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What a dissapointment!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: November 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Being a big fan of Tolkein's work and knowing that this game was based on his "literally" work, I rushed to get this game with excitement.

The PC version of the game which I got was just so disappointing that I am in disbelief.

Here are the problems with the game in no particular order:

GAME ENGINE; this refers to the PC version of the game so keep that in mind. The engine of the game that controls the camera angels and movements of characters is so poor and buggy that I am shocked this game was released in the first place. The camera veers off to a tree top while you are fighting a gang of Orcs and Trolls leaving you at their mercy while you are frantically trying to see where you are slashing!!

BAD CINEMATICS: I guess the movie set such a high standard for visuals that anything would have disappointed, but the cinema tics of this game are so basic and crude that they are an insult to Tolkein's vision. Clearly they were trying to follow the movie without doing it verbatim but they did a very sloppy job.

GAME FLOW; the game is nothing more than a series of basic role playing with levels that are easy to beat (with the occasional "puzzles" that are not about thinking or challenging you in any meaningful way, but rather all about you running around the level and pushing and pulling things to figure things out) The fighting is basic and a button cruncher. There is no strategy or brain behind this game just follow the path and hack idiotic opponents.

VISUALS: Given the rich world and references in the book, this game could have been a treasure of amazing scenery and clever connections and exploration motives. But instead the game is based on an old looking engine with drab looking atmosphere. Come on people the technology's there. Maybe they should license the Unreal 2003 engine and use the stunning backgrounds available in it.

Now, here's what would have been brilliant, if they had taken a few notes from Grand Theft Auto III's free for all game flow that allows you to roam around a vibrant environment and explore the maps (provided the maps had anything interesting to see or explore, in the current game the maps are devoid of any imagination). Even an idea which would allow you to stray from the book's story line with the fellowship and see what happens would have been intriguing but that would have required thinking or planning which the team on this game clearly didn't bother to do.

Now if this game was released 4 years ago in its current form it would have been forgiven compared to what was out back then. But with the possibilities and ideas that are currently in numerous other games these days, had they just copied concepts from other games they should have been able to come up with something less lame and disappointing.

Shame on the Estate of Tolkein for allowing such a hastily put together game to be released seemingly to milk the current popularity of Sam Jackson's movies and the enduring legacy of J.R.R. Tolkein's brilliance.

Good Game but Not worth the Price.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: January 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This Game is pretty fun very cool graphics - BUT SUPER SHORT - you could beat this game in a night with no problem. And for 50.00 bucks there should be multiplayer - but there is not. The Functionallity of the character is weak too IE; Some can't jump - some can't kick - there are only a few moves. - this could have been A lot better - BOTTOM LINE - Wait till the price drops to 20.00 - it is worth about that.

Is it action, or is it adventure??

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 12 / 18
Date: December 24, 2002
Author: Amazon User

It looks like lots of lord of the rings stuffs are coming out and here we have a game. It looks real cool on the outside but inside is a different dimension.
The biggest problem of the game is that this game has no main dish. What it means is that it's kind of hard to tell what this game's real genre is.
It's looks like action(beating up monsters) but there aren't any real attack combos or sword tricks or any intense moves. And the other one is that battles and sword fights are just too simple. When you meet some scary looking monsters on your way you just place your character facing that monster and just keep clicking the mouse with not much thinking until that monster hits it's face one the ground.
And there are simple range attacks so if you have time you just need to shoot and feed those monsters with arrows while they're coming to get you and when they get close you just do that simple sword excersice I mentioned.
And there are magic attacks but most of them are not so effective so you only use one or two for battle.
And the bad camera view really adds furstration to the game(the characters keep blocking your way so it's sometimes hard to see where you're going).
Oh, lost your health during the last battle, then you can find some healing stuff lying around somewhere. And you can find some more after few battles later and some more after battles and some more after battles and more and more and more...............
(that means the game's not much challenging)

And it looks like an adventure game if look at it at a different angle(because of the weak action). But it just don't look like one because there ain't no challenging puzzles or path finding or anything.

And level designs, just not done with much creativity.

Finally the violence part. This game is not very violentive(ok, it's violentive sometimes) and has some blood but not very real looking(only few big blood drops goes flying in the air)

Overall, not the kind of game that makes up to it's name.
But the short movies in the game and charaters talking in games are GOOD, but gameplay is not that fun. So wait for Two Towers, it should be better.

