User Reviews (1 - 11 of 177)

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One Frustrating Roadblock After Another...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 46 / 60
Date: November 14, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game was the most frustratingly annoying purchase I have ever made. After carefully confirming that my computer met or exceeded all of the listed requirements, I happily trundled home from the store with my new game, ready to install and play. But NOOOOO. First, I learn that the README files require XP users to install SP1 for DirectX 8.1b. That took me 144 minutes to download. Then I had to download the patch from the technical support web site. Another 33 minutes. BUT IT STILL WON'T RUN! So I email tech support and they tell me that LOTR runs heavy on Hardware T&L technology, and my video card doesn't support this. What garbage! My computer is less than a year old and I have to buy a whole new card to run a game? Come on, Black Label Games, please make products that work for the general public and their average computers, not just for geeks. The upshot for my sad story is that I will be returning this game and getting my money back, asap. Unless you have a video card that loves Hardware T&L, I suggest that you don't buy this product, it will only lead to frustration and wasted time online. Too bad, too. I really looked forward to playing this game.

Simply Awful

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 19 / 21
Date: November 18, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The best thing I can say about this game is that it is mercifully short (believe it when you read reviews that say 4-6 hours of gameplay max). The user interface is terrible, the quests require no real strategy or gameplay skill, and the story was pointlessly altered. Even the cut scenes were bad. Half the scenes are animated, and half look like they were taken from that wierd 70's LOTR movie/cartoon. This is a cash-in on the LOTR franchise. Avoid like the plague.

Utter garbage

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 17 / 19
Date: January 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Reviewed on a 1GHz, PIII with ATI Rage Pro 128, 256M RAM.

This is a joke, right? We're not seriously expected to pay for this program which would have been considered unimpressive five years ago. The graphics are mundane, the character movement is crude and awkward, it doesn't play full-screen (it's always in a window). The cut scenes are played by 3rd rate amateur hacks with video/audio synchronization like a dubbed martial-arts movie. The third person view constantly blocks the objects your looking for and you can't change the view to be more overhead.

The graphics are so crude the program should run smoothly on a 333MHz box but its really sluggish on my 1GHz. What's it doing with all the cpu time? Looking for extraterrestrial intelligence? If Tolkein were alive this dross wouldn't bear the name of the Lord of the Rings!

I expect more from Vivendi - much more!

Sending it back

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 26 / 33
Date: December 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I installed the game. When I double-clicked to run it, nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. No error messages. Nothing. Their "24/7" technical support said to download a 26 Megabyte patch!! I have downloaded it four times (2.5 hours each time), and the patch executable won't even run. I told them about this problem, and they have yet to even acknowledge that they received my email. I recommend you avoid this one.

Believe me, it is really bad

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 19
Date: December 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is really bad... i finished it in about 40 minutes! It is completly linear, you cant go out of a guided path, and u dont even need to fight... u can pass the whole game (except some "bosses") RUNING! Trust me it is so boring u will be angry about the LOTR name being used in such a bad game!
I think Vivendi Universal should trust no1 but Blizzard to develope their games!

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.

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.

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)

Waste of Money!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: January 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Honestly I am not jut being extreme...this is one of the worst games I have ever played! How can the people who made this sleep at night. I don't own very many games and don't play often but it only took me a little over five hours to beat this game and I only had to continue once or twice. The only part that took long at all was an annoying labryinth forest sequence where you have to navigate you way through an endless bore of woods. Honestly I had a feeling this game was going to be low-budget but I had no idea how bad it could be.

A great story ruined

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: October 31, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is terrible. Vivendi Universal took one of the greatest storys ever told and ruined it. The character models are cartoon-like, the textures are poor, the voices are laughable and the gameplay is not much better. I'm a die-hard Toklien fan and I still hate this game. Stay away from this game at all costs.

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