Customer Reviews

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

This is absolutely THE best game I've ever played. I'm not huge into games, but I'm a big fan of Lord of the Rings, and received a demo disk of the game from a friend. Our behemoth of a computer couldn't handle it, so I was ecstatic when I received a laptop as a big gift one year, and gleefully discovered the demo worked. This is proof positive that marketing gimmicks like demo disks work, because the thing prompted me to shell out $20 for this big guy...and I don't regret a penny of it.

On the Two Towers "wimpy" DVD, there was a preview for this, and one of the game developers said "You won't play this game and know everything that went on in [previously unreleased] Return of the King, but you might play this game and FEEL everything that went on." He's absolutely right.

As you already know, you start with three paths. You can play any path from the beginning, and/or if you get tired of playing Sam, you can go and take the Path of the Wizard, or King. You have no option about who to play on the Wizard and Ringbearer paths, but let me give you some advise: when starting on the Path of the King use Legolas. I know, it doesn't fit for the Elf to be leading the trio through PotD, but he's the best fighter to start out with. From there, you go on to fight the King of the Dead (tough), with escape from the Paths as a second part of the level. Both are arguably the hardest levels in the game. Then you journey to Gondor, fighting hundreds of orcs and uruks (if you stick around) at the Southern Gate, then encountering more hoards of uruks and Haradrim on the Pelennor. Then you must do battle at the Black Gate, which shouldn't be TOO hard if you have saved and earned combos wisely.

Gandalf must first assist the Ents in destroying the last elements of Saruman's rule, then he goes to Gondor, where he fights on the Top of the Wall to keep the forces of Mordor at bay. When that ultimately fails, he runs below and fights uruks and huge trolls in The Courtyard.

Sam must Escape Osgiliath with Mr. Frodo, then rescue him from the throes of Shelob's Lair, then follow him to the tower of Cirith Ungol, and rescue him from the orcs that captured him. Finally, he must assist Frodo in defeating Gollum in The Crack of Doom.

You absolutely must begin on easy, or beginner level; you will find that hard and challenging enough! Even so, there will be times when you'll want to perform the killing move "Computer bane" on your computer while playing this. It's insane how tough it is to beat sometimes. But if a rank amateur like me can complete it, you can! Also, unless you have a super-computer you'll want to lower the graphics settings so that you can have smooth game play. It won't make a huge difference in the appearance. It helps, because I didn't figure this out until I was trying to escape the PotD after beating the King of the Dead. Running through the mists make you go slower on high graphics, but the surroundings collapse on a time basis, because you go slow, you'll die.

It's true, you can't do a lot of exploring, and there's not a whole lot of secrets you can go back through and discover. The cheats only work after you complete the game (cle-ver!), but they give them to you. (So why do the cheat sites list them, I wonder?)

Also, if violence is of concern to you, you can bet there's a lot here. Nothing worse than you find in the trilogy ... sometimes less. I do not like the gory, bloody, violent video games, but I do enjoy this one. Blood is nonexistent, except for the occasional dark stuff that might fly out of an orc when you smack him with your sword. There's no beheadings, and most of the enemies you fight are very non-human, either spiders or orcs. Towards the end, you do fight heavily-armored Haradrim, which are human. In one of the killing moves, Aragorn kicks the human to the ground and then knifes him in the head. It's a war game, so it's to be expected. But it's about the good guys kicking the bad guys' butt, and after a hard day's work, sometimes it's a little stress-relieving.

Bonus features include interviews with the cast, stills from the movie, stills from video game production, two bonus levels (Palantir of Saruman, and Palantir of Sauron...you'll probably want to use cheat codes for them) and bonus characters Faramir, Pippin, and Merry. You could say Frodo is an extra character, because you can't play him until you've defeated the game. Why the geniuses at EA Games didn't put a playable Eowyn/Dernhelm is BEYOND ME.

