EA's action-oriented Lord of the Rings series began with last year's The Two Towers, an impressive hack-and-slasher that combined elements (and film clips) from Peter Jackson's first two LOTR movies. Return of the King picks up the Gauntlet and adds the most-missed component, co-op play.
These are not overly deep games... they're primarily old fashioned games of endurance. Can you outlast the onslaught of Orcs and Easterlings and Trolls at Sauron's Black Gate? Can your thumbs live through the frustrating zig-zag goal looping of Pelennor Fields? Sure, there'll be a couple times where you have to activate a switch to continue the level, but for the most part you're dropped into an angry sea of baddies and expected to fight your way through. Even the so-called "stealth" levels of the hobbits hold a generous amount of sword-to-pike thrashing.
Were it not for the excellent and complete use of the movie license, these games wouldn't rate much of a look. Thankfully, the presentation is handled well, turning a fairly typical video game experience into something akin to a Lord of the Rings DVD, with bonus interviews with the actors and the now-expected quality stamp of the Jackson trilogy. The other factor in the games' success is that they're extremely hard. Even set to the easiest difficulty level, these are games that require the sturdiest of hands and the mashiest of buttons.
The combat is visceral, carnal. Swords swing like baseball bats, sending sprays of black blood. The X button is your basic weapon attack, with triangle and circle supplying two additional physical attacks (triangle is a "fierce" attack that destroys enemy shields and circle is some kind of girly shove maneuver that I rarely used.) Square parries, which sounds useless until you're in the thick of it trying to dope out exactly what you should be accomplishing instead of dying. Parrying is especially helpful against incoming arrows. Parry away the projectiles and wait for the enemy to re-nock the bow for your chance to return fire.
Each character has a killing move on R2, which instantly dispatches any enemy lying down (they often stand back up). The killing moves sound a tad more dramatic than they really are; most are simply a downward stab. Still, the killing move becomes vital when clearing out an Orc infestation.
The branching level path of ROTK covers three separate tales. In the center is the Path of the King, where Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli take on the King of the Dead and Pelennor Fields before the final confrontation at the entrance to Mordor. On one side is the Path of the Wizard, a Gandalf-centric quest from Fangorn to Minas Tirith. The Path of the Hobbits takes Frodo and Sam from Osgiliath to Shelob's Lair to Mount Doom.
The additional playable characters make things visually interesting, even if they have only minor gameplay differences (the hobbits can cloak themselves and sneak around invisibly, for instance.) Like TTT, your characters collect experience and level-up, purchasing new attacks and abilities as they go. Due to the frenzied nature of most levels, however, actually pulling off those new combo moves is easier said than done. With some practice, you'll get good at a few of them, but most of the time you'll stick with the basic attacks. Surrounded by a knot of Orcs, those basic attacks are often the only thing you can do, since they'll be constantly hitting you and interrupting your combo button chain.
I wonder how more interesting things could have been with an easier and more reliable combo system. When you have Easterings on all sides and a massive Troll bearing down on you with his spiked war-club, it's a little tough to do a triangle-triangle-square-triangle move. Often there just isn't enough time. Maybe an advanced attack on a relatively simple double-tap? Or use a shoulder button as a modifier key? Perhaps all the system really needs is a way to strike at multiple enemies... one of those combos may do this, but I never found the time for it. Taking down a couple at a time would clear the way for some of the more extravagant combos, which in turn would allow for more interesting combat animations.
The rather strict character system of TTT has been revamped. You can now re-play old levels with the same character... it's a transparent attempt to level-up, I know... but you were weirdly blocked from doing that in Two Towers. Also, you can now buy attacks and abilities for ALL characters at once, not just your current character. They run about twice as much, but you'll be able to afford it in the long run.
