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An obvious marketing gimmick but pretty good play

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

As I said, it's obviously a random attempt to make more money off the LotR success ('Let's make another LotR game! Oh...there's no more story! Ah well, let's make our own, while blatantly stealing Tolkien's dialog and themes!'), but really a fairly good game on the whole.

You play Berethor, a Gondorian guard who follows Boromir around for no apparent reason. You will later acquire Idrial, a female Lothlorien elf; Elegost, a Dunedain Ranger; Hadhod, a peculiarly named dwarf of Fundin's clan; Morwen, a strange female Rohirrim sort of person who is actually from Gondor?; and Eadoen, another of the Rohirrim.

Gameplay is nice; as an RPG fan, I found the open exploration and turn-based fights an improvement over the brawling, one-big-fight format of the TTT and RotK games. The plot is somewhat lacking, however. Your party merely trails along after the Fellowship with no real purpose.

The levelling system is fairly good, although you have to make sure each character gets some battling, which is the fastest way to level up. The method of learning skills can be a bit of a pain, but is easy enough to master. I'm not a big fan of the points system where you have to assign points to the various attributes yourself. I found the Epic Scenes--where Gandalf (apparently telepathically) updates Berethor on what the Fellowship is up to--somewhat annoying.

On the whole, however, I reccommend this game to RPG fans (such as Final Fantasy) and LotR fans. Book purists should stay away, as this game is more or less a blatant merchanising attempt.

I wish they'd made the games with the actual Fellowship in this format!

Boring and Repetative

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have all the LOTR games and play them with my son. The characters don't interact with their surroundings, you stand there waiting to be attacked and can do nothing about it and wait your turn. We like to hit all the buttons and do the combination moves in the older LOTR games. Since when do Dwarfs do magic? My 10 year old son won't even play in the co-op version with me anymore and I've only completed 10% of the game. What an expensive disappointment. I do like the music and graphics.

Lord of the Dissapointment

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I really love Lord of the Rings and i thought this game was going to be awesome. I was sorely dissapointed. The characters are bland and unless you read the books a few times you would not even know who they were. The graphics are ok but nothing spectacular. Now for the gameplay. There are relatively few enemies in the entire game because they could only use enemies from the movies. Even though middle earth itself is vast the quests and missions are fairly linear and you often run around just looking for treasure chests to update new armor.The only good part is the combat itself which is like final fantasy..exactly like final fantasy. To conclude, i only recommed this game to fans who cannot live without LOTR. Otherwise if you are an RPG fan like myself, skip this one or wait until its in the used bin for cheap.

Close but not quite

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: September 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

With this game, EA set out to make an RPG set in the universe of Lord of the Rings (the movies, not the books), with a group of characters following in the footsteps of the Fellowship of the Ring through the events of the films. Did they succeed in this? Well, yes they did, with a lot of heavy borrowing from Final Fantasy X's combat system. The bigger question, though, is, should they have done it in the first place? I don't think so. You are playing an RPG where the ending is already basically known, and since you are supposed to be following and assisting the Fellowship the whole time, you really don't have the chance to do anything in the way of sidequests. You are forced into a linear game of continuous combat with minimal character development, and the end result is a game that, although it looks great and plays well, is ultimately unsatisfying.

First, some of the good things about the game. As I mentioned above, the combat system is lifted directly from Final Fantasy X. However, this is a good thing. FFX's combat system was great for strategic play and it allowed you to make the best use of your various characters' strengths and minimze their weaknesses, and The Third Age replicates that nicely. The music for the game is lifted directly from Howard Shore's soundtracks for the films, so naturally it is excellent. My only complaint would be that the music bits that accompany the end of each battle are way too repetitive. Graphically, the game looks great. As you find new armor and weapons and equip them onto your characters, their looks change appropriately. Also, there is a feature that allows you to instantly evaulate the stats of a new item and see how it will affect your character before equipping it. This allows you to avoid equipping a new item that will make your character weaker (which doesn't happen too often, but it does indeed happen). The backgrounds and environments are, again, based on the films and look excellent. As you play through the game, you will occasionally encounter characters from the films who will join your party briefly, usually for a boss battle. Having Gandalf or Aragorn in your party is a pleasure. You will not encounter any of the hobbits, however, which is strange. It would have been very easy to work in Merry and Pippin, at least.

I was able to play through the game and do everything in less than 30 hours. So the length of the game, while not exactly epic, was enough to make me feel that I got my money's worth. There are several chapters in the game and plenty of save points, so the frustration of losing hours worth of work because of one wrong move during combat should never happen in the game.

Another great thing about this game is the fact that the various members of your company each have their strengths and weaknesses, and they all have support abilities that will further assist you in combat. You start out with basic skills, and then as you progress through the game you unlock more powerful moves. Different enemies require different approaches to battle, so you can't just go through a battle on autopilot. If you just charge in with sword swinging into every fight without any thought given to buffs or support abilities, you will be looking at a "Game Over" screen in a hurry. There are a few items in the game that allow you to severaly de-buff the enemies to make them easy to kill, but such items are very rare and must be used sparingly.

