Lord of the Rings The Third Age

by Electronic Arts

Product Features

• In-depth skill system lets players Upgrade and customize their hero or villain
• Relive exciting moments from the film trilogy -- from fighting the Balrog in the Mines Of Moria to fighting the Battle Of Helm's Deep
• Play as all-new characters from the Middle-Earth saga, interacting with the classic heroes and villains of the film
• Innovative turn-based combat system as you ride horses or Wargs through massive armies
• Free-roaming adventure as you explore a beautiful and realistic game world

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0002I9RQI
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches ; 4.8 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: November 23, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,713 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Play as all-new characters from Middle-earth, interacting with the heroes, villains, and supporting cast who populate the world.

Travel in the wake of the Fellowship in a unique structure that allows players to explore their own path while periodically intersecting the major events of New Line Cinema's film trilogy.

Features

• Play on the side of light or shadow. In an adventure that intersects the main plot points of the film trilogy, battle on the side of the Fellowship in their quest to save Middle-earth or unlock the evil missions where you fight on the side of Sauron.
• Deep gameplay that expands all three films. Travel to familiar and unfamiliar places such as the Mines of Moria, Helm's Deep, Pelennor Fields, Minas Tirith, and a host of unexpected locations like the White Mountains Plains.
• Customize your hero or villain: Upgrade your character with an in-depth skill tree system where you can acquire unique skills in melee combat, ranged weaponry, defense, and magic.
• Discover a vast array of weapons, armor and clothing, and other Middle-earth items.
• Free-roaming gameplay. Explore, take on side quests, and uncover secret characters to join your party, or special weapons and items to boost your existing characters.
• Fight alongside or against key characters from The Lord of the Rings such as Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas, Eowyn, and the Balrog.
• New user-controlled cameras keep players aware of everything around them.
• Innovative turn-based battle system allows you to fight on horseback or Warg and define the rules of engagement.
• Voiceover from the original actors and assets from all three The Lord of the Rings films.

Product Description

Lord Of The Rings: Third Age allows fans to explore the world of Middle-Earth from an entirely new perspective. Players get a chance to fight alongside or against key characters from The Lord of the Rings, like Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas, Eowyn, even the Balrog. Travel in the wake of the Fellowship, exploring your own path while intersecting with major characters and events from the films. Choose to align yourself with the people of Middle-Earth or undertake missions on behalf of Sauron. See the action from any angle, with the user-controlled cameras. Uncover various side quests as you discover hidden characters, secret weapons, and powerful items Voiceovers from the original actors and footage from all three The Lord of the Rings films

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Could be an ambitious success of EA, October 31, 2004

By 

Tso Haven Hei Wan "Havenough Dupont Randall-B... (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Lord of the Rings The Third Age (Video Game)

When I first heard of EA publishing an RPG based on LOTR, I thought it was just another effort of EA to squeeze every single drop of profit from the multi billion franchise. As many of us know EA is not a giant for RPG but for sports and more action oriented games. Nonetheless, the ambition behind The Third Age was a complete make over of the franchise that provides very interactive and involving experience for people who are fans of the series.

The game set its scene at the time when Sauron is making a come back. The player assumes the role of a guard from Gondor setting out to look for Boromir. Nonetheless, fate brought him into a group of Comrades, each has his / her own agenda that unfolds slowly throughout the journey. The story is a dual line one: it has the story of your party such as what you encountered and the life of your comrades; the other one is the main LOTR story being told through Gandalf directly into your mind through spheres/orbs as you proceed with your quest. This is a very smart move as people would love to have all their favorite movie clips and characters back on their screen again as they play the game.

As your playable party, you have 6 comrades, composed of human, elf and dwarf - yeah no hobbits sorry (oh by the way you can play as the shadow party in the evil mode!). Nonetheless in a battle you can only have 3 active fighters. You can switch your comrades in and out during a battle, which when one of your characters got beaten up, you can switch that character out. Battle is turn based and very Final Fantasy alike. This is probably because EA has invited people making FF VII and FF X to involve in the project that the whole battle system is a near identical with Final Fantasy. Once in a battle, your team line up on one side and your enemies on the other. The flow will then be who has a higher speed act first in turns. This could be seen from the turn queue on the upper right hand side of the screen. As in Final Fantasy, the person with higher speed will have more turns in attack. As such there is nothing new to people who used to play Japanese turn based RPGs like Final Fantasy, Wild Arms or Skies of Arcadia. There is a Perfect Mode attack meter during the battle, when once it is filled you can perform devastating special attacks on your enemies. The guage will fill up only when you performed a successful attack action. So it is a mix of limit break in FF and unison attack in Tales of Symphonia. Once you finished a battle and won it, you will get experience point for levelling up.

Levelling up in The Third Age takes the form of a mix between Final Fantasy, Baulder's Gate, Champions of Norrath and Tales of Symphonia. You get experience point and you level up ur stats. But at the same time you can points that you can assign to different stats for further enhancement. On top of that, if you want to level up your special attacks, you have to use them in the battle. Every successful action with the special attack earns you points that when enough points are earned, the next level of that skill will show up - this is smiliar to the tech systems in Tales of Symphonia. However, if you want to open up a different set of skills you have to develop the "tree" of that skill separately and use it in the battle. This shows a similarity in structure with Champions of Norrath.

