natural to be attracted to RoseArt's trilogy of games (one that corresponded to each of the Peter Jackson motion pictures). The sad thing is that had I taken seriously the abundant negative reviews available on the subject, I could have saved myself some loot, several evenings and a lot of frustration!

I purchased the third game (Return of the King) but then discovered that all three of the games are essentially the same, the differences being the events on each of the action cards and the rough outline of the game board so that each game relived events from the individual films. The funny thing is that the weakest area of the whole experience (the game play mechanics) is identical regardless of which of the three you've purchased! Further illustrating this fact is that RoseArt designed the games to form one massive 3-hour quest by linking all three of the games together. Side note- if anyone on this planet had the patience, will and determination to play through the entire trilogy in one sitting, please drop a line because you should be nominated for an award.

The games are quite nice to look at, I cannot deny this (in fact that's 98% of what made me cave in despite the terrible reviews and give it a try). The fairly detailed game board isn't one massive unit but rather a collection of 15 puzzle-like pieces that lock together to make the world seemingly expand as the game plays on. Sure this is a common technique in role playing games like Descent but unfortunately, it's little more than a novelty act here. Literally the first roll of the die forces the player to begin connecting additional board pieces so after several minutes of trying to locate and attach the next piece, even the most patient player is going to find himself wondering why he didn't just start with the first four or maybe five map pieces right off the bat.

That leads directly to my next complaint- you have never encountered games with more setup time than these (and that includes hard core role players). Each map contains several 3-D pieces (still constructed out of cardboard unfortunately) that demand incredible origami skill to properly assemble. Worse still is that these pieces need to be disassembled after each session if there's any hope of returning them to the box. As you might expect, thin card stock and repeated assembly/ disassembly means little shelf life but in the grand scheme of things, this is perhaps the least of these games' problems.

A bigger issue starts right with the rulebook. As I said before, I'm a very avid gamer and (pride myself on having mastered and enjoyed complex titles like Runebound, A Game of Thrones, Descent and so on) even still found myself reading then rereading the enclosed 4 page rule sheet several times over. There is no doubt that whoever was charged with the task of writing this thing was instructed to do all he (or she) could to make these games sound compelling and strategic.

The wording is such that you might believe there is something here worth devoting your attention to, that there is promise of family game nights spent slashing orcs and trying to return the ring to the fires of Mount Doom. What the rulebook doesn't elaborate on is the simple reality that this isn't a game at all but rather a dice-driven opportunity to hear about moments from each of the film via small cards. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING comes down to the roll of a die. You roll to move a character pawn but don't get excited about that either. Unlike most games, the player(s) here don't get to be one of their favorite characters from the films but rather play as any of the characters on the board at any given time. So much for devoting yourself to guiding your character through to the end.

So as I was saying, you roll the die to determine how many spaces any one of the dozen pawns on the board can move. The funny thing is each character has a stat sheet that makes rolling nearly useless (like Gandalf's Speed stat at +9). Roll a 1, don't worry, add 9 to that and he goes ten spaces. Roll a six and it's off to the races, advance a whopping 15 spaces. Here's the snag, every character has to stop at the spaces marked with a ring on them- which is about every third or fourth space to do what the corresponding card tells them to do. So in case you're not getting my drift, the roll of the die is pretty much a waste of time, as you will always simply be advancing to the next ring space. It's all but inevitable.

Now about those ring spaces and corresponding cards (tasks). Initially you may be fooled into believing this element is a solid one in an otherwise meaningless waste of time but after two or three of these exercises, you realize that this is but another waste of time disguised as interaction. The cards will typically say something directly from the films like "You fool of a Took! Roll the die. If you roll an even number add one evil point to your score. If you roll an odd number add one good point to your score." Never mind that once again you're doing nothing more than rolling the darn die, the bigger issue here is that the scoring system is absolute garbage as well.

See you get this cool-looking counter that has notches cut out above each denomination for which to slide a cheap plastic replica of the One Ring. It's like a LOTR-themed version of the foosball table score keeper except here's the kicker- the numbers mean nothing, zip, zilch notta. You start at 67 and as the example above indicates, add or remove points (spots on the counter) based entirely on rolls of the die. Okay, fair enough except there's an "S" on either end of the counter that stands for Sauron. Hit either end of the point scale (yes, even if you're piling up good points) you come to the S mark which means you roll the die again to find out how many spaces to move the counter in the opposite direction. Say what?! Yeah apparently it's the same consequence at either end of the scale. Get too many evil points, roll again and move your score marker toward the good side. Too many good? Roll again and start heading toward evil. If this wasn't poor enough, the games writers then add the line "whoever has the most points at the end is the winner". How in the world does that work? The entire points structure is sheer random nonsense in which throws of the dice have you keeping track of nothing of importance.

So with this completely meaningless scoring system, the player simply moves from ring space to ring space to throw the die once more so that they can move their ring slider in one direction or the other. There is no interaction whatsoever for 98% of the game.
Every once in a while, however, you'll encounter a challenge: Outsmart an enemy, outrun a spider, sneak by a guard, something to that effect. Sounds good, right? Oh it isn't. Once again it's just a roll of the die. The card will say something like "Aragorn needs 13 or more points to meet this challenge." You roll a four, uh oh- challenge failed right? Nope, the stat card says that Aragorn's Power is always +10. You nailed the challenge with flying colors (4 + 10 = 14). So in other words, the only way to lose would be to roll a two. Hmm one in six, pretty darn good odds. But let's just say you get really unlucky and roll that two, what now? Ah move back 2 spaces, take an evil point on your counter, and try again next time and the time after that until you roll something higher than the two. Then it's off to roll again so that you can reach the next ring space to face another incredibly simplistic challenge.

I kid you not when I say that this is the entire scope of interaction in the game. Roll the die, roll again, next person's turn. How the game's creators can even pretend that there is some sort of strategic element here is beyond me.

Another good idea gone terribly wrong would have to be the enemy army tokens. The outcome of battles are determined, how else, by a roll of the die. Let's for a moment pretend that this fact in and of itself doesn't drive us crazy and discuss the real problem here. The enemy army tokens are controlled only by certain ring cards which will say something to the effect of "They Come! Move 5 Evil Army Tokens 10 Spaces". Okay, so after a few of these cards you start to wonder where you're supposed to be moving all of these enemy army tokens. The board is broken up so that you can't even move them 10 spaces from their start point and even if you could, how long before you would have a massive stack of tokens on the same board space (if you keep going out 10 spaces from their start point). It is never made clear if you have to engage enemies in battle each and every time you encounter one or only if they happen to land on ring spaces before you do. The rule sheet can't possibly be more vague about this, the only potentially interesting part to the whole game!

Bottom line, you can't lose, nobody can (well technically you've lost just by buying this thing, but you know what I mean). The idea of the game is nothing more than the painfully slow advancement of some of the film's moments. What little interaction there is comes completely in the form of chance and in the end, even the score is utterly meaningless. Winning the game is another completely arbitrary endeavor and clearly an afterthought to the poor design so that players would feel like there is some sort of objective to achieve through the hours of mundane die rolling.

If, like me, you hunger for an interesting board game based on the rich Lord of the Rings Universe, I highly recommend looking into Fantasy Flight's fantastic titles like War of the Ring or the Middle Earth Quest.

In the meantime, avoid these RoseArt versions at all cost! Should you have the misfortune of actually owning one or more of these dreadful exercises in tedium, drop a line and I'll email you the patch I've written to make the game playable free of charge.