You can also use (or in my case, purchase) a game pad, and plug it in to your computer, and play with two. It's often frustrating to play with two, when one is low on health and the person who is high on health accidentally picks up the health. ("YOU TOOK THAT ON PURPOSE! THAT WAS MINE!") But it's also fun. Once you defeat combo (you have to go through the entire game again on combo -- single play defeat doesn't count for combo play) game play, you can play the Palantir levels, or play Gandalf and Pippin on the Top of the Wall, recreating the movie scene.

Again, the game is tough, and you'll get discouraged. But don't worry, you'll get through it and have fun in the process.

I love this game, just like I love Lord of the Rings, and I think if you like one, you'll like the other. You'll love it. Buy it. (Now can we PLEASE get the Two Towers game put out on PC?!)

I gave this 3 stars, but it probably deserves a 3.5. By the time I finish the game (only played about 5 of the 15 levels so far), this review might warrant 4 stars.

The game itself is pretty sweet. There's lots of stuff to do, lots of things to kill, and lots of ways to do it. The graphics are excellent. I've seen a couple of reviews whining about having to buy a graphics card for this game. I have a 64 MB card, and that's hardly cutting edge right now. The game works fine and runs smoothly. You could probably get by with a 32 MB even, which would hardly break anyone's bank. So these reviewers complaining about it not running on their computers just need to replace their PCs they bought 4 years ago and never bothered to upgrade. Cause the Recommended system requirements aren't that stringent. You could play this game on a 2 year old PC easily.

The other thing I like about the game is the voiceovers and cutscenes. Its nice to see if you're a fan of the movies. And it really adds to the game.

Here are my gripes:

First, the controls aren't very precise. For movement, its standard WASD PC controls. But when I move, its not very precise. I get turned around very easily and you can get confused when you're battling in a crowd of guys. Add in all the other function keys and the controls can become unwieldy unless you're a super serious gamer.

Second, the game camera is a pain in the butt. It only displays from set angles, so sometimes you don't see where you're going or wat's coming at you, so orcs in the game get cheap shot damage on you cause you didn't even know they were there. There is an alternate camera angle mode that I haven't tried yet. It might be an improvement, so don't let what I've said about camera angles be a deal breaker.

Third, don't buy this game for the coop. Its worthless since you can only play on the same PC. EA really should have set that up to be an online feature. What a waste.

Finally, this game is hard. Even on Easy its hard. This is good because it increases replay value, but it sucks when you jut want to beat the game fast to see the cutscenes first. Also, on some levels, you pretty much have to have a strategy and know what you're doing to win. You can't just hack and slash your way through every level. Take for example the Walls of Minas Tirith level. You basically have to spend your whole time knocking down ladders to keep the walls from being overrun by enemies. First few times I played this, I just kept killing dudes and I lost every time. I was expecting I could just kick ass through every level of this game and win, but oh no.

In sum, I think this is a good game that really blew it on some angles. But overall its worth it, especially if you're a Lord of the Rings fan.

I'm more a turn-based strategy and city-building simulation gamer, but this game is incredibly captivating and fun. Some people say it's difficult, but I finished it in a day and I'm not used to fighting/combat games, so it really isn't that hard. I think some people try to hack-and-slash their way through it when there are clever and safe ways to accomplish many goals. Here are some gotcha's that I found along the way:

- Legolas is much faster than Aragorn or Gimli, and it's much easier getting combos off because there's less chance of being interrupted. Legolas defeats the Witch King with ease because he can get combos off on him, and can use arrows on him between his Wind of the Mountain attacks.

- Legolas has the most useful Level 10 skill. He shoots 2 arrows per ranged attack.

- Sam's special ability is invisibility. He's meant to use that ability against bosses that don't seem beatable, especially in Cirith Ungol. Also in that level, you can lure bosses under the falling ramp, go invis, and then pull the ramp level and kill them with one hit.

- In Sam's Osgiliath level, you don't need to kill many orcs cause they don't follow you. Just keep running. Just because the orcs are there doesn't mean you have to kill them.

- Using parry-killing move combos gets you to perfect mode immediately. And you are invulnerable while doing the killing move.

- If you run to the opposite edge of the cliff when the Witch King summons his minions, they won't attack you, and you can pick them off with ranged attacks.