It really is that bad

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: January 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Please save your money and do not buy this game. If you want a good LOTR game buy the two towers for any platform. First off I had problems with sound (I have sb live plat 5.1) so if it doesn't work well for sound blaster what does it work well for. The graphics are okay, but being as how the gameplay is LAME and the quests you get are lame.. do not buy this. They took a good story and went off in the wrong direction. I ended up returning this after giving it a decent chance (even with the sound problems)

WARNING!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: June 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

DON'T BUY "THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING" PC GAME IF YOUR PC DOES NOT HAVE THESE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS LISTED ON THE BOTTOM:

1. Windows 98/2k/me/xp
2. 600 Mhz Processor
128 MB RAM
3. DirectX 8.1b Complient Video Card (32Meg with single pass, multi-texturing and T&L)
4. DirectX 8 Complient Sound Card
5. 4X CD ROM Drive
6. 800 MB Hard Drive Space

IF YOU DON'T HAVE THOSE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR YOUR PC THEN DON'Y BUY THIS GAME BECAUSE IT WON'T WORK (INSTALL) FOR YOUR PC. BUT IF YOU DO HAVE THOSE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ON YOUR PC THEN YOU ARE VERY LUCKY. "THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING" PC GAME SHOULD INTSTALL INTO IT. THIS GAME HAS GREAT GRAPHICS AND SOUND. THE STORY LINE AND GAME PLAY ARE WELL-DONE FOR THIS GREAT GAME. ITS WORTH EVERY PENNY (IF IT IS CAPABLE OF BEING INSTALLED INTO YOUR PC THAT IS).

Not good, but still wasn't that bad.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: January 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

First of all, I really did not have any problem installing the game. I'm using XP, already had the required DirectX and have a decent NVIDIA video card. The game is extremely buggy though and I can see why people may have had problems on installation. Before getting the patch, the game would at times simply shut down on me (which wasn't so bad since I was saving every five minutes anyway). The scenery, while being gorgeous, has many bugs so that one minute you are fighting and backing up to a wall and the next you are staring at the ceiling wishing the nice orc would just back off for a second to let you get your bearings. The patch I got (not sure the version now) was huge, but did make the game much much more stable, so if you've already bought the game, I highly recommend getting the latest patch.

Game play itself I thought was interesting. I didn't find any of the quests too too easy though some are a bit maddening (Why does Frodo need to find clues to find out where his relatives live right off the bat??). They really should have let each of the characters kick and jump. The keyboard and mouse setup is really no problem if you've played an FP games at all since you basically only have a few actions anyway.

The story is very very linear and very short. It took me a couple days. I have to say, though that I was enjoying the change of pace from the frantic pace of things like Warcraft and Age of Empires and was disappointed at what seemed to be a very abrupt ending. ( I replayed from the last save just to make sure that I hadn't missed something before the credits rolled.)

I can see spending [money]. I can see too, why Amazon.com is giving the...price break!

A very good play

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: November 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

After reading the Fellowship book and seeing the movie I, of course, I had to get the game. Being a Lord of the Rings fanatic, this was a must-have for my collection. The game has its good and bad sides but overall I was very much pleased with this game.

First of all, the graphics were amazing and splended. I would say that the high qaulity animation scenes were better than many of the Playstation2 graphics that I have scenes. Many of the battle sequences were rather slow and fuzzy, but the qaulity was still at a B average.

When I first read the box I assumed by the description that you could use any of the playable characters (Frodo, Aragorn, and Gandalf) at any time. However I was rather dissapointed to find out that you can only use the characters at certain times. When you play Frodo you have several advantages on your side, being that Frodo is usualy played on the realitivly easy levels to beat. However when you have to escape the Nazgul, that did present a hard challenge which took me an hour and a half to get pass. Frodo's main weapon(s) were (as you advance) The Ring, Rocks and Sticks, Barrow Blade, and then Sting. He wasn't my favorite character to play, but I did enjoy throwing stones at the Nazgul and them not finding me due to Frodo's handy sneak action.

The next character you play is Aragorn. He was my favorite character to play because he has many different uses and is played a lot more than Frodo and Gandalf. Natrually, his specialty is sword play, but he is also pretty good with using a bow and arrow. The bad thing about Aragorn is that his stealth isn't all that and a bag of chips. You have to get used to (and it takes a while) to his controls and the way he moves. Very shortly after you first start using Aragorn, you will have to battle all nine of the Nazgul at once durring the level at Weather Top. This part I found was very hard. It took me forever to finialy get past that round when all you are armed with is a tourch. Still Aragorn is (in my opinoin) one of the better characters.

Finialy, there is Gandalf. He wasn't my favorite character to play either, but he has a lot more attacks than Frodo and much more stealth than Aragorn so in genral he is concidered the most powerful. Yet the bad thing is when you cast spells, many of them require that you reflect the magic from his staff to the Orc(or whatever he is fighting at the moment) and then click to enable the magic and getting the correct aim is very hard, and I eventually said 'the heck with it' and killed them with his sword. Gandalf's sword isn't very good either you have to play the game for a while to pull up the level of his sword. Also you played Gandalf the least and of course, he is killed in Moria.

