Skade
Explorer
I recieved the Two Towers game for Christmas, and was intially pretty excited about having a go at it. Despite it's title the opening sequence is the intro to the Fellowship of the Ring, in full 5.1 sound and DVD clarity. This follows through to the battle on the slopes of Mount Doom where it expertly transitions from live action footage to game play, allowing you to take control of Isildur. This is a trick the game will use to good effect often, slding in and out of game engine graphics to scenses culled from the Fellowship of the Ring and the Two Towers.
The in game excuse for using scenses from each movie is Aragorn telling Eowyn their story. I honestly don't remember if this happens in the book, but I have no issue with it. The game is not a roleplaying game, but instead a brawler with three characters to choose from-namely Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas. This is where i start to have issues with the game. It is not the choice, or limit of characters, it is instead that each of the characters fights using the same techniques. This is one of the few games I have seen that allows the right analog stick to be used as an input for character actions, allwing for seemless combo entry. This feature came at a cost though. Normally the right analog stick is used for camera angle in this sort of game, instead you are stuck with often limited visiblity and little way of adjusting- an element that often places you under direct fire. Also, the right analog stick allows you to basically cheat, swirling away with abandon gets you almost as good results as careful use of combos.
The differences in the characters are minimal, and pretty much involve their abilty to sustain damage. gimli is a tank, tough, slow but powerful. Legolas is ... well, an elf-easily damaged, quick but casuing little damage. Aragorn you can guess is basically an average of the two. As you progress through the game you gain experience points which you may use to buy upgrades to your characters, new combos, hit points, and weapons. The thing is that they all have the same abilities. They are simply renamed to match their cultures. I was really hoping for a drastically different experience when playing each character. I expected to use the bow almost exclusivly for Legolas from Gimli.
There are some good points to this game. The music, being taken directly from the sountrack is wonderful, paced to match the action upon the screen. The characetr animations are superb, with the orcs, goblins, uruk-hai, trolls, elves, Rohirrim, and teh characters very well designed and animated. By beating the game, and rwching certain levels with each character you are treated to various interviews, art galleries, and eventually unlocking Isildur as a character to play though the whole game (excepting one Aragorn only level). This is all done on a level selct screen designed to look like one of teh maps of middle earth, just like the DVD menus. It is quite pretty. Another big point in the games favor is that all of the voice work was done by the original actors. You can imagine that some editing was done to the included scenes, sometimes this works nicely, at other times, it feels hacked.
Isildur BTW is exactly like Aragorn only with more hits. His voice cues and certain in game reactions are all Aragorns, they simply changed the outfits. Which reminds me of another thing. Each character gets a secret level, which is fighting yor way through Orthanc. Each one is identical, but you have to go to three different spots on the menu to get to them. Again I was hoping for something tailored to the characters. Like maybe scenes of them getting to Rivendell. This would not be much of a stretch, as many of the levels are located in places these characters never stood in.
I did enjoy my first time through this game. It was only on the subsequent plays that I found it tedious.
Gameplay 8
Graphics 8
Sound and Music 10
Replay Value 5
Controls 7
My review is a 7.6. I would give it more for die hard fans of the movie series (rather than the books). Not a bad game, but something of a let down.
-kane
The in game excuse for using scenses from each movie is Aragorn telling Eowyn their story. I honestly don't remember if this happens in the book, but I have no issue with it. The game is not a roleplaying game, but instead a brawler with three characters to choose from-namely Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas. This is where i start to have issues with the game. It is not the choice, or limit of characters, it is instead that each of the characters fights using the same techniques. This is one of the few games I have seen that allows the right analog stick to be used as an input for character actions, allwing for seemless combo entry. This feature came at a cost though. Normally the right analog stick is used for camera angle in this sort of game, instead you are stuck with often limited visiblity and little way of adjusting- an element that often places you under direct fire. Also, the right analog stick allows you to basically cheat, swirling away with abandon gets you almost as good results as careful use of combos.
The differences in the characters are minimal, and pretty much involve their abilty to sustain damage. gimli is a tank, tough, slow but powerful. Legolas is ... well, an elf-easily damaged, quick but casuing little damage. Aragorn you can guess is basically an average of the two. As you progress through the game you gain experience points which you may use to buy upgrades to your characters, new combos, hit points, and weapons. The thing is that they all have the same abilities. They are simply renamed to match their cultures. I was really hoping for a drastically different experience when playing each character. I expected to use the bow almost exclusivly for Legolas from Gimli.
There are some good points to this game. The music, being taken directly from the sountrack is wonderful, paced to match the action upon the screen. The characetr animations are superb, with the orcs, goblins, uruk-hai, trolls, elves, Rohirrim, and teh characters very well designed and animated. By beating the game, and rwching certain levels with each character you are treated to various interviews, art galleries, and eventually unlocking Isildur as a character to play though the whole game (excepting one Aragorn only level). This is all done on a level selct screen designed to look like one of teh maps of middle earth, just like the DVD menus. It is quite pretty. Another big point in the games favor is that all of the voice work was done by the original actors. You can imagine that some editing was done to the included scenes, sometimes this works nicely, at other times, it feels hacked.
Isildur BTW is exactly like Aragorn only with more hits. His voice cues and certain in game reactions are all Aragorns, they simply changed the outfits. Which reminds me of another thing. Each character gets a secret level, which is fighting yor way through Orthanc. Each one is identical, but you have to go to three different spots on the menu to get to them. Again I was hoping for something tailored to the characters. Like maybe scenes of them getting to Rivendell. This would not be much of a stretch, as many of the levels are located in places these characters never stood in.
I did enjoy my first time through this game. It was only on the subsequent plays that I found it tedious.
Gameplay 8
Graphics 8
Sound and Music 10
Replay Value 5
Controls 7
My review is a 7.6. I would give it more for die hard fans of the movie series (rather than the books). Not a bad game, but something of a let down.
-kane