I'd think twice about getting this one for younger kids (unless they're game ninjas) due to its high difficulty. Though I can ususally tear right through games on normal difficulty, I was quickly humbled by this one and soon found myself struggling even on the Easy setting. The game requires proficiency with combo moves that quickly take down enemies, but these are very difficult to execute on the PC. In the later stages of the game you have to know button combos AND have the correct strategy to beat the levels. We're way past button mashing here, even on Easy. I think EA has serioulsy limited it's playership by not including an easier difficulty setting.

Along with difficult controls, the camera angles can be incredibly confusing. Often you can be holding a key down to go one direction but when the camera view shifts you're suddenly running the opposite direction while holding the same key. So you then have to extrapolate which way to go based on a screen you're seeing for the first time. Confusing? Oh yeah. Plus many of the camera agles are too low--like ankle level. I suspect the programmers were more concerned with showing off their stunning environments than with game play. I was constantly "willing" the camera up to a three quarter view so I could see what was going on (unfortunately, there is no "willing" key).

So with all these problems why would I still recommend it? Because it ties into the movie so beautifully. This IS the way games based on movies should be done (albeit without the above mentioned flaws). The game paintakingly transforms from full res movie footage, to polygonal game cinematic, to actual player control. This required Electronic Arts to rebuild complex scenes from the movie in lower polygon game graphics--a whole lot of effort for a two second transition. But the result is a very immersive "you're playing the movie" gaming experience. EA gets playful with these transformations, sometimes faking you out that your suddenly controlling the characters you were just watching on film. I've played plenty of movie games, but none that attempted anything like this. So for breaking new ground I say this game's worth it. I just hope other developers take note, keep what works and fix the control issues for future movie-based games.

I bought this game because I'm a die-hard fan of the books and the movies, and at first I was impressed with the graphics and sounds of the game.

Problem is, the game is TOO DIFFICULT! Even on easy, I spend hours and hours trying just to get through one level. The enemy A.I. is decent, but when playing as Aragorn, don't even think about getting any help from Gimli or Legolas - it's as if they don't even exist. Not only are the levels too difficult, but without any kind of quick save or level save, it makes gameplay very frustrating indeed.

In addition, the cutscenes drive me insane. They are very well made and add a lot to the gameplay, but it doesn't help when your character cannot move during the cutscene but the enemies can. During one level, a cutscene would take place with my character not able to move, then when it returns to gameplay I already have 4 or 5 enemies hacking away at my character with hardly a chance of defense.

Finally, the camera angles are very difficult, and even freeze up at one point to where my character disappears off screen, being hacked away by baddies, and I have to try and escape and run off in some other direction to get the camera to follow me again.

This game has tons of potential - too bad the game developers spent most of their efforts making a beautiful looking game instead of a playable one.

Let me start this off by saying that I absolutely LOVE the Lord of the Rings. I got this game for Christmas and I was dying to play it! I started it up and it worked great! It starts with some video clips from the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers movie, then throws you in to the Battle of Helms Deep as Gandalf for a "tutorial." It's a little confusing, but also an interesting and unique way to learn the game. I did manage to beat it with no problems.

From there, I've had nothing but problems though. To put it simply, the game is WAY too hard. To make matters worse, there is no way to save in the middle of a level. After you beat the Helm's Deep tutorial part, you have three options. You can play the Path of the Dead (as Gimli, Legolas or Aragorn), play the Road to Isengard (as Gandalf) or an Osgiliath level that I have not tried. I tried the Path of the Dead level about 20 times and managed to make it to one "save point" but kept dying after it. I finally gave up for the day, only to come back later and find that the "save point" isn't really a save point. If you decide to come back and try again a few hours later, you have to start right from the beginning. I tried again and again, and could not beat the level - even on EASY. Also, on Path of the Dead you pick who you want to play and the other two characters follow along. All of the bad guys go straight for you, never for the other two. So when I was playing Aragorn, all the bad guys came after me while Legolas and Gimli sat around and did nothing. Every once in awhile Legolas shot off an arrow, but he never killed anyone or did much damage. Why even be there? I got so frustrated I was screaming and cursing at my PC.

