Software: Buy The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Online

Average Rating:

For one thing Frodo moves like a tank. The interface is just difficult and maybe it just takes time to learn. The mouse changes the direction you are viewing but you have to use the cursor keys to actually move in a direction. When you hit 'F' key to go into a shooter mode(for throwing rocks) when you move the mouse up the view moves down and when you move down the view moves up kind of like flying an airplane. This is not intuitive for mouse movement and makes aiming for throwing rocks difficult.

Even if you master moving, the fighting is just not good. Frodo has trouble hitting things with his walking stick. I get clobbered by giants spiders or wolves. I try to hit then and Frodo takes so long to swing he is already knocked down before he gets a chance to hit the enemy. Your health goes down fast, but the mushrooms you collect only inch it up a little bit and health doesn't seem to regenerate on it's own.

The enemy also moves too quickly creating stress in the game. For example, the ringwraiths can discover you so fast and I'm not sure where I should run off too. By the time I've chosen a direction and start moving that way the ring wraiths have found me and it's game over.

You have to throw rocks up high in the other direction and hope that wraiths will be distracted long enough to sneak past them. It's scary. Most of the time I'm struggling with my controls trying to make the poor hobbit get somewhere before I'm killed.

I love being able to walk through Bag End and Hobbiton. I wish I could go inside other homes in hobbiton besides Bag End.

I'm not sure if I can redo the hot key assignment but I would help. You have cusor keys on the right hand side of the keyboard but you also have you use your right hand to use the mouse to view direction. So it would help if you could reprogram the movement keys to the left hand side of the keyboard. Also the left control key is used to block attacks so you find yourself having to move your left hand all over the keyboard.

I think this game is beautiful but not nearly as rich graphically as Dungeon Siege. It's a wonderful game to be able to be "inside" middle earth interactively. I just wish the movement controls were better.

I give this game 3 stars for the graphics, music, and the fact that it's middle earth made interactive. However it loses 2 stars for being clumsy with the controls and frustrating in hard places.

When I finish the game completely I will post a followup review.

I love this game. I thought some parts were hard but when you know the trick to get past them it's not too bad.

This game is worth getting if only to see Moria. I think that is my favorite part of the game and the most fun part too. The battles are not too hard and Gandolf and Gimli make a great fighting team! Also in Moria is the place where Fordo can make use of the ring! I thought there was no use for the ring until this part of the game. When Frodo and Gimli are adventuring in Moria it is helpful to use the ring to run past Orcs and then have Gimli fight them while you adventure ahead.

I loved the part of Lothlorien I saw up in the tree with Galadriel and Celeborn. I wish I could have walked through lothlorien instead of only seeing a couple rooms up in the tree. It would have been nice as this is one part of the book that really wanted to see in the video game.

The fight with the Balrog was pretty easy in Moria. I think battling Old Man Willow was harder! I'm not complaining though. Gandalf kicks Balrog butt shooting lighting zaps and then hitting him with his sword.

This is definately a game I will replay. It's a short game but good.

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.