Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Other products by WXP Inc.

Product Features

• Playable characters: Frodo, Aragorn, and Gandalf are all playable, each with their own unique characteristics.
• Huge environments: Many regions to explore including, The Shire, Old forest, Bree, Moria, and Weathertop.
• Epic storyline: Beautiful 3-D cinematic cut scenes deliver key story elements.
• Favorite characters: Favorites from the story appear in the game including Tom Bombadil, Farmer Maggot, Old Man Willow, and the Balrog.
• Movie-quality production: The professional voice acting and facial animation system brings each character to life.

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00006IZKO
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: September 8, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,280 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Preview
Thanks to the wonderful magic that lawyers weave, there are actually two games licenses for The Lord of the Rings, one based on the original books and the other on the films. The Fellowship of the Ring is the first of the former, which strangely doesn’t have a direct counterpart from the latter. Just to add a final nail of complexity to the coffin of confusion, because the movie did such a good job of visualizing the book, all the games have ended up looking very similar. At the end of the day, though, it means Tolkien fans have two games to look forward to this Christmas.

Although it may look similar, The Fellowship of the Ring appears to be a much deeper role-playing game style affair than its rival. Taking control of either Frodo, Gandalf the Grey, or Aragorn, you get to hunt some orc with the best of them, but you also get to delve deeper into the detail of the book, embarking on subquests and meeting with characters that the movie didn’t have time for, such as Tom Bombadil and Glorfindel. It’s rare that a game trying to do so many things at the same time gets them all right, but the mixture of fighting, talking, and puzzle solving here makes this the definitive Tolkien game for real fans, and may even end up teaching the films a thing or two about adapting such a well-loved tale. --David Jenkins

Product Description
Following the storyline of J.R.R. Tolkien's book The Fellowship of the Ring, this third-person action/adventure lets you play as part of the fellowship on a journey from the Shire to the River Anduin. Faithful to J.R.R. Tolkien's epic masterpiece, the game allows you to explore the massive environments of Middle-earth while solving puzzles and fighting enemies like Orcs, Black Riders, and an evil Balrog in the quest to destroy the fabled One Ring of Power.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great story/animation, poor game BIG disappointment for xbox, September 29, 2002

By	forrie (Nashua, NH United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

JRR Tolkiens "Lord of the Rings - Book 1 'The Fellowship of the Ring' storyline is closely followed in this Xbox adaptation (allows some Xbox magic with great sound track, music & above average graphics). The animation sequences between scenario runs are delightful with audio dialogue. The whimsical artwork used was nice, aimed at the younger audiences to reduce the blood/gore, slash/gash & the frightening darken minions of the Dark Lord.

That ends this great attempt to make a great game from the greatest fantasy trilogy of all time. Peter Jackson's movie trio lives up to JRR Tolkiens work with a few film adaptations to make each film a stand alone art form.

Summary; This game is best reviewed in the PROS vs CONS format to best describe the game players expectations of this XBOX game.

PROS - The background music is awesome. The animation sequences of the characters is quite good (great transition between scenarios). The characters voices & dialoque are very effective to the story being told. The games storyline is true to the author. You can SAVE OFTEN (and you must!!!!).

CONS - LONG & FREQUENT Game BOOT (loading) between scenarios. NO Middle Earth Maps to be used. NO mapping or auto mapping features (as in MORROWIND) (you must memorize quickly or die). This means NO REFERENCING for location. NO GOING BACK or EXPLORING. Limited Inventory features. THIS IS ONLY A CONTINUOUS SLASH/GASH GAME. You only play FRODO, STRIDER & GANDALF at specific check points (NO OPTIONS). (for example; Frodo from start to BREE. STRIDER from BREE to RIVENDELL etc. no other choices) LIMITED path advance (NO ROAMING as in MORROWIND). ONLY FRODO USES STEALTH. STRIDER & GANDALF MUST FIGHT or RUN or be KILL by EVERYONE (this is NON-STOP). Almost everything is resolved by killing, destroying or dying. (again only FRODO can use stealth). You must move quickly or die!! You must CONSTANTLY search for food, health & magic potions (this distracts the game player from reaching specific scenario goals). VERY FEW rest points to enjoy the game. CANNOT STOP or GO BACK AND EXPLORE MIDDLE EARTH!!

These are only the most frequent perks & annoyances while playing this game. It is to bad so much effort went in, the basic game is there, but the features are to limited to make this a [current price] must have Xbox library game. If you want detail, free roaming, the ability to be cunning, a great investment would be "MORROWIND".

I am truly disappointed in this Xbox games attempt to tell the "CLASSIC" JRR Tolkien "Fellowship of the Ring" story. See the movie, skip or rent the game. ENJOY.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intellectual Game which sticks to the original story, June 23, 2004

By	Richie (Denver, Colorado) - See all my reviews

To begin, this game is not for those who cannot problemsolve, by themselves. This is not a puzzle game, but you do need to explore in order to get to the next level. Unlike the second two movie-like games, this isn't a rambo style 'kill'em all game' but a true hobbit's game.
If you can get to this point in the review, you will probably like this game. It sticks to through the original chapters of the story, such as the Old forest, Tom Bombadil, Barrow Wights, and many othe small intricasies of the original Tolkien novel.
The warning, I say once again, is you need to figure things out on your own. Watch out for the shadow of the black riders!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Tremendously Disappointing, April 11, 2004

By A Customer

I found this game to be very disappointing. It is more in the nature of a "traditional" game-box type game, which will disappoint anyone looking for a game modeled on the RPG experience. The characters played in the game never advance and never change (aside from acquiring slightly upgraded weapons, e.g., Aragorn exchanges a basic sword for Narsil). However, the game fails miserably as a traditional game as well--I would much prefer to spend a few hours on SMB or LOZ on my old NES. The game offers virtually no real challenges. The puzzles, such as they are, seem simplistic, and the combat sequences have virtually no tactical elements. The non-cynical view of the game-designers' mentality would be that they set out to design a game that would be playable by children for an age range of 8-25--which is impossible. The cynical view would be that they set out to "cash in" on the movie hype by offering a game that under any other title wouldn't make it on to the shelves.

Some further specific criticisms of the game:
1. Game play only lasts 10 hours, start to finish. 10 hours!
2. The game controls do not work as described in the manual. For instance, although missile weapons supposedly have a targeting feature allowing you to cycle through multiple enemies and then lock on them, this feature never manifested for me despite several efforts. Instead, your character just locks on the closest enemy, even if it's not the one you want to shoot at. Of course, the whole problem of "multiple enemies" doesn't come up much -- see the "boredom" criticism, above.
3. The camera perspective is maddening. The camera focuses so closely on the character that it tends to hide even enemies standing quite close to (and probably advancing on) your character. I frequently had to turn tail and run just to "see" enough of the field to aim my attacks (melee and ranged).

Needless to say, I won't be buying either of the subsequent games ("Towers" or "King").