The music of the game was also very good. It was not the same tunes from the movie which was a very good change and the music would fit the atmosphere of the level. And when you were in a tight situation (or suspensful) there would be no music to keep the suspense up (that is not a fault of the game)

Overall, the game is way too short and you get past each level very quickly. One dissapointment was that the Lothlorien stage was almost the shortest in the game (next to the Barrow Downs) and it dosen't take the time to go over all of what happened when the Fellowship entered the realm of Galadriel. Being my favorite part of the book and movie I was rather dissapointed.

The game IS based mainly off of the novel version of the Fellowship of the Ring so you meet several characters that were not mentioned in the movie like Tom Bombadil, and Glorofindel. I did like the use of Boromir's arrogant attitude in the game which was very much like the one of the novels.

Overall, The Fellowship of the Ring PC Game was very good and I enjoyed it a lot. Although it dose have it's downs it has its ups. So any Lord of the Rings fan will not be dissapointed with this game.

More adventure than action, different from the other games

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: June 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I played the PC version but it's also available on the PS2 and XBOX.

The Fellowship of the Ring is a fun, if short, romp through the first book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is not related to either The Hobbit (by Sierra) or the Return of the King or The Two Towers (both by EA Games). It is a pretty straightforward action adventure with simple quests and relatively easy-to-defeat foes.

What to expect:
* On the "action to adventure" scale, this game is heavier on the adventure side with simple puzzles and quests. There is definitely some combat and stealth involved, but you will find nothing like the endless hordes of foes that you'd encounter in the other Rings titles. (I love those games, by the way, this is just a very different experience.)
* This is a 3D action adventure that uses typical navigation: Move the mouse to look around, click the mouse buttons to perform actions and fight, use the keyboard to move.
* You'll get to play as a number of different characters in sequences that more or less parallel the first book in the Rings trilogy.
* If you're familiar with Tolkien's books, you'll find that this game is often more faithful to the source material than the recent films, and you'll meet some characters that the film left out.

What's good:
* The general production of the game (graphics, music, acting, cutscenes) is rather high quality. Some of the environs are very pretty while still being stylistically distinct from the films. It was very cool to casually wander around Bag End and Hobbiton.
* While the diverse gameplay may be distressing to some, I rather enjoyed it. At one moment you might be doing a simple search-and-deliver quest, at another moment you might be attempting to sneak by enemies or neighbors unnoticed. The combat sequences present their own challenges, depending on which character you're playing, or the specific weaknesses of your foes.
* All dialog is voiced, and it's done pretty well.

What's bad:
* It's actually unfortunate that the levels in this game are so attractive and interesting, because there are a lot of "invisible barriers" that will keep you from exploring them very thoroughly. Usually you can only run down a specific path and are prevented from jumping fences or running through fields. I would have really loved to be able to roam more freely throughout the games various areas.
* Companion AI is somewhat spotty. There are different times when you are accompanied by important figures from the story, but your friends have a tendency to fall behind, and they don't always fight back when attacked.
* It's too short. It's funny, because when I think back about the game, there are a LOT of locations and neat things to do. I guess it was just so easy that it didn't take long to accomplish all the goals. So, the game doesn't take very long to play, but you'll do a whole lot of stuff along the way.
* There's a stealth sequence involving the Nazgul (the ringwraiths) that's easily the most difficult portion of the game- unfortunately, it happens very early on and might threaten to dissuade the casual gamer from continuing. My advice: Find a walkthrough perhaps, or just try a lot of different hiding spots- there are a number of ways to get past this part. It'll get easier and less frustrating soon after.

Difficulty (from Very Easy to Very Hard): Easy

My rating (from Very Bad to Very Good): Good

You will probably like this game if you liked these: The Hobbit, Zanzarah: The Hidden Portal

Short-lived Fun

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: November 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

While this game offers spectacular graphics (and the graphics are the reason I gave this game 3 stars instead of 2), it falls short in the gameplay department. First off, if you haven't read the book and have only seen the movie, there are parts of the game that you won't recognize. The game is wonderful the first time through, and very addictive. Although once you finish the game, there isn't much left to do. There isn't any varying difficulty levels. I finished the game withing 2 days of buying it, perhaps with a max of 5 hours of gameplay. Again, while the first time through is a blast, the game just isn't worth this price. Its a one-shot game, so I'd wait until the price goes down.

One more thing...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 25
Date: January 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

To those who say it follows the story, when the Hell did Sam get captured by a flying Nazgul?

What a joke. They butchered the story as well.

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