Fans of the original literary trilogy may be especially interested in The Fellowship of the Ring on the Xbox, as it purports to bypass the recent movie entirely, instead drawing its inspiration directly from the novel. However, upon playing the game, one may realize that the game's connection to the book is slightly dubious. It does follow the events of the book a bit more closely than the film--the old songster Tom Bombadil makes a weighty appearance, for instance. But for all the talk of adherence to its source material, The Fellowship of the Ring on the Xbox lacks the power of Tolkien's masterwork. It's rushed but not urgent, it's dark with no real sense of melancholy, and its characters seem to be going through the motions of a story whose outcome they already know. To those looking for just another adventure game, this complaint must sound like a nitpick, but for those who hold the trilogy dear, it's disappointing that the game fails to evoke the same feelings as the book.
Gandalf's magic will light your way through the Mines of Moria.
At least The Fellowship of the Ring is aesthetically sound, for the most part. The game's environments are generally lush and appealing, making liberal use of the beautifully pixel-shaded water the Xbox has become known for. The character models are also detailed, and the designers apparently took great pains to make the characters look different from the actors portraying them in the movie. Strangely, though, for all the effort the marketing of The Fellowship of the Ring has made in trying to distance the game from the movie, the Xbox version shares a lot of little touches with Peter Jackson's film. The Eye of Sauron, for instance, is identical to the movie version, as is the Balrog seen at the end of the Moria sequence. Perhaps these things are simply taking their place in The Lord of the Rings visual canon. The voice acting in the game ranges from decent to merely competent, but the music is actually quite atmospheric and provides a nice aural backdrop without being obtrusive.
Though the setup sounds promising--a wildly popular fantasy license and the approval of the author's estate--The Fellowship of the Ring is ultimately an average game at its best and a frustrating and boring one at its worst. It's also exceedingly short, and good players will finish everything, including the optional objectives, in perhaps eight or 10 hours. That makes the game a fairly entertaining rental, but those who pay full price will likely end up feeling burned. As a whole, The Fellowship of the Ring is just passable--it can't stand on the strength of its lackluster gameplay or its sometimes ill-used license, but add both of these components together and you may have a somewhat enjoyable weekend with it.
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