There's essentially two types of levels in ROTK: linear path levels and arena levels. In the path types, you're rushing from point A to point B, with the occasional extra instruction to track. Like, save 200 villagers, or help the Ent take down the dam, or keep Frodo and Sam away from exposure to the roving eye of the flying Nazgul. The strong point to these levels is that you're always moving, so they don't feel as futile as the arena levels. The arenas are intentionally hopeless, as wave after wave of enemies appear from all sides. But, since you can conceivably hang out in them indefinitely, they become wonderful experience pimp sites.
Experience helps. It's insane to play a level 1 Gimli at the late-game Pelennor Fields. It is a cheap way to force replay value, since you pretty much have to start all characters out at the first mission and work them up individually, or play 2P with one strong character and one weak. But it's your best way to combat the game's aggressive difficulty, once Gandalf gets up to his kickass glowy energy weapon attack. You always hear people bitching about how games today are too easy... ROTK is no walk in the Shire. Several levels compound the enemy level with repetitious enemy events you have to deal with, like running back and forth over the parapets of Minas Tirith kicking over Orc-ladders. The march of the Mumakil during the Pelennor Fields level is surpremely annoying, and if you don't plan and anticipate your next oliphaunt kill, you're going to lose.
The two player cooperative mode makes all the difference, especially in the arena levels. There's something comforting about fighting back-to-back against hordes of rampaging Orcs. The game doesn't split-screen at all, which makes for a nice unified vision... at the cost of some maneuverability. If you run too far afield of your partner, you're liable to hit an invisible wall until he catches up to you. That sort of separation is dangerous, so it's better to stick together. The PS2 version supports online co-op play, including in-game voice communication and USB keyboard chat.
Even if you're stuck playing single player mode only, you won't be alone. Many of the levels provide CPU-controlled teammates to complete the movie feel. In the King path, you always get Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, no matter who you choose to play. In the first Hobbit mission, you have to play Sam, but you get Frodo tagging along and even a helpful Gollum leading you through the ruins of Osgiliath. Of course, the computer drones aren't as helpful as a human partner, so get used to seeing Gimli standing around in a corner of the screen picking his nose... but it's nice to have them around for the atmosphere. And the conversation.
The visuals that knocked everyone flat last year in Two Towers have paled a bit in ROTK. Maybe it's all deja vu, but there's not much that stands out. The levels still look great and do an amazing job of re-creating the movie scenes, but the low-poly character models rarely hold up in the closeup scenes. Aragorn in particular looks rough and unfinished. Everything looks great when the cam is floating overhead, thanks to exceptional motion-capture and a variety of realistic body movements. Makes you wish they would have done the cutscenes in full CG instead of using the in-game engine.
The old trick of morphing actual film clips into game graphics is also re-used, although not to as great effect as in TTT. It's obvious that EA just wasn't given enough Return of the King footage to sustain the game all the way through. During one game-to-movie scene, the movie clip itself is literally only a second long. And during the game's final moments, the narration is forced to explain the Happy Ending over footage culled mostly from Fellowship of the Ring.
Movie spoiler fans will notice a few brief clips that did not widely appear in trailers and behind-the-scenes specials. There's some stuff from the Two Towers Extended Edition, and a scene where Merry and Pippin finally part ways. What might be more exciting to fans waiting for the third movie's release are the in-game cutscenes that illustrate key points of the plot: Eowyn and the Witch-King, the Paths of the Dead, and Gollum at Mount Doom.
The entire film cast provides voice-over and sound effects, which adds a much-appreciated polish. This would not be the same game with sound-alikes. To add to the overall "APPROVED BY PETER JACKSON" veneer is a collection of unlockable interviews with the actors. And since they mostly talk about the game and their role in it, not the movie, you're going to see stuff you haven't seen before.
Return of the King is a good example of a fun game that lives as much on presentation as actual gameplay. The action could be uncharitably called unambitious, seeing as it is nothing more than running and jamming the X button. But added to the high-quality environments and motion capture, and the DVD Extras style of unlockable features, it makes for an involving and accessible experience. This is a definite purchase, especially if you're looking for some co-op play.
