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upsettingly BAD!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 55 / 64
Date: November 04, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I was SOOOO EXCITED about this game from the get go! I called the stores EVERY day even to see when it was available etc. I got it and now find that EA has botched another good idea - An LOTR RPG. But first, the pros before the cons.

The graphics are superb along with the musical score! Another thing that is cool is how you can add new armor and it changes the appearance of your character. Now this is ALL that is good about it!

Cons
The game is TOTALLY Linear!!!! In EVERY rpg Ive played you can go to towns and talk to people/buy weapons etc. And you can generally go around and explore and level up etc. Not here. Here its set up to where you run along a SET path unable to leave the path (if you try your character just runs in place!) So basically you run from point A to point B and open chests to get the same items every time(Which means NO replay value) You fight a few orcs etc then move on to the next area. This is IT! The WHOLE GAME IS LIKE THIS!

I find that the ONLY meat of the game is "battle" turn based battle. the battles are traditional rpg style, choose attack or a spell, defend or heal etc. But you cannot find new special weapons etc. Early on when you only have a few spells etc you start from easy battles to insane battles! There is NO room to level up on your own through random battles etc.

Why EA chose to make a game that is totally Linear from point A to point B is beyond me! I used to be a HUGE Final Fantasy fan along with Xenogears, Xenosaga etc. This game will be HIGHLY diappointing for anyone who is a fan of LOTR and is looking for a meaty rpg. Nope, its for UBER fans ONLY! If you like running here fighting, then running there fighting etc its for you. If you like variety in an rpg then pass, rent this just to see how bad it is. I would have to say that this gets #1 on my most disappointing game of the year!

Where's the fun?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: November 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I had not played any LOR games and was disappointed with this one. I only played for about 30 minutes and found that I was forced to just follow the pre-determined path set by the developers. The game is really just 109 video clips from the movie, with a non-interesting path for you to follow to "unlock them". Someone called this Japanese RPG, I call it "10 year old RPG". If you are under 14 you'll love it. I would have given it 1 star, but I felt that the video clips were sort of fun. However, the Video clips don't even match the story! I wish I could return this game......

repetitive and boring

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: November 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

sorry, this wont be a deep review. it doesn't deserve a minute more of my time. this game simply blows, it has no feel of tolkiens world or even peter Jackson's middle earth. game play is repetitive and boring. the graphics are no better than ea's other offerings and if you have them you are not seeing anything new. the "story" bored me in first 20 minutes. this game simply blows. rent it before thinking of buying.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 14
Date: July 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is the most bullshi* I have ever seen. I di not like the combat. You take turns to attack. I played this Motherfu**** game for 5 minutes and hated it. Dont buy this game. I wasted 50.00$ on it. You would probrably end up destroing it. I would give this game a dam* 0 if i could. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssse dont buy this game.

LOTR: The worst game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 8
Date: May 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

WTF?!?! Ok, here it is, EA can't move on from thier LOTR franchise, so they have to stick with this LOTR thing. Get this EA! It's all over! Ok, this is a piece of crap. You don't get to be Gimli, or Aragorn, or Legolas. You play as these less-important losers who are trying to find Firmir, whos dead. The enemies, well, there aren't very many of them. They have orcs. one time they'll have spears, and then they have drums. Hey, can a drum really be a weapon? Plus, it's boring and REALLY DAMN HARD. Don't buy, and don't rent. Don't even think about borrowing it, or even looking at it, or thinking of it. TOO LATE! anyways, stay away from this trash

Deserves NO stars

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: November 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This has to be one of the WORST games ever created. LOTR:Fellowship of the Ring was a boring mess but then they released LOTR:The Two Towers and LOTR:Return of the King, both excellent games. Well, I'm here to tell you that that trend is officially OVER because The Third Age is the biggest waste of time imaginable. You play as some random idiot that wanders around endlessly getting attacked by various enemies. Don't think these are actual attacks either, no no, you have staged attacks where you select what you want your character to do, then sit back and watch as it is carried out with absolutely no interaction from you. It reminds me of some of the really early games which had this same type of combat system (which is NO LONGER ACCEPTABLE by the way). This was an obvious attempt to bilk a few more dollars out of the franchise but seriously, don't waste your money on even a rental for this dog. This game is boring, lame, pointless and stupid.

