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Decent -- A disappointment in many ways. :-/

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 10
Date: December 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Let me start by saying that this game ROCKS because it's LotR. The graphics a great, the animations are crisp, and it's fun to use combos.

That's about it. I have only beaten the first level (Helm's Deep, as Gandalf) -- I can't get through half of 'Road to Isengard', I die almost immediately on "Escape from Osgiliath", and I haven't even made it past the Paths of the Dead.

It's not very true to the movie -- You have to fight 80 some-odd warriors of the dead in the first level of the Path of the King (not all at once), then fight the King of the Dead, then fight MORE warriors as the mountain collapses on top of you (I only got that far playing co-op with my brother).

Not to mention that the warriors never attack your companions -- they go straight for you while whoever the computer good guys are watch without concern. Legolas occasionally shoots but never kills anyone unless you're playing as him. I can't comment on the later levels because I can't make it that far.

Other deviations from the movie: Gandalf has to fight his way through 150 orcs and Uruk-hai at Isengard and then help the ents destroy the dam -- he wasn't even there in the movie or the book.

It's awesome to see Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli hack their way through the bad guys, but could we do it with decent gameplay?

And the camera angles cannot be changed by you -- sometimes you have to fight while the camera points straight down on top of you, and when you're running out of the Paths of the dead, you constantly run towards the camera -- half the time you can't even see anything but dust!! How can you run when you can't see where you're going? You have to hold down straight and hope for the best.

And one other thing -- The Uruk-Hai's weapons and shields are ridiculously big -- the Uruk's swords are about 6 feet long (Regular Uruks here...) and the shields about 5.5 feet...

Co-op mode gets a lot easier because one of your companions can do something -- Although Easterling bosses are super tough to wound at Pellenor fields, and it's hard to figure out what to do to take down the Mumakil. (Hint: if you can, kill the Fell Beast -- you will automatically beat the level earlier than expected.

waste of money.... stupid EA games

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 15
Date: November 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Spent 40 dollars on this game. Get it home, wait a HALF AN HOUR for it to install itself... only to get an error message. Even though on the back of the box, it said you should have a 32 MB graphics card, which I have, it turns out my card isn't good enough, and the jerks at EA games want me to shell out a hundred bucks for a new one. Would have been nice if they warned me BEFORE I spent all the time and money on it. To be fair, there were some types of cards listed below the 32 meg requirement, but I figured they were just examples, and the 32 meg was what mattered. STUPID EA GAMES! DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY ON THIS GARBAGE! EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE A PRETTY DESCENT COMPUTER, THERE IS A GOOD POSSABILITY THIS TRASH WON'T WORK! thank you.

25+ year gamer; A review

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I played and loved Lord of the Rings:The Two Towers on Play Station 2 and would give it 5 stars. I had only rented that console for a week during travel, but am usually a pc gamer. When I saw the Return of the King was going to be released for the pc and that it would support multiplay I was ecstatic. And I have been only slightly dissapointed. The gameplay, graphics and cut sequences are awesome, as they were in the two towers. The ability to choose different characters and build them up was great. As other reviewers have mentioned, I played with a game controller rather than the mouse and keyboard, though it was manageable without. I was slightly dissatisfied with a couple of key features of the game: the difficulty and added length of a couple of the levels, especially in coop mode, and the multiplayer options.
First, as other reviewers have also mentioned, some of the levels are fairly difficult, and more importantly, frustratingly long. The hall of the king should have been cut in half for normal and easy play. Others had obstacles that you couldnt figure out especially in coop mode as both players had to be fortunate enough to move across a certain bridge at EXACTLY the same time or else be instantly killed after taking 10-15 harrowing minutes getting to that point in the level. It became exceedingly frustrating very quickly. This game should not have been so reliant on the slightest of timing and movements outside of combat. Getting stuck on a wall was easy to do and occured almost every level, and was doom for the timed levels.
Second, the multiplay should have been networkable for the PC version. The PS2 should not have been the only console with that option when the PC is the natural choice. COOP mode just is not as fun or versatile. But I'm glad it was there over the single play of two towers.
Overall another well made game by EA who have made some of the best PC games I have played along with Blizzard and Sierra. EA just needs to step up on their sequels; none of them have been as good as their predecessors. This one minus a few flaws is close to the exception. Rent/buy it and enjoy!

3rd Best game ive ever played

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Ive played alot of action games such as all the Command and Conquer games and Medal of Honor.This is not the best game ive ever played but is one of the most detailed games ive ever played.
In this game they Use the characters of the movie to do the voices of the characters in the game. The characters almost look exactly like they do in the movie.
The movie clips are awsome if only theyd let you skip them (sometimes you can click your mouse and skip them).
Some people say this game stinks just because you cant skip the movie clips.
The graphics and detail are the best!
The bad thing though is you need a very very good computer if you dont want to expierience any lag. I recommend a computer that has at least 1-3 GHz.
Dont listen to those gamers who cant stand the challenge of an awsome game.(some people said it took a few hours to do one level which I dont buy)
Sure some levels are pretty long,but hey the longer the better!
Who likes those games that take an hour or 2 to beat?
GET THIS GAME TODAY!

