Great Production Values, Slick Graphics

This is the one game to rule them all, well at least for a movie-based game. I bought this game for PS2 the day it came out in anticipation of seeing some movie footage and playing a fun game. I was excited but then I remembered the memories of movie-based games....they all suck pretty much, but, this is one of those movie-based games that is great a lot like GoldenEye for N64. The game opens into the opening scene from Lord Of the Rings: The Fellowship Of the Ring, which consists of the humans and elves fighting Sauron's minions at the base of Mount Doom and it converses it from movie footage to game footage and then you take the control as Isildur and you fight orcs in a completely crazy level but still maintaining a nice frame rate with awesome graphics. Then after killing a bunch of orcs and other things it goes into the part where Isildur cuts off Sauron's finger and takes the ring and then it isn't destroyed and goes into Isildur's death and the finding of the One Ring by Gollum, then Bilbo and then the game goes to the menu. The game covers Fellowship Of the Ring and about 3/4th's of The Two Towers.

Gameplay

This game is a 3rd person view hack-n-slash. Although it's a hack-n-slash, I thought it was very RPGish with how you gain experience points and buy upgrades. The system works where when you attack someone theres a meter for the constant amount of attacks you do which however high it stays which is what kind of kills you get, Fair, Good, Excellent, or Perfect. The better the kills you get, the higher experience points you gain from the kill. You use experience points to buy upgrades which may upgrade your arrows from regular arrows to flaming arrows. The combat system is very nice with accurate hit detection. The ability to parry(block) is very useful especially in some combos you can do.

Graphics

From Amon Hen to Helm's Deep the graphics are always excellently detailed and maintain a smooth frame rate. One of the most frantic levels in the game is Helm's Deep, and I wondered how they were gonna be able to maintain this level in a game considering all the orcs that are included in this battle, but EA did an excellent job on this level and every other level. One thing I noticed though is that Gimli's face looked a little wierd but they improved it in Return Of The King. The character models are nicely detailed and look accurate in their own way, not always looking like the actors they are supposed to look like but that is alright considering the detailed job they did.

Sound

This is probably the best thing about this game...sound. With the Academy Award winning Howard Shore with all his beautiful music you will always enjoy what you hear, whether is the Concerning Hobbits tune in the credits or the music during the battle at Helm's Deep. Sound Effects are effectively done and sound realistic such as explosions and orc sounds and also that all the voices for the characters are from the actors in the movie which is awesome.

Controls

The controls to this game are simple to master on the PS2 control. The left analog stick is what you use to move and you use the other analog stick to do some attacks or use the triangle and X buttons. The triangle button does strong attack and the X does fast attack while square does parry and O does your long range weapon. The shoulder buttons are used also for long range such as L1.

At a solid 10-15 hour game with tons of extra interviews this game is a great buy for any LOTR fan or action/adventure fan. Also this game has solid replay value considering you have 3 characters to use. Multiplayer is a downside but will be in Return of the King.