GameSpot editors' review
-
CNET editors' rating:
stars
Excellent
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 01/01/2004
- Updated on: 06/16/2004
- Originally published on GameSpot: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Mobile) Review
The first thing you must do to best enjoy this game is to set aside your obsessive fandom. The BREW port of The Return of the King, from Jamdat and Imaginengine, is a great game on its own merits. But if you're like me, you'll compare every little aspect to the book and movie, and that will only serve to distract you. You won't be paying attention to the clever movements of your enemies or experimenting with your character's special abilities. You'll be noticing that instead of rallying the ghostly troops on the Paths of the Dead, Aragorn is battling them so that he may defeat the King of the Dead at the end of the level. You'll be scoffing over the choice between Gandalf, an all-powerful immortal wizard, and Pippin, a clumsy but clever little hobbit, as potential player characters to fight off orc intruders in Minas Tirith.
If you are able to overcome this initial obsessing hurdle, however, you'll begin to notice the little things that make the mobile game version of ROTK a worthy member of Tolkien's ever-growing epic franchise. While it is in the traditional form of a side-scrolling action RPG with a lot of maze-solving and enemy-slashing, ROTK has significant replay value by allowing you to select from a few appropriate characters for that specific mission and being able to revisit that level at any time to try another character or just improve your score. Currently, you also have the option of entering the Battle for Middle-earth Tournament (details at http://www.verizonwireless.com/LOTR) or uploading scores for each level--just to see how they measure up on the current high-scores list.
In general, the graphics are quite impressive, and the character representation is pretty accurate (although the Gandalf headshot is more reminiscent of Saruman, and the hobbits' action figures are too similar to one another). The terrain and enemies really bring you into that specific area of Middle-earth and, along with the individuality of the player characters, make this third-person adventure as immersive as most any RPG.
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