	The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age
	Developer: EA Publisher: EA Games Release Date: Out Now Players: 1	Words By:
The Lord of the Rings now feels as much a part of Christmas as mince pies and fairy lights. For the last few years we have been given a film, a game and numerous ‘making of’ books. This year though, with the trilogy long gone from the cinemas and the final special edition almost upon us, this may be the last chance for EA to release a game on the coat tails of the hype and publicity that is still with us. So what do we have this year? Well in The Third Age we have an RPG. The best way it can be described is as “Final Fantasy – The Tolkien Years” Instead of playing as Gandalf, Frodo or Aragorn, your party is made up of a group of very similar types who always seem to be two steps behind the Fellowship that the series is so famous for. As you progress around the game world you get to visit all the locations from the films and always get the feeling that the Fellowship is not that far ahead of you. It’s a small touch, but it adds a great deal to the atmosphere. For instance, your visit to the mines of Moria sees you taking an ever-so-slightly different route, only to be surprised by a skeleton falling from somewhere above and a familiar voice echoing as it chastises a Hobbit for being so careless. Your party progress by moving around the game world and chancing upon numerous random encounters. These battles are fully turn-based. Each player takes his turn depending on their speed and initiative. Depending on who is in your party you have different options open to you. Your starting character is a tough Swordsman and attacks hand to hand; others use a bow or even magic to dispatch the various foes. Experience is gained in a number of ways. The more you use a particular skill, the better you get at it and once a talent is mastered, you move on to learn a new one. Different characters gain different skills – it could be more attacks with a sword or a shot with an arrow which sends your enemies to sleep for example. Each character also has a number of base stats such as Strength, Dexterity and Speed. With every successful battle you gain XP and when you ‘level up’, you get to add a couple of points to the skill of your choice. It’s all about balance here, there is not much use having the strength of 100 men if you are so slow you never get to attack. The graphics are a mixed bag. On the world map, they can at times look a little blocky and the environments sometimes look a little empty. It’s only when you are in one of the locations from the films that they seem to improve. In battles, the level of detail of your characters and the enemy is very good. Goblins look like Goblins and Trolls look like Trolls. The detail continues even when the graphics are moving, arrows fly around and swords can get blocked. Even though it’s turn-based, the battles feel very action packed and speedy. The first of the game’s problems though comes in the battles – they are just far too easy – I played for 4 hours solid before I even got to one battle that presented any kind of a challenge and it was almost another 2 hours before I died for the first time. I would much rather have had a few less random encounters that lasted longer and produced more of a test. The second problem is in the design. It’s strictly an A to B affair with no side missions or branching stories, within the first six hours I felt like I was on rails, following paths through the levels, moving from one part of the story to the next. It just feels far, far too linear. It must have something going for it though as I was able to sit for 6+ hours solid, progressing and building up my characters. This was actually more to do with wanting to see where the story goes and if you do encounter the Fellowship at all. It was at that 6 hour point that I found the answer to that question, had a meeting with Gandalf and died in battle. It took three attempts to win. After 7 hours though, I’d had enough and just felt like I was going through the motions. Had EA allowed for a more open game experience such as that in KOTOR then this would have scored 9 or 10. However it’s just too slow, easy and linear to make it an essential purchase. Fans of the films and the books will probably get a big kick exploring familiar locations though.

Best Bits
- Good graphics.
- Good Battles.

Worst Bits
- Too easy.
- Too linear.


by: dUnKle