One of the major difference of The Third Age from other standard RPG is there is no monetary system. So you can only get items from chests or by defeating enemies. Luckily the enemies are no miser so if you spend enough time in battles, you could build up a pretty good inventory of items. The field mode is exactly the same as Final Fantasy but in a different graphic style. It is no eye candy cute graphics but it constructs a very good atmospher for the LOTR world. You will come across locations that the main characters in the LOTR trilogy have visted and you would be happy that you get that treat. But on top of that there are really well constructed sceneries that gets yourself involved in the journey. The break into battle animation will also seriously remind you of standard Japanese RPG - the screen breaks apart and you are in the battle. The time saver though is you don't need to look at the whole battle field as most Final Fantasy games did, but you are straight into the battle. Also the posing of characters after they finished the final blow on the enemies are exactly Japanese RPG like.

Lord of the Rigns: The Third Age is a very ambitious project from EA. It can be seen in a way that they tried to merge standard Japanese RPG format together with western RPG formula. The end product is nothing new to most RPG players but the similarities of both RPG in both worlds can get you involved in the game very easily. The easy to pick up approach and style familarity of the game provides a good foundation for the success of this game. It could attract a very wide range of gamers from different areas to pick up and enjoy the game. Looks like EA had found a good formular or way to get into RPG battle arena this time. The only thing they need to do is after they used up the LOTR franchise, would they be able to build an original RPG that have the same appeals? That will be something that other RPG giants like Namco, Square-Enix, Nintendo and Ubisoft will definitely be anxious about. Meanwhile, just enjoy a completely different experience with one of the best franchises in the world.

52 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun, but very mass market., November 15, 2004

By 

Rocco (USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Lord of the Rings The Third Age (Video Game)

Sincerely, it is difficult to rate this game.
It has all it needs to be considered a good game, but also has some issues:

Graphics 9/10: Simply great and beautiful. The landscape looks as if it comes directly out of the movie.

Story 7/10: this is where I think hardcore LOTR fans will be divided from Mass Market customers. The story is a bit of a slap in the face for anybody who read or loves Tolkien. Your party is basically always 5 minutes behind the company of the ring. Especially at the beginning of the game... a bit too much for somebody but very appealing for those who would like to feel as if they were in some way part of the trilogy story line.

Sound 10/10: how could it be better?

Gameplay 5/10: Weird things go on in 3rd age.
*Monsters appear from nowhere while you go around on the 3D world map.
*You can only use three members of your party as you work through fights. Since your characters will become stronger as they use their abilities, the fourth guy you leave out will soon be so behind the other ones he will almost be useless.
*You can't cast healing spells while not in combat. At least I didn't manage to. So either you use items or your wait for a fight.
*Each character has a skill set. For example, the elf has healing powers. Everytime you use one of those powers, her "spirit skill" will go up by a point. Once you achieve enough points you unlock the next skill. Since you use skills in combat it becomes paramount to use the most possible everytime.
*No game economy. No shops. No buying and selling stuff. No random NPC encounters. Low feeling of being part of an "alive" world.

Overall the game is fun but it really is not an RPG. It seems that RPGs have gone down to define every game where your character grows during the game and you can personalize her. Not true. Role playing is about playing a role, and you really don't get this in 3rd Age.

Plus the fact you have no possibility of roaming freely the land, you don't buy and sell stuff, and every treasure you find is in a nice chest. Yes, chests everywhere: in Moria, in the Mountains, in Fangorn...always chests.

Bottom line
Buy this game if:
1) you are a LOTR fan, liked the movies and like simple RPGs.
2) you are LOTR fan and will own anything with LOTR written on it.
3) you mildy like the LOTR and you like fantasy.
4) you like "simple RPGs."

Don't buy this game if you were hurt by all the differences the LOTR movies had from the book. This game would kill you.

HINT/SPOILER: to gain "specialization points" have the Gondorian learn "Company Grace." This will give you a boost in AP (action points) every round. You need these to use your skills. Go through a fight and once you have only one foe alive, use the dwarf to cast "stone shield" on the Gondorian. This will grant him physical immunity for a while. Then use the Gondorian and "taunt" the last foe. Your enemy will only attack the fighter from Gondor. At that point just start using skills. Your enemy will wast attacks and you will gain a specialization point every round. Remember to have "company grace" always active and to recast "stone shield" once it expires.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best games with one of the worst endings, July 12, 2005

By 

P. Smith (anonymous) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Lord of the Rings The Third Age (Video Game)

Overall, this game is totally worth buying. I bought it a week ago and had trouble leaving my gamecube to go to sleep at night. I spent about 23 hours playing it. The graphics are incredible. The storyline captures you. The scenes you gain as you play are well made. Gandalf is the narrator and basically you play as a gondorian with a group of 5 others on a quest gandalf has set for you, following along behind the fellowship. The battles are fun once you get some good attacks. The scenery is beautiful.

The only thing I was disappointed with was the ending. I won't give you many specifics, but it's a bit of a let down for the characters. For instance, I think the main character ended up with the wrong girl, but that's just me.

Other than that, though, I have no complaints. I enjoyed the game very much and I felt a bond with the characters that brought me into the plot line. You fight huge bosses like the balrog (with gandalf), the witch king, dozens of enemies in Helms Deep (with Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn). The battles (which are a big part of the game) can be frustrating if you go about them wrong, but they are fun when you get the hang of them. I recomend it for any lotr fan!

Graphics: 10/10
Characters/Plot: 8.5/10
Battles: 9/10
Worth it? Definitely!