I decided to give Path of the Dead a rest and try the Road to Isenguard. In that one you play as Gandalf. I managed to make it past 2 save points and finally hit another roadblock. There is a very difficult portion of the level I haven't managed to beat. I've died about 25 times on it so far. It's just way too hard. I switched it between "normal" level and "easy" level and there was ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE. Easy level is insanely hard. And without any option to save in the middle of a level, it's just plain frustrating. Games are supposed to be FUN.. and while this one has its moments, it's been more of a frustration for me than a good time.

I finally decided to look up some cheat codes on the internet to see if I could get some assistance because the game was basically kicking my butt. I come to find out there's zillions of great cheat codes.. YAY! But wait, there's a catch... you can only use cheat codes after you have beaten the ENTIRE GAME without using any! ARGH. Why even have cheat codes? Do lots of people beat the game on their own, then want to play it on an easy level using cheat codes? Most people I know, when they beat a game they then want to play it on a HARDER level. I honestly don't know what the game designers and programmers were thinking. Maybe it's because this game was designed for a console and was poorly converted to PC, I don't really know.

Another big annoyance is the camera angles. They switch on their own, you have absolutely no control. This tends to be especially aggravating when you're running around a corner and the camera angle suddenly switches and you can't see what's ahead of you.

The graphics are beautiful and the gameplay is interesting. It's more than just running around killing guys. My favorite part on the Road to Isenguard level is where you have to blow up the arrow towers (which is also the part I keep getting stuck at). Some other reviewers complained about the cut scenes, but I loved them. I adore all three movies which is the main reason I wanted to play this game. I am just so disappointed that it is so hard and so frustrating, with no cheat codes or anything available to help ease the difficulty. I was so impressed by the graphics and I so wanted have a blast playing this game. If it wasn't so hard, or had the option to save more often, I would enjoy it so much more. So for graphics, I give it 5 stars. For enjoyability (is that even a word? <g>) I give it 2. Overall, 3.5 and I will round down to 3 because I too often end up wanting to punch my computer screen after playing this game for an hour.

The makers of this game should have spent more time making it PC friendly. Also, there should have been effort to make this game friendly to casual gamers who don't have the skill of the "uber gamer" who like games to be so hard. There are different levels for a reason, easy level should be just that: EASY.

It is interesting to hear that some people find this game extremely easy while some think it is extremely hard. I found the game become much easier once I upgrade my weapons and I learn how to parry enemy's attack.

Gameplay (8/10): It is fun to finish the missions in this game. You do not just kill enemy in this game. Instead, you have to accomplish certain missions. You have to block enemy's invasion, save civilians, etc. Even better, the game allows two players. However, the game has two slight flaws. First, the missions are sometimes confusing, and I had to play several times before I understood what I should do in a level. Second, similar to the plot of the movie itself, massive explosion zillions of the enmeies appears at the same time. Therefore, the graphics looks awesome, but it is confusing to play.

Graphics (10/10): The best graphics I have ever played. They include cutscenes from the movie. However, as I have mentioned the graphics can hinder the visibility of the battlefields, and it sometimes causes confusions.

Control (8/10): Easy to control if you have a gamepad. However, playing it with keyboard can be very hectic.

Difficulty (7/10): I think that the game is slightly difficult. Most of the time I have to use all eight buttons in my gamepad. Remember, mastering how to parry is extremely important in the game.

Storyline (9/10): I heard that the game follows the plot of the book better than the movie.

Overall, it is a great game. Compared to other 3D action games in PS2, I think it is a much better game.

I was really looking forward to this game, and it has some great features, but also some disappointments. I enjoyed playing the different characters, plus the music and graphics are great. You get to play six different characters. If you complete the game, you can unlock three more hidden characters. The actual actors from the movies did the voices and it adds to the enjoyment of the game. There are also interviews with some of the actors and other extras that you can access as you conquer different levels.

I have a new computer with the latest video and sound cards, so I have had no problems with installation or the game freezing up.