Now let's talk about some of the negative parts of the game. As I mentioned above, you are locked into a straitjacket story-wise throughout most of the game. To make things worse, the characters you have aren't very interesting. Some attempt is made to give them some backstory, but it doesn't really work. Berethor, the Gondorian you start the game with, has perhaps the most backstory, but it doesn't really make any sense. I don't want to reveal too many details, though, so you can judge for yourself. At the other end of the interest spectrum is Hadhod the dwarf, who is so obviously a Gimli-clone that I kept forgetting the difference. As many RPG-players will agree, without a great story, the game just doesn't work, and that is the case here. They try to inject some story by the insertion of movie clips and narration (admirably done by Sir Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in the films). But there are way too many of them and they are repetitive to the point of annoyance. Also the ending of the game is absolutely horrible. Again, I don't want to spoil a whole lot of details here, but rest assured that any Tolkein purist will have a stroke during the final battle of the game. Another flaw of the story is that the characters from the films use a lot of the same lines from the movies. At the very end of the game, when Aragorn claps Berethor on the shoulder and says "You bow to no one," I cringed.

Bottom line in my opinion - the mechanics of the game are excellent, the story is severely lacking. Replayability is nil, as there is no room for exploration or sidequests. The ending is abrupt and unsatisfying. All in all, worth a rental, but that's about it.

third age reveiw

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

third age:
the third age is a triligy role playing game which has 6 characters in.they all have crafts which there type of moves are placed in such as:sword craft,spirit powers,leadership and theif craft.i hav got to sauron and he is blooming hard. i reconmend all lord of the rings fans buy this at all costs.

This is what a true RPG is people!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 7
Date: December 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

First off I have to say: Where are all of you people critisizing this game saying "This is not an rpg"...Ok people you forgot the meaning of ROLE-PLAYING-GAME. Basically an RPG is any FinalFantasy, Or other game like that. They are usually turn-based or they are real time. Real time is still you click the button and it says *Fight* and your character attacks. I guess what you are expecting is an ACTION/ADVENTURE game like The Fellowship, Two Towers, The Return of The King.

I also want to say though...the thing says you can roam and it is an RPG...you can't roam and there are NO shops to buy things...Do you like chests? If you do then this is the game for you!

This was an OK game...I was expecting more...but it was ok...
IF you REALLY like the LOTR series...then wait untill this game goes GREATEST HITS and hits $30 dollars, or just don't buy it just because it says LOTR!!!!

Best Rings Title Yet!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: February 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game will consume you, you will like it. Graphics are great, gameplay is great and it takes some thought to win the battles. I have played it over 4 hours straight several times. You like LOTR? get this game, it is a good rpg.

D & D, not an extension of the previous games

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: December 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is not what you might think. It is well done. The graphics are fine. The characters are appropriate. The problem is that the packaging, timing, and makers (EA) implies that it is another swordfighting battle game like "The Two Towers" and "Return of the King". It isn't. It is like Dungeons and Dragons. You have hit points, moves lists, and stuff like that. It is turn based, making it not much more that a dice-based strategy game with good visuals.

great graphics...but the game overall stinks

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: March 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I was so excited to get this game. when i finally bought it I was extremely dissappointed. here's the 411.

Graphics: 9/10 in the game you visit moria and you get to have a lot of cool palyers. the graphics are better than return of the king which is in my opinion the best of the four.

CO-OP mode: on the game the players can't attack at the same time to defend themselves from emenis.

Attack: you can't attack the enemy while thier attacking you. thats the biggest problem in the game

the game would be better if the fighting mode was like that of the return of the king. thats the biggest problem in the game. the game would be pretty cool if that little thin was fixed.

Not sure what I wanted, not sure what I got

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: May 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I wanted a good role playing game, but I know that most movie properties are terrible games, so I didn't expect much. EA games may put out really great sports games, and the Sims, but from what I understand most of their other games aren't so hot.

I bought this game on a whim, it was there, I wanted a new game, voila. I'm somewhat pleased with my decision to do this.

First of all, the game looks good. It's not great, it's no Square game, but it looks good. The character images on screen constantly chage with what you equip them with, that's cool.

Gameplay is fairly easy. I don't think I used any of the items in the first chapter. As soon as you realize that your characters heal when they gain a level or you save, you've got the basics for how to avoid using your items.

I hated the fact that like every 10 minutes of gameplay there's a cut scene from the movie. It got to the point where they were reusing imagery from a previous cutscene, and Gandalf's voice over was repetitive. There's a save point before almost every new threat in the game, so it sometimes feels like there's too many. But don't get used to that because there are occasional long stretches without.

Evil mode is something interesting. Once you complete a chapter, you can go back and play as Orcs and such and kill the characters you've been using over and over again to gain items that you may then use in your saved game.

The Balrog was incredibly tough, completely out of proportion to every other threat for several chapters around it, and the amount of exp you gain is disproportionately low for how difficult he is.

EA put together a fairly amusing game, but I can't help but compare it to the FF series, by which it pales in comparison. Star Wars KotOR 1 may have been a touch better, but not much.

I think that if they would've done a better job with character modeling, w/ more realistic (less stiff) clothing movement, and had less than 109 movie cut scenes, with a few enhancements to the game itself, it would've been pretty good. As it is, it's fun but no great need to own it for hard core RPG fans.

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