This game is worthless!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: April 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First off, who thought up the marketing idea that continually interspersing scenes from the LOTR movies would be a great selling point? The scenes have nothing to do really with the game and it gets annoying after awhile. Second, I got totally frustrated at how I'd finish a battle then move on and then if I wanted to backtrack I'd have to fight the SAME BATTLE all over again - it can't be avoided! Other games, if you defeat and win in a battle it's done. You can go back over that same area and not have to fight the exact same battle over and over and over again. You can't choose the character you want to be which sucks and there's not really many treasures to find and they are mostly lame anyway. As a fan of LOTR, I found this game boring, frustrating and totally lacking in creativity. Don't waste your money.

Wow! This is really bad!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: May 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If I was one of the programmers of this game I would be embarrassed to have my name in the credits.

I've been a LOTR fan since I was a child and have been waiting for some decent games to transport me to that other world. I was really excited about this game but never bought it. I finally got around to renting is this weekend.

I've put about 15 hours into it...not because the game is any good, but because I paid $8 to rent it and I'm going to get my money's worth out of this.

The Pluses:
1. The graphics are good - not great...just good
2. The sound is really good

The Minuses:
1. You get a party of 6 characters but only three can be involved in any fighting ever
2. If you cast a group-based spell, only the characters on the screen get the benefits
3. There is no way to share weapons, armour, etc
4. There is no way to cast spells unless you are in combat
5. Game is so linear it's not even worth guessing where to go...it will tell you you must do A before you can go to B
6. It tries to tie into and parallel the FOTR by adding Gandalf and other characters that talk to you, but the discussion feels like you just walked into a conversation half-way through
7. You can't drop anything you have picked up...so at this point my dwarf is carrying 6 battleaxes and 1 warhammer, plus extra armor, etc
8. Stats mean virtually nothing...
---as your party increases its skills in strength, spirit (magic points), etc they become more powerful and do more damage...which you expect
---problem: some how the same monter that you could kill with a damage of 200 now takes 2600 points...what's the point of going up?
9. The box says 1-2 players...what this means is that player 1 or player two controls the one character that shows up on screen while moving around - the only time that the other player comes into the game is in battle when there are only 3 characters on screen
10. There is no interaction with the world around you...you just walk around, kill stuff and listen to Gandalf or other NPCs

I could go on but these are the big issues with the game. Overall, this game isn't even worth renting unless you like linear, unoriginal games that go nowhere and keep you there.

If only 0 stars was an option

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: December 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I agree with many of the other reviewers. Good idea for a game but not satisfying in the least. Not much Role playing to it. You're railroaded into each quest and the only decisions you as a player get to make are what skills to learn and where to put your attribute points (you level up after nearly EVERY battle). The "special moves" you learn through building your skills aren't distinguished very much graphically and certainly don't make the game any more or less exciting. The turn based thing does the game no justice. When you think of the movie, you think fast-paced action, enemies everywhere you turn, danger lurking around every corner, and the fate of the world is dependent on a small chance that this small person can pass the test. The game is totally anti-climatic. I run down a path (the only path) and eventually I'm forced into an encounter. During the encounter, my company suddenly appears and fights with me (btw, co-op is bunk this is really only a one-player game). I'm facing three orcs and when its my "turn" I run forward three steps and swing at him. I make a critical hit! but it looks like any other hit, and I turn around and take three steps back. All the while the other orcs just stand there and watch their friend take a beating. Then its the orcs turn. He draws his bow and fires at me. Even though I have a large shield and would obviously anticipate this shot, he somehow gets the shot off and the arrow goes thru me. Yes, the arrow is poking through my back and sticking out my front. Ridiculously, I somehow shrug that off and press on swinging away at the other orcs.

This is the worst game I've played in a long time. I don't know what the designers were thinking. But I guess, the marketing people are happy. The Ads and hype got me to buy it. I've learned my lesson though. Rent before you buy. ANd a note to the people at EA: Stick to sports. Fantasy RPG is not your forte.

Would rather eat Warg droppings than play this anymore

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: November 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I had very high hopes for this game and went out to buy it as soon as it came out. Now that I've been "playing" it I have some major gripes...

This game is beyond what I would call linear, you are confined to a set path, unlike KOTOR where you ran around zones, here you run down paths. Dreadful.

Combat looks stupid. All the fights seem predetermined. When you enter combat a large loud annoying "start of combat" screen pops up. You decide your attack, you execute your attack, then you run back to where you were to stand like an idiot waiting on the enemy to attack you. I just can't get over how bad that looks.

What it boils down to is that there is little to no exploration and all the game is is a series of battles you run too. Rent this thing if you have to play it.

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