On the other hand, like other reviewers have pointed out, controlling the characters is awkward with the pc version. Perhaps that is why it is way too hard to win some of the levels. I finally gave up and gave the game to my son to play. He's an expert, but even he has struggled to win the entire game, and he doesn't like the controls for the pc either.

This game is the best computer game I have ever played. The graphics are absolutely stunning and the gameplay is fun and exciting. You can explore Minas Tirith, the Black Gate, Shelob's Lair, the Pelennor Fields, Cirith Ungol and many other places in Middle Earth. There are upgrades that your character can get once they achieve a certain level which gives them extra powers and abilities. The game follows the movie somewhat but the creators added more enemies that you have to do battle with in order to make it interesting. An example of this is when you need to fight the Nazgul on the Black Gate level and in Shelob's Lair you have to fight a ton of Shelob's spider children. So many people say this game is a really hard but it actually isnt. I beat the game in 5 days , I did play non-stop but still it wasn't that hard and I'm no gamer, I don't even have a game console and I dont have any games on my PC besides LOTR that includes hand to hand combat. The game isn't all about speed attacking, it includes parrying the enemies arrows and swords. It is an important skill to know how to use if you want to beat the game. You get to chose between three paths when you play the game The Path of theKing where you can play as Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli. Theres The Path of the Wizard where you play as Gandalf and The Path of the Hobbits where you play as Sam until the last level where you play as Frodo. When you beat the game you unlock three new characters and two new levels. Also when you play you unlock interviews and special features the game has in store for you. I really recommend this game to you beacause it is absolutely great and you'll love it even more if you are a fan of LOTR like me. The hardest levels are The Black Gate, The Crack of Doom, and The King of the Dead. Oh and you need a PCI of AGP 32MB video card in order to play rhis game. Don't think your PC can handle this game unless you know it has a 3D card fitting the terms I stated above. I thought my PC could handle it and it couldnt so I went through this big fuss about getting a card and I finally did and I absolutely love this game. A 64MB card is faster so try and get one of those. An AGP card is also faster but a PCI still has great gameplay but some of the game clips are a little slow (not many though). The enviroments are interactive because you can throw spears and torches.
P.S.- On the Cirith Ungol level go around the room where a ton of orcs are fighting, go up the stairs and you'll find a way to kill all the orcs below. Buy this game.

First let me say to the skeptical buyer, this game isn't as difficult as everyone makes it seem. It IS annoying to not have a quick save function which would make the missions WAAAAAAY easier to complete, but you have to THINK to accomplish the your goals to progress to new missions. You can't just hack and slash like people seem to think, you'll get wrecked. You need to parry (block) almost as much as attack, and observe your surroundings, the enemies around you. They all take turns to strike you and you need to time your blocks and counterattacks, something that requires good skill and should be a welcomed challenged to PC gamers bored with dull first person shooters and slashers that have pitiful enemy AI.
You need all your concentration for this game. You also need to remember your tasks at hand, many of which require you to manage your TIME above all else...HINT: don't always stop and fight. It can steal crucial seconds from you that you need to complete other objectives at that moment. It really just takes multiple attempts at each mission to figure out the correct method to finish each one. Luckily, there are a few simple
"just stay alive" hack and slash missions which require much less from you.
As far as CPU power, I'm running it through Win98 with a P3 600Mhz ( 100Mhz BELOW the recommended ) but I am using a GeForce 4 128MB video card which takes a HUGE load off my soon to be replaced P3 fossil. But case in point the game runs great on my system with no chop or lag whatsoever. I was really suprised.
All in all it's a great game for the PC and you can just buy a $10 Gamepad Pro which I use after comparing that and the Keyboard/Mouse control. The game I think is easier playing with a Gamepad. Movement is smoother and the combos are easier to execute which can mean life or death. I gave the game a 4 out of 5 simply because I feel every game should have some sort of quicksave/in game save feature that would break up the missions into more manageable sections.
But anyone who likes quality games should buy this. No one even mentioned that once you persevere and beat the game through, you can play ANY mission as ANY of the characters and as unlockable extra characters. That in itself is worth the challenge of the game. A must for any good game collection.