LotR: The Third Age Review
December 5, 2004 by John G
by John G - December 5, 2004
EA continues to use its license of the Lord of the Rings movies in their recently released RPG, The Third Age. This Lord of the Rings themed RPG has some fast battles, movie scenes, and fictional players, which is an interesting concept. Within The Third Age, you will play as other people in Middle Earth, who get involved with the events of Lord of the Rings, and come across the fellowship. The Third Age is possibly a welcome change from the other games, as it shows the events from a different perspective, not just as the movie/book characters.
The Usual RPG Style
The Third Age opens similar to all the other Lord of the Rings game, going through the content of the prequel, then leading you in to your fictional character, who happens to be a Gondor soldier that is searching for Boromir. The beginning movie scenes lead directly into the introduction of your character, who is riding on a horse and you get quickly thrown into a tough situation, as there are Nazgul guarding your path. Your character gets owned by the wraiths, but fear not, this is suppose to happen.
You then find yourself rescued by and elf, in similar style to Arwen saving Frodo in the Fellowship of the Ring, by washing the wraiths away with a water spell. There is no slow start to The Third Age, as you will meet random encounter battles right away when going to find a place to get supplies and to get healed. The beginning is set in a lightly inhabited area outside of Rivendel. This elf that saves you will become your first party member as you start your journey.
Right away you will notice a �class� type system, the elf being good with magic, the dwarf being good with melee fighting, a ranger good with arrows, and your character, who can do different things, but will most likely do sword fighting. The skill tree is a good aspect of character development. Each character has different skills related to their talents, and you choose which ones are learned next, if they are unlocked. There are main types of skill categories, and you can pick the next skill to learn in each. Creating items is also a fifth one, as long as you have the right things.
Every time a skill of that category is used, you will get more experience, and will eventually learn the next one of that category. When this happens, a small line of text will tell you in the middle of battle. The Third Age battles are almost straight up random encounters, with different indicators at the top of the screen, showing the chance of a fight starting. There�s also a good chance that you will have to fight when going to open a chest, which gets annoying and predictable after a while.
Leveling up is also straight up EXP, which is shown after a successful battle. There will be a bar that goes across the screen as the EXP is added up, and when it gets across they go up a level. When there are a bunch of people in your party, at least one person levels after every battle it seems. After leveling, you go to the game menu, and then to a �stats� option. From there you pick a character and can choose which attributes to give points to. In the beginning, it�s usually two points per level up.
Different attributes do different things, and they are well explained in the stats screen. You can pick from strength, dexterity, constitution, speed, and a couple others. Knowing each characters strength should guide which ones to raise.
The battles themselves are reminiscent of most other RPG�s of the kind. A separate battle screen comes up, and you do turn based strategy from there. Speed is the biggest factor in deciding the order of the battle. Sometimes it can get annoying when orcs go a bunch of times, while you just sit and watch your health go down. Speaking of orcs, The Third Age is filled with the usual suspects, orcs, trolls, goblins, wargs, and so on. Some obviously being harder than others. Adding to the variety of monsters is seen with the different types of orcs you will face. Goblins, veterans, archers, shaman, and many others will be seen.
Some unique beasts can be seen within The Third Age, like the water creature in front of Moria, and the Balrog, and some others later on. Using items and attacking is pretty simple, and does not need a lot of work before you get it down. All the items in the game are Tolkien style, from Longbottom leaves, to Old Toby, and Elf medicine. These items all have different uses and strength. Some heal health, others action points, or both. Action points are The Third Age�s form of �MP�, for RPG veterans. All special attacks and spells use AP, which can be replenished after a quest completion, level up, or item usage.
Just Like the Movies
The graphics are pretty good in the Third Age. The character models look good, and change whenever new weapons and armor are added. These items are also similar looking to the ones in the movies, a good example being the Gondor Armor that the main character wears during much of his time. The settings are all similar to what you would expect in a Lord of the Rings game. The designers got the Moria setting down fairly well, and I have no complaints about any of the evnironments.
The settings are also varied, from forests and ruins to underground to cities. The enemies are nearly identical to what they looked like in the movie scenes, especially the goblins and the trolls. The animations for the different special attacks could be a little more varied though. The graphics for The Third Age are nothing to jump up and scream about, but they are very solid, and bring the player a Lord of the Rings feeling when playing the RPG.
No Head Banging
It was evident to me, right from the main menu screen, that there would be no problems with the music in The Third Age. The award winning music from the films went right into the games, in much variety and enthusiasm. In all sections of the game, there is fitting music played in the background, and in some cases, the same music that was used in that part of the films. Personally, I loved the music from the movies, and I don�t think anyone will have a huge gripe about it.
As for the voice acting, it is reasonable. The fictional characters have good voicing that sound similar to what their race should sound like. Some of the actors from the movie will also show up. Much of the movie clips and narration is done by, none other than Ian McKellan, the actor who played Gandalf in the movies. One bad thing is that Gandalf seems to lay everything out to you, cutting into the time of character interaction.
You Sexy Orc
After completing a chapter, you will have the option to do it under "evil mode", where your alignment is changed for a paticular setting. The down side is that it is a small selection of battles from that chapter where you play as the forces of evil. You go right from one battle to another, and it does not end until all of the battles are complete. You can gain better weapons and such, which makes the whole thing worthwhile. Overall it can be a little dull though, but playing as the Balrog is always an enjoyable option.
Each type of weapon and armor is rendered nicely in The Third Age, and each is unique when equipped onto a character, so it looks pretty cool. Stats are also visible when equipping and changing things. There is no currency system in The Third Age, because there are no stores in your adventures. Every weapon and piece of armor you find will remain with you for the rest of your time in the game.
One good feature is that portraits are placed on the side of the screen to show whos turn it is, who will be going next, and shows up to a few turns ahead, which is useful for planning different things in a fight. There are some processing slowdowns in The Third Age, but they are more frequent and noticeable on the Playstation 2, while the Xbox handles it better.
Coop? Eh...
Improving your characters and trying to get a 100 percent completion of the different areas is the main goal for most in this game. Overall you will get a decent amount of gameplay out of it, well over twenty hours, probably over thirty depending on your pace. The replay value is not great, but it does have some. You can go through again with slightly different variations at best, nothing special, and there are no unlockable things when you beat the game.
Hey! There's also a coop mode! Well, it's not that great. It's poorly done, with the first player moving around the screen while exploring, and the two players switch when controlling the actual people in battle. It could have been made a lot more exciting, but it was not implemented well, and is not really anything you would enjoy playing.
This is No Place for a Hobbit!
It is a union between turn based fighting RPG's and Lord of the Rings. Was it a successful union? That depends on the person. Overall, it captures the settings and enemies of Lord of the Rings, and the battles aren't that bad either, so I would say it was successful. The characters are good, the music is good, the rendering is good, and the attempt was good. But there are of course, places where it could have been better, as it is in most games. A more constructive multiplayer option than the implemented coop mode would have been nice. Sometimes the battles can be frustrating. The first few hours alone is just trying to chase down the fellowship. But despite the weaknesses it is a good game. Anyone who likes the Lord of the Rings content should consider it. But is it the one RPG to rule them all? Nah...
