The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age

[Kireihana]

Does anyone else have this game? I have it for GameCube and it's AWESOME. It's nothing like the previous LotR games at all, so if that's what is keeping you from buying it then you don't have to worry.

I like how long the game is. I've had it since Christmas and I'm still only 50% done! And I haven't even tried Evil Mode yet. It's actually the first RPG I've ever played where running into enemies doesn't get repetitive and annoying. I've had the difficulty on easy though ever since Moria, lol. I'm more interested in the storyline and completing all the tasks than the difficulty "experience."

So right now I'm at Osgiliath. I just got beat in the second battle with Gothmog (the orc that looks like it has a brain on its shoulder). Helm's Deep took me a while to get through...

So what do you guys think of this game?

[Hitokiri]

I got it for Christmas but with 2 other RPG's work on, I returned it. Plus for the some odd reason, the Tolkein purist blood inside of me would't allow it. You want a awesome LOTR game though, buy Battle for Middle-Earth, a command and conquer LOTR-esque game.

That game rocks and doesn't make me mad about how inaacurate it can get (killing Aragorn in Amon Hen or summoning a Balrog in Minas Tirith is as far as you can get away from the series but still is fun).

[Kireihana]

I see. But since the story of Third Age is so separate from the main story anyway, I didn't have a problem with it. If they had messed with real characters like Frodo, Aragorn, Legolas, etc. or deviated from the books/movies too much I wouldn't have liked it. But I thought it was kind of cool how you are shadowing the Fellowship, like when you hear Pippin knocking over the skeleton in Moria.

[uc pseudonym]

I enjoyed playing The Third Age. The battle system was very similar to FFX, but that was a good system so I didn't mind greatly. It was good that they made a very seperate storyline, but the points where it crossed with the standard storyline it was occasionally annoying (such as the final boss, but I won't go there at the moment). Unfortunately, I can only play this game at one friend's house, so I haven't gotten to properly enjoy it.

[Arnobius]

My brother works for EA and was one of the people working on the game. He said that what they were trying to accomplish was to allow the gamer to answer the question of what you would have done differently as a part of that quest. They wanted to make it more open-ended, but Peter Jackson and Co put some restrictions on interfering with the actions of the main characters, so it received the in-house nickname of "Followship of the Ring"

[Arnobius]

@#$%^&* double post

[_Sin_]

I enjoyed playing The Third Age. The battle system was very similar to FFX, but that was a good system so I didn't mind greatly. It was good that they made a very seperate storyline, but the points where it crossed with the standard storyline it was occasionally annoying (such as the final boss, but I won't go there at the moment). Unfortunately, I can only play this game at one friend's house, so I haven't gotten to properly enjoy it.

That's most likely because they (EA) haven't had any proper experience in the RPG genre so they requested help from the people who did FF (I'm pretty sure that's accurate but I don't know for sure).

My brother works for EA and was one of the people working on the game. He said that what they were trying to accomplish was to allow the gamer to answer the question of what you would have done differently as a part of that quest. They wanted to make it more open-ended, but Peter Jackson and Co put some restrictions on interfering with the actions of the main characters, so it received the in-house nickname of "Followship of the Ring"

Yeah
Kinda annoying that your party looks extremely similar to the real characters and does nearly the same as them plotwise but in fact is not the real Fellowship.

[Arnobius]

That's most likely because they (EA) haven't had any proper experience in the RPG genre so they requested help from the people who did FF (I'm pretty sure that's accurate but I don't know for sure).

I'm pretty sure they didn't make use of the FF people (though my brother says they tried to recruit people from all over, so maybe they got someone from there). My brother came from Stormfront and worked on Two Towers (got a full time job with EA because of that one), Return of King and Third Age. You are right though about their having to learn how to do RPG's from scratch.

Yeah, they originally wanted to do it so it was your chara that undertook the quest, but they had to change it.

[dareiq s'an]

I didnt think it looked to good, kinda like they were trying to milk LOTR for all its worth. Plus it looked to unrealistic, lotsa glowing weapons and such...

[uc pseudonym]

Yes, one thing the game certainly didn't have was the subtle nature of power of the books (and also of the movies). I remember Peter Jackson commenting that he didn't want Gandalf to be your typical wizard shooting lightning everywhere, and I think in this he did a good job. Most supernatural abilities are not emphasized... unlike the game, where everyone and his brother can cast spells. Still, however, I found playing it an enjoyable experience.

[mastersquirrel]

The game in general gets good marks from me.
The Good
The graphics, movements, and lipsink are very well done except for the animatronic horses that everyone rides. The battle system was a lot of fun and can keep you entertained for quite a while. Boss fights are littered through the story and most are quite fun (especially the Balrog).
The whole game is very fun to play.

The Bad
One of the annoying things is the wierd missions people send you on, such as finding all of the characters from the movie at Helm's Deep and talking to them. Also the way you must backtrack over and over sometimes is annoying like at Rohan or Moria. But really there aren't many problems along that line.

The Ugly
The story... If you take away the Middle Earth setting and characters then you have the basic cut-and-paste story that so many other games have had since the beginning of time. The story doesn't run very well and leaves quite a bit to be desired. There are also little things that are strewn through the cinema scenes that just doesn't make sense. Like when the party sees Helm's Deep they walk onto a hill and talk a bit about it. Then, out of no where, they're riding horses up to the main gate... Where the horses came from? I don't know. Why they're animatronic? Anybody's guess.

Over all, the game is really fun, and many will love it to pieces, but there are little problems here and there throughout the game that may lower the glamor of the experience a bit.