The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (Prima Official Game Guide) (Paperback)

~ Kaizen Media Group (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

·Complete weapons and armor appendix includes full stats for hundreds of armaments
·Full walkthrough to help you earn a 100% completion ranking
·All character and guest character skills covered
·Detailed strategies for developing your heroes
·Complete "Evil Mode" and earn exclusive secret items
·All monster stats, abilities, vulnerabilities, and immunities covered

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Prima Games (November 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761547479
• ISBN-13: 978-0761547471
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #685,721 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not a bad guide, January 2, 2005

By	j. woods "akaal11" (USA) - See all my reviews

Having used and owned many prima strategy guides, this one was not quite up to par with the others. Prima is known for having charts saying where to find unique items and where to encounter specific Creatures, but when i was looking through this guide, there were no charts in the walkthroughs; all in paragraph form.

The list of weapons and their special attributes was very nice. The pictures are also not nearly as clear as they have been in past guides.

In conclusion, this guide will get the job done, but not much more. You can just as easily beat the game without this guide.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars it covered what needed to be covered, April 7, 2005

By	Joe Sherry (Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Prima's Strategy Guide for the Playstation 2 game "Lord of the Rings: The Third Age" is a mixed bag in regards to how helpful it is. For my needs, I found the guide to be quite helpful. To start with, there is quite a bit of information on each character and which of the stats should be improved for each character, and which skills are the most valuable for that character to learn. There are sections of the guide focusing on all of the weapons, armor, and items in the game. There is a bestiary at the end of the guide giving stats on all of the enemies. All of this is nice, but the real reason most people purchase a strategy guide is the full game walkthrough.

The walkthrough itself is the part of the guide which may give the most help and cause the most confusion/frustration. What will help the most is that the guide gives a very good run down on what it is that you are supposed to, in what order you should do it (in those instances you have a choice), and what some of the best tactics are to help you succeed. The guide, in text form, gives description of the goals, enemies, and what items are won or found in the area. There are some boss strategies included. This isn't a very complex game so the general strategies the guide gives are really good enough (use crippling attacks or Arrows of Sleep when they work, use powerful attacks) for what the game requires. In this manner the guide was quite helpful and I was able to complete the game with 100% of the tasks/quests completed.

The downside of the walkthrough is a lack of clarity and a little bit of inaccuracy. There are maps at the beginning of each chapter with numbers relating to which event is happening at which location. Maps are usually excellent tools for working through a game. The trouble here is that the maps are very vague. Imagine a map of the United States. It's a fairly small map and you know that Minnesota is somewhere to the north and in the center of the country. Suppose there are only a few main roads that you can possibly take to get to Minnesota from Georgia. If the map doesn't identify which road you are on or where exactly you are starting from on the map, you may end up getting to Minnesota but you won't know where exactly you are until you get there. That is pretty much what the maps in the guide are like. Some levels are better, others are worse. I do feel that the text description overcomes the flaws with the maps, but there is no quick glancing at the map to get a grasp of where you are.

The other downside is a question of accuracy. The guide will list times where Crippling Attacks (an attack which will delay the turn of an enemy, it is incredibly valuable) are to be used but it turns out that the enemy is really immune to it (and vice versa). This happens more often towards the end of the guide and since the strategies are typically fairly simple this inaccuracy is easily overcome, but it is a little irritating when you waste a crippling attack over a more powerful attack in a difficult battle.

I think I would have preferred a few more enemy charts and better maps within the walkthrough section, but overall I didn't have a problem with this guide. It helped me clear the game 100% (I'm sure I would have missed something) and to get all the best armor and weapons until I got too lazy to follow directions on the last chapter. By no means is this the best guide ever, but it helped me finish the game and it covered all of the information that was actually needed for me to make it through the game.

-Joe Sherry

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars You can find a better walkthrough online, August 10, 2005

By	Xena "Warrior Princess" (Ancient Greece) - See all my reviews

This walkthrough was horrible. Yes, it tells you where to go, but I rely on all the fine points. The information is, in total, WRONG. I spent almost half the game building up this one "skill", because the "Witch-king" is vulnerable to it. Turns out he ISN'T vulnerable to it, the book had wrong information, and while in a fight with the King of the Nazgul, it isn't good to not have any attacks. (*.-) So right now as the Witch-King is waving his mace around on the PS2, I am writing this to let you all know that it's a better idea to just find one online, or just stop cheating. (*.*) By the way, He is NOT Vulnerable to "Bind Spirit".