Great game! Except for one thing...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I LOVE the Lord of the Rings. I'm not a big collector, but I really, really like the movies. This game was exactly like it! There were real movie clips, real movie sounds and songs, and the actor's voices were also heard. It is definitely worth buying, however, the only bad thing is that you can't save the game. YOU CAN ONLY SAVE THE GAME AT THE END OF EACH MISSION, which can take a long time to complete. You can pause the game, and reach 'checkpoints' where the game is saved until you exit the game. Basically, once you reach a checkpoint, and die, you start from wherever that checkpoint. (As long as you don't exit the game.)
It really is a great game, but you have to have it is only best when you have lots of time to spare.

AWESOME GAME! If you LOVE the LOTR movies you'll love this!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is absolutely one of the coolest games I've ever played! It is like you are actually IN the movies directed by Peter Jackson! The original music from the movies composed by Howard Shore are played throughout the game, making it even more like you're playing in the actual movie. You can play as nine characters - Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, and Faramir. There are 3 paths in the game: Path of the Wizard (play as Gandalf), Path of the Dead (play as Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli), and Path of the Hobbits (play as Sam or Frodo). When you beat the game, you unlock the other 3 characters (Merry, Pippin, and Farmir) where you can go back and replay them in any level you want. This game is so much fun! After I beat it, I went back and replayed the levels again with the new characters, while trying to build up my character's upgrades. You can also purchase upgrades thoughout the game to receive special combo moves and weapons.

The detail in this game is absolutely astonishing, as well as the accuracy of the characters to the actors that played them in the movies. All the actors did their own voices for this game except Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) and Orlando Bloom (Legolas). I think they didn't due to scheduling conflicts, as Viggo was filming "Hidalgo" and Orlando was filming "Pirates of the Caribbean 2."

I DEFINATELY recommend this game! You can play it over and over again and still have fun!

Butt-kicking in Middle-Earth digitally.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is perhaps a fun though a completely different way of showing the RotK events which proves to be a major negative.

Pretty much, the game is exciting from the beginning (Helms Deep finale) to the Cracks of Doom (Gollum turns nasty there), you fight and kill orcs, spiders, etc. Also certain characters will have special powers which can cause lots of chaos.

Though you may need a fair computer to run RotK, you should also pick up an extreme to run this one.

THIS IS A GREAT GAME!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the best games I've ever played. I know some people say it's too difficult, but it's actually not too bad once you get used to it. You'll have to have some strategy too, because hacking and slashing all the time isn't going to work. For example, in Escape From Osgiliath, your goal is to run away, not stand and kill orcs. In that level, if you're out in the open, there's a timer and if you take too long to find shelter, you die. Using combos is a good idea too, especially with the King of the Dead. I was stuck for a while on that level, as it's one of the harder levels. So I found out that I could use combos! So I kept using Orc Hewer and soon beat him! Orc Hewer is one of the best combos available. You can use it to get to perfect mode quickly. Yes, the keyboard controls are a bit cumbersome, so a gamepad is recommended, but it's not neccesary, because I beat the game without one. Overall, this is a great game, and anyone who's a LOTR fan should buy this game!

Probably better on a console.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have to say that I really wanted this game to work. I played the demo and it was enjoyable enough, if a little difficult. So, now that I have the full game, I have to say it's quite disappointing. This is obviously just a cheap transfer from a console platform. This will be the last third-person action/arcade game I play that isn't built specifically for the PC.
The controls are very unnatural with mouse and keyboard. The mouse should control camera angle but instead it just mimics the forward, back, left, right of the w,s,a,d keys. This results in often unplayable angles and the inability to 'aim' a ranged attack properly.
In fact ranged attacks auto-aim in such a random fashion that I question their usefulness. And this really affects the 'fun' factor, as well. In the early levels, it really is nothing but 'click, click, click, click, click,', 'click, click, click, click'. In other words no skill is really required.
Now just to contradict myself, the difficulty level is outrageous. This is not because gameplay is really hard, but due to the fact that you can't save your game just anywhere. Instead you can only save a game at the completion of a level. Oh, and don't be fooled by those checkpoints along the way... you can't start a saved game at any place but the beginning of a level. This may be standard operating procedure for a console, but for a PC game, it doesn't work.
Graphically, this is a pretty stunning game. The story line is convuluted, but at least it looks nice.
Overall, I imagine this would probably be funner on a console or maybe with a gamepad, but the lack of control, the messed up saving and dificulty make this game somewhat of a disappointment on the PC.

A ridiculous & disappointing experience

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 13
Date: January 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

We bought this game for our son, who has an affinity for these types of hack-and-slash games, only to discover that the game won't run. This is a brand new computer, with more than plenty of hard drive space & RAM to spare, with a 64mb graphics card. Unfortunately, there are only TWO graphics cards that this game will recognize. You can have the most powerful card in the world, and if it isn't NVIDIA or ATI Radeon, you are out of luck.

Do we want to blow $100-$150 installing a new graphics card, all for the sake of one lousy game, especially one that has gotten the mixed reviews that this game has? I really don't think so. We have never had any problems with any other programs we have installed on this system. The idea that I need to drag a brand new computer back in for an upgrade just strikes me as ridiculous. This game's designers need to be more flexible when configuring the system requirements.

Our son never got to play this game, but I know that he would have been driven crazy by the lack of a quick-save feature. Once again, the game's designers display a profound lack of flexibility. They must live in some fantasy world where people have all day to kill, slogging through an entire level before being able to save the game. Get real folks.

We have a couple of other EA games, and I have generally been lukewarm about what are obviously console games that have been reconfigured for a PC in a sometimes slap-dash manner. This most recent, very disappointing experience leaves me extremely reluctant to purchase any EA products in the future.

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