LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring (PS2)

Tolkiens description of the Ring Wraiths were very vivid, which could explain the obvious similarities between Peter Jackson's and Vivendi's interpretations

When EA snatched the license for Peter Jackson’s screen version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece, Vivendi didn’t hesitate to get a hold of the license for the book instead. This has caused some confusion because several Lord of the Ring games now pop up on the market.

Luckily there is a huge difference between the two companies angle on the material, which justifies both games. While EA’s focus is on action in their almost arcade-like title, Vivendi has taken the more obvious approach and developed a nice little adventure.

This approach makes the game a lot more coherent and has made it possible for the developers to ‘go by the book’ so to speak. A lot of the things that weren’t in the film, and therefore not in EA’s game, are included in The Fellowship of the Ring, and that will definitely make fans of the books happy.

Tolkien for beginners

The game starts at page one of the first book and gives you control over Frodo, after the introduction of the ring. The game is driven by quests and sub quests, which either are an essential part of the story in the game, or just little extra jobs with no significance to the main adventure.

In a third person perspective you control Frodo, first in Bag End, then in Hobbiton and further into Middle Earth. You will however also get the chance to control both Aragorn and Gandalf, which gives the gameplay a very welcome variation.

Naturally the three characters have different powers. Frodo isn’t much worth in battle, where he can only throw rocks or do a bit of slapping with his walking stick, but then he can use the ring to become invisible for a short while and that will save him quite a few times during the game. As the game progresses Frodo will be able to wear the ring for longer periods of time, but it will kill him if it stays on for too long.

Swords and magic

Basic hack'n'slash is what you get when Aragorn draws his sword

Aragorn and Gandalf are both well gifted with their swords and in addition Aragorn can fire an infinite number of arrows with his bow. Unfortunately this doesn’t work very well, since the lack of an auto-aim system forces you to use the very slow and cumbersome first person view to aim.

Gandalf has the ability to use magic of course, and he does so in a much more visual oriented manner than the film. Here you can use fireballs and lightning, all of which is a lot more impressive than the invisible ‘force-field’ magic of the film. Gandalf also has the ability to heal which comes in handy, as the monsters grow stronger towards the end of the game.

Mixed treat

The grandeur of the mines of Moria isn't quite as overwhelming as in the film

The atmosphere of the game is very adventurous thanks to both music and graphics, and for once the well known fogging effect, letting the machine hide what exceeds its memory, is a part of this. Especially in the mines of Moria and the Ancient Forrest this gives a little extra mystique, which in the latter is added to by shifting paths and movements in the background.

The characters in the game are well designed, even though it can be hard not to think of the actors of the movie as the ’true’ characters, and this is a problem the game generally suffers from. With the visual style of Peter Jackson in mind you are easier annoyed by details that differs from this, and therefore the blandness in graphical quality becomes more apparent.

Voice acting is however the biggest problem of the game. While some characters are done decent enough it all too often becomes a laughable affair to listen to the dialogue, and that ruins a lot of the atmosphere. Even the introduction of some of the ‘forgotten’ characters of the film, such as the lovable yet mysterious Tom Bombadil, can’t restore what is lost on behalf of the bad voice acting.

No competition

Even with daggers this isn't a fair fight

The specific tasks of the game are few and focus on very traditional gameplay aspects. Some missions will have you collecting stuff, like for instance lilies for Tom Bombadil, while others focus on battle. These battles are, though basically entertaining, pretty monotonous, which could be said about the game as a whole as well.

Variation comes in the form of the different well conceived monsters, including riding and flying Ring Wraiths, Orcs, giant spiders, Goblins, Ents, Trolls, Wargs, spirits from the Barrow Downs and finally the impressive Balrog.

Sam and Frodos bugcontrol. The red eye in the top left corner tells you that you have been spotted - not that there is any doubt here...

When it comes down to it though, the game is far too linear and on top of that it suffers from several small but annoying design- and programming errors. Graphically there are too many pop-ups to ignore it and all too often you stumble on some very poor collision detection, making you able to walk through monsters, doors and walls. However the most frustrating thing is the manual saving function, forcing you to remember to pause and save the game frequently…save points or an auto save function would have been nice.

Basically this is a nice little adventure game that only survives because of the well-known and loved universe of Tolkien. Without it there wouldn’t be a lot to appreciate. The game is too easy, too short and too uninspiring. Fans of the books will undoubtedly be able to enjoy some aspects of the game, which is, if nothing else, a nice supplement to EA’s action-orgy.