Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Score: 75% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Vivendi Universal Games Developer: Black Label Games Media: CD/1 Players: 1 Genre: Adventure
Graphics & Sound: The nearly 60 year old story of Middle Earth has seen quite a few misses in the video game industry and with the wonderful rendition of the Lord of the Rings Hollywood hit, it was no question that we would be subjected to a few more. Black Label Games is one of the few so privileged to carry this burden. Never heard of them? That's exactly the thought I had when I put Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring into my PS2 CD-tray. They are a new division of Universal Interactive. Very few complaints can be listed in the graphics department, but they do exist. First of all, the framerate is subject to lag at times - mainly when the camera shifts to one of a few gorgeous views of the landscape. Water is extremely disappointing, mimicking some weird, blue-shaded, oozing stained glass of sorts, but the most repulsive are the character movements. Very little work was done in smoothing between animations, such as the mutation between walking, running, and then fighting. Sound effects, voice-overs, and music are nothing to write home about. Gimli had, by far, the most unconvincing accent, but it could have been a lot worse. As for the music, it was just boring enough to be annoying at times...
Gameplay: Black Label's version of The Fellowship of the Ring is nothing but a playable story. One will notice this almost immediately, and I can say first off, this is their biggest mistake. The best evidence is in the first quest, which is: Go get the deed to Bag End and the house key. Of course Frodo needs both of these to sell Bag End, but what's the fun in actually going and FINDING them? This is no quest - and the sad part is there is no reason someone should have to search for something that they've stored in their own house. It almost seems as if the developers weren't sure where they wanted to go with the game, between having it quest-oriented or story-oriented. The player is forced into these ridiculous objectives at the beginning, and then almost the entire journey through the woods past Rivendell and into the Mines of Moria has nearly no quests. The fighting mimics that of your average adventure game; enemies are defeated by swiping them with the player's weapon. Throughout Fellowship you can play as many different characters, each having his own set of abilities (such as throwing rocks, punching, and casting). My favorite char to use was Aragorn, but you can also play as Gandalf. It was nice to see the characters that didn't make it to the movie appear in the game, but cut scenes were hurried along, and as a result, are very fake looking. It's seems obvious that if someone bought this game for its closeness to the story, they probably aren't in a hurry for thrown-together cut scenes and character movements that are just plain ugly.
Difficulty: At times, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring can be a real pain. Mostly this is because the game doesn't always make very clear what the current objective is - for instance at the incident of Old Man Willow, the player is supposed to find a way to defeat the tree. The real objective is to walk up and slash the tree a few times with your sword at just the right moment. But the tree screams and sways when you throw a rock at it, as well. I must have thrown forty rocks before I realized they weren't doing anything. I came across instances such as this more than once, and they can be very frustrating.
Game Mechanics: Fellowship controls more like an adventure than an RPG. The camera never seems to have the right angle, but the player can, albeit slowly, correct this with the right analog joystick. To sum it up, Fellowship of the Ring is another failed attempt. Sure you will be reminded of the same happenings in the story, but for having so much content, this game does little justice to any of the happenings it portrays, be it the book or the movie. Since the first few areas aren't much like the rest of the game, I recommend renting Lord of the Rings and getting up to Tom Bombadil before buying.
-Goat, GameVortex Communications AKA Brandon Arnold
NCAA Final Four 2003 Suikoden III