After an introductory sequence that's likely to blow you away with its transition from movie footage to gameplay, you fiddle around, bumbling into enemies and dishing out the odd decent slash with a combination of frantically moving Isildur with the left stick and stabbing the symbol buttons. During this hectic and violent introduction to the world of Tolkien you might just notice some on-screen help, but so busy are you that you're likely to miss the first few tips. But fear ye not, the combat system is beautifully simple and easy to get the hang of and Isildur seems to be indestructible, so before you know it, you've twatted enough Orcs and the hugely impressive scene from the first movie in which Sauron appears on the battlefield and kicks some serious butt only to have his finger (and the ring) hacked of by good old Isildur… (It's an awesome start to a game - believe me). The movie clips and the metamorphosis back to gameplay continue throughout the game and rarely fail to impress. EA have produced some really good-looking games over the last few months, and this might just be the best of them.

   

The game plays along a sort of fixed 3D path, more like 2.5D really. There are some wide areas that allow free movement, but for the most part (if you're anything like me) you'll feel a little confined and on rails. But, and it's a BIG but; The game's superb visuals and the satisfying (if at times mind-numbingly repetitive) combat keep driving you on, wanting to see what's around the next corner. Sometimes you'll be able to see way off into the distance, and see the huge battles raging all over, the sheer amount of action happening on-screen is hugely impressive, with never a hint of a drop in frame rate - coupled to the excellent character modelling and the way that locations from the movies have been replicated all mean a bit of a visual feast. An added bonus to the basic desire to see what happens next are the smart DVD movie style extras which are unlocked by successful completion of levels (in which members of the cast and crew talk about the production of the movie and the game. The main cast all did special sound bite sessions for EA especially for the game-specific scenes).

As well as the playable characters: Isildur, Aragorn, Legolas & Gimli, the enemies throughout the game have been recreated wonderfully well too (although what happened to Gimli's face we're not sure). Orcs, Uruk-Hai (Saron's crossbreed army of super-Orcs), Ringwraiths, The Watcher (the massive, octopus-like guardian of the mines of Moria), Trolls, Lurtz (the awesome Uruk-Hai leader), Wargs and several other things that we don't know the names of - they're all here and want to chop your sticky-out bits off. The character models haven't been enhanced any from the PS2 original, but that was a mightily impressive game visually in the first place, so the higher resolution of this Xbox version just makes thing look nicer (or nastier) still.

The game uses a rather cool way of upgrading your chosen warrior's selection of moves and attributes during the game. By timing hacks, slashes, blocks and combos well earns you experience and upgrade points. These are scored each time you kill an enemy. Avoid getting hit by enemies to fill up the skill meter. There are four rankings of kills: Fair, Good, Excellent and Perfect. The higher the skill meter, the higher the rating, the more points you get. Once a perfect rating is achieved your attacks cause additional damage for a while, and at the same time the experience points received are doubled. Top out the "Experience Meter" and you'll go up a level, which unlocks new and more powerful attacks and attributes that can be purchased with upgrade points between levels… - Jeez it sounds complicated when you read it back, but it isn't - the system works a lot better than many "serious" RPGs… You might find that things are made a bit too friendly for you though, as you can revisit and replay any level to earn additional upgrade points, meaning your warriors can end up being incredibly tough and having more moves than sack full of snakes.

   

As much as I enjoyed LOTR:TTT, it always had to be in relatively short bursts (a level or two at a time). I found the gameplay rather too action packed, and yet still repetitive, and longed for a bit of aimless wandering and searching in true Zelda style (I think a Lord Of The Rings game really needs some aimless wandering), the endless battles become slightly over-taxing whilst still managing to be a bit tiresome. They needed breaking up, and your character never even needs to jump to another level or climb anything. Total linearity may drive the game onwards constantly to a logical conclusion, but doesn't really capture the spirit of the story in the same way as the graphics capture the atmosphere of the movies. The choice of events from the first movie seems a bit odd too - why the battle between Gandalf and the Balrog have been left out (there's no movie footage or a game engine version) goodness only knows. Certain non-combative events should have been included; it would have made the game feel more like the movie and the book(s), the lulls in the fighting never last long enough…

And finally, although you occasionally get CPU controlled help from one of the fellowship, a 2-player co-operative mode would also have been a logical option in a story in which co-operation, friendship and loyalty play such a central part. So what could have been a classic game-of-the-movie ended up just being a rather good one.