The Lord of the Rings, The Third Age is the latest installment in Electronic Arts' series of games based on Peter Jackson's most excellent film adaptation of JRR Tolkien's classic books. The game is slated to offer a deeper overall experience from its action-oriented predecessors, The Two Towers and The Return of the King, thanks to its use of a traditional RPG structure. We recently had the chance to check out the game to get a better idea of what to expect from this original title, which will encompass the action from all three films.

Check out a brand new trailer for LOTR: The Third Age.

The main narrative in The Third Age will run parallel to the events from the films and will follow a party of six original characters. The cast will include archetypes who hail from across Middle-earth, much like the Fellowship we all know and love. Among the members of your party will be Berethor, a Gondorian citadel guard; Hadhod, a dwarf; Elegost a Dunedain ranger; and Idrial, an elf from Lothlorien. This group will set out on its own adventure across Middle-earth during the timeline in which the films take place. Your quest will weave in and out of the main tale told in the movies, which will result in your crossing paths with members of the Fellowship. In fact, in some cases, you may even fight alongside them.

The gameplay in The Third Age will follow the basic template of most modern RPGs, such as Final Fantasy X, in that it will mix exploration, character interaction, turn-based combat, and party development. But while the game's systems stick to many of the meat-and-potatoes basics you'd want from an RPG, the game puts its own unique spin on things. Combat will follow a basic turn-based structure that will let you plan out your attacks at your leisure. You'll have to keep an eye on your party's health and action point bars to ensure success when dealing with challenging foes, though. Meanwhile, your party members' action points function much like mana, so these APs will power magic or special-skill attacks during a fight. When either health or AP runs low, you'll be able to open your inventory so that you can restore them with whatever items you have handy.

The party management system is pretty typical, so you'll juggle your roster of available characters as you progress to ensure that your current party of three or four (depending on the situation) has the right mix of fighters. As you defeat enemies, you'll gain what appear to be two types of experience that will go toward buffing out your crew. In addition to the normal experience points that will increase your character's level, you'll also earn skill points that will help your character earn additional special skills, such as magic.

The magic system in the game will feature a "greatest hits" of elemental forms that should be old hat for RPG veterans. Your characters will be able to use earth, air, fire, water, light, and shadow abilities. The various elemental forces will work with and against one another in standard "rock-paper-scissors" fashion, so some will be stronger or weaker than others, based on the situation. Earth is a debuffer, so it will allow you to impair your enemy's stats; wind will let you impair your enemies' abilities in combat; fire will let you inflict damage on your foes; water will focus on healing properties; and light and shadow will offer powerful high-level attacks that should pack hefty punches.

The Third Age will put you in control of six original characters journeying through Middle-earth.

Each of your party's races will be predisposed to specific magic types, so elves will have an affinity for water, for example. In addition, you'll find specific types of skills, such as swordplay or bow craft, that offer more options during combat. The game will also feature a unique skill set--unique to the people of Gondor--called leadership. Besides offering a good number of party buffs to help your group's performance in combat, leadership will eventually play a more tactical role in the game by allowing you to call out formations or strategies to your party during your turn. As you use these various abilities, you'll earn skill points that will move you up unique skill trees in the game. These branching trees will let your decide what abilities to take on and which to pass on as you customize your characters. The more you use a given ability, the more points you'll earn for it and the further you'll move in that ability's direction on the skill