The Lord Of The Rings, The Return Of The King for Windows

I recently bought the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King for my Windows PC. This game was incredibly fun to play, and very closely follows the movie. Fans of the LOTR movies will love this game, and others will find it enjoyable as well.

Before proceeding to installation, be sure your system meets this games requirements. They are:

Windows 98 or higher
700 MHz or faster processor
256 MB of RAM for Windows XP, 128 MB for other Windows
2 GB free disk space
DirectX 8.1 compatible sound and video cards

The installation and configuration of the game were very easy. Installation just asked which components I wished to install, allowed me to select a directory, and copied all the files. The game uses three CD-ROMs, so the installation program prompts you for each disk when it is needed. However, copying the 2 GB of files can take a while, so be patient with the program. Installation took about 20 minutes on my computer which has the following configuration:

Windows XP
512 MB RAM
Athlon 64 3200+ processor (1800 MHz)
40 GD Hard Drive
nVidia Video card with 64 MB RAM

Configuring options for the game was simple. Once the game was started, I simply clicked the options menu and was able to select options from the following menus: controls, audio, and video. Each of these menus was easy to navigate, and the video menu was especially useful. It allows configurations to optimize game play for faster systems, or disable some features or reducing some detail for slower computers.

Selecting the "New Game" option from the main menu allowed me to start a new game. After an introduction video, you are dropped directly into the Battle of Helm's Deep as Gandalf. You have to fight right away, so be sure to familiarize yourself with the controls and characters in the manual before starting a game. The first level is relatively easy, and introduces the user to the method of completing levels, sometimes by accomplishing goals, or sometimes by just killing enough Orcs.

After defeating Helm's deep, you are shown a choice of three paths to take in the game. The path of the wizard allows you to play as Gandalf. The path of the king allows you to play as Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli. The path of the Hobbits allows you to play as Sam. Simply click the level you wish, and it begins.

Game play is great! Learning the various attacks and moves is difficult at first, but can be mastered after a few practices. Also, each player has a special ability that can be activated periodically to help in tough spots. For example, Gandalf's ability is a shield of light the harms enemies. Also, as you earn experience points by killing enemies, you can purchase upgrades for your character. These include powerful combos that can devastate opponents. They involve pressing several buttons in order. While some are difficult to master, these combos are a great aid in defeating powerful enemies.

You face several different enemies in the game. Depending on the path you choose you could face Orcs, Uruks, Trolls, Elephants, Shelob, Gollum, and Men of the South. The wide array of characters provides enough variety to make the different levels very interesting. They also are best defeated in different ways.

The graphics in the game are very nice. Shadows are wonderful, and everything looks realistic. There are also some clips from the movie and interviews with cast members, and these videos are very high quality. Movements of characters are very smooth, and there are hardly any noticeable glitches.

Sound quality and effects are reasonably good. At times music from the movies plays, but at most times the sound effects are all you need. The clashes of shields, whizzing of arrows, and voices of your enemies are very realistic. I was very pleased with this aspect of the game.

After you defeat the game, you will unlock several features. To begin, you unlock Frodo and three other characters. The game also makes cheat codes available, and allows you to play as any character in any level, on any path. Also, an additional level is unlocked. This makes beating the game pretty sweet.

I have to admit, some serious gamers will not like this game very much. But most other people, especially the movie fans like me. I really enjoyed The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King for Windows, and would highly recommend it to anyone. It was great!