Although you can't talk about Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" without talking about "The Hobbit," there's so many things that separate the two books. Even though they take place in the same world, "The Hobbit" is distanced through purpose, time, depth and tone. Were it not written some twenty years before LOTR (and by the same author), you'd almost swear it was some kind of cash-in Young Readers version of Middle Earth.
The same is true for the video games. While EA's LOTR series is all about hack-and-slash action and slavish adherance to the film version, Sierra's Hobbit game is a light, low-impact adventure title (favorably compared to Nintendo's 3D Zelda games.)
The Hobbit is not a bad game. But it's not a great game either. It's worth your time to play through (once), but it overlooks several points that ought to have been part of the storyline's action. And it does nothing out of the ordinary for a game of this type.
As Bilbo Baggins, Hobbit of the Shire, your goal is to help Thorin and his company of dwarves find their way to the Lonely Mountain. The mountain was once the dwarves' home, but it has since fallen under the control of Smaug the dragon - who has also stolen the dwarves' wealth and ruined the surrounding countryside. Along the way, you'll go through caves, forests and Elvish dungeons... filled mostly with jumping puzzles and fetch missions.
The platform elements are of the normal fare. Jumping from rock outcroppings to ropes, across pillars over a river, that sort of thing. There's nothing too challenging, except for the occasional jump that's difficult to judge. Bilbo has two jumps, a normal leap and a pole vault using his staff. The vault can be tricky to time properly, but it is necessary for the tougher bits.
The staff is also a weapon, along with a bag of rocks and the famous sword Sting. Barring some moments were I wanted the distance attack of thrown rocks, I generally stayed with Sting. I'm not actually sure if there is much difference between the staff attacks and the sword attacks... both receive identical upgrades throughout the game, allowing you to chain your swipes and smack the ground harder. I think using Sting was just cooler. Plus, Sting glows. Even when there are no orcs nearby.
Enemies show up in small groups, with little inverted cones over their heads. The cones are both life meters and the lock-on indicator. The lock-on never works very well, so I abandoned it early on. The best move is to just keep whacking the buttons and keeping yourself generally oriented towards the baddies. Jump attacks are key. In the beginning, the combat is a little too close to hard, but once your life bar grows and your techniques upgrade, it levels out. Some enemies can poison Bilbo, which slowly depletes his life bar until you use an antidote or the poison times out.
Bilbo himself comes with a realistic menu of adventure game moves. There's no double jump, but he can grab onto platforms with his fingertips, shimmy across ledges, scamper across thin paths and climb up and down ropes. It might be a little active for the Bilbo of the books, but in the game he's a little more Tookish. Once you find the One Ring (a minor element of The Hobbit), you can turn invisible for a limited time. I actually forgot about the Ring for most of the rest of the game.
In the book, Bilbo's primary job was that of a burglar. (Or "expert treasure hunter," if you prefer. Some of them do.) The game pays homage to that by letting you pick treasure chest locks. The lockpicking sequence consists of a random selection of timed twitch games, almost Wario Warian in reflex. The games require you to hit the button when a green light is up, but not when it's red. If you fail to pick the lock in time, you'll either lose life or be poisoned.
As usual with free-roaming platformers, the camera can get in your way. It's best to get in the habit of integrating the C-stick into your movement... but even then there are times when the camera will refuse to stay where you want it, making leaps of faith necessary.
The levels are sprinkled with giant floating gems. Yep, you collect them, but they have a dual purpose. The gems are "courage points," and every so many courage points upgrades your life meter. By the game's end, you'll have a ton of courage points and a similarly gigantic life bar. The gems also are used to point you in the right direction, which is especially helpful in the larger, more complicated levels. Bilbo also collects silver pieces (which are used to buy... well, not much of anything) and healing and antidote potions.
With the exception of the lockpicking, this is all very, very normal stuff. The tricksy camera is the most obnoxious bit, and it would have been nice to have that smoothed out. And as soon as any game starts inundating me with fetching quests, my expectations immediately lower. Right away you can tell that this is not going to be a game for the ages, one that raises the bar for the platforming / adventure genre. This game is just going to be average and hopefully do it well enough to get by.
Your path covers much of the book, usually with dialogue taken straight from J.R.R.'s pages. In fact, the game does a fabulous job of adapting the novel. Sure, there are some liberties taken, but they're only to bring in the typical adventure game conventions. Some times things occur exactly as they did in the original story - like when the dwarves demand that Bilbo investigate the area that leads to the troll's campsite. (Purists take note: They even included the talking wallet!) Other things are more of a stretch, like the bizarre fetch quests of the Erebor level. The pattern is clear: everybody walks into a level, but the dwarves either A) stand around giving Bilbo orders or B) are waiting at the end of the level because 1) they're been kidnapped or 2) you've fallen behind. Occasionally Gandalf is there as well, but just like in the book, he's never around when you could truly utilize him, like in the boss fight against a million spiders.
Speaking of that, you might recall that "The Hobbit" wasn't exactly a mano y mano combat story. The game manages to inject an appropriate amount of action with the small groups of enemies, some scripted events (like trolls chucking rocks for you to dodge) and a few choice boss fights. Although you face off against a giant cave armadillo thing and a skeleton king dude, the most memorable boss fight for me was against the spider coven. Attercop! Attercop!
As far as level design goes, it ranges from fine to great. Some levels are wholly linear, but many require backtracking... which can get annoying when you're not sure where you should be headed. This is where those gem paths become most useful. Smaug's Lair in particular can become frustrating because you have access to most of the level from the start, but certain items can't be collected until later... even though you can see them and walk through them. The graphics are also mixed. The cave and forest levels are mostly typical and boring, but the Lake-Town level is beautifully detailed.
Visually, the character models err towards cutsey. Which is a fine alternative if you recall the Joe Don Baker Meets Prune Face vision of the animated 1977 Hobbit tv-movie. Bilbo himself looks far too young, but I suppose that makes him more marketable. It's his mug that has to sell the game, after all.
As close as the art direction and storyline follow the novel, there are some obvious missed opportunities. Gollum appears only in a CG cutscene. As popular as the film trilogy is, and with the computer animated Gollum stealing the show, you'd think Sierra would have done more with everybody's favorite emaciated Ring-addicted proto-hobbit. I was hoping for some kind of implementation of the riddle game - even a cheap timed multiple choice event would have be fun. What about a mini-level where you go invisible and have to follow Gollum out of the cave in a chase scene, just like in the book?
Smaug's death is also taken care of in a movie, when it would have been great to put the player in Bard Bowman's perspective and have to fire the Black Arrow yourself.
And although I appreciated being thrown into the Battle of the Five Armies (I was worried they were going to gloss over it with a movie), the chain reaction bit at the end is a very bizarre way to finish the game. I won't spoil it any further, but don't expect a boss fight. I would rather have taken part in a Beorn team-up and fought Bolg the Goblin Chief myself, even it is out of Bilbo's character.
One final complaint. Even though many cutscenes are terrific, fully animated / acted 3D movies, much of the transitional parts are awful hand-drawn flat storyboards. I get that it's supposed to be like the pages of a book, but the art style is amateurish at best. Too many plot points that should have received the full blown CG treatment (like Thorin's death!) are brushed off in these garish art school still frames.
In the end, it's a fine little game. It borrows a bit of design from the Zelda playbook, but waters it down with linear levels and simple, one-off missions. If you're looking for an adventure title that won't take three months to complete, The Hobbit is a perfect choice. And they did do a nice job playing inside the Professor's exacting world, so it is fun for Middle Earth fans... perhaps especially for those who just come out of the theater but haven't yet made it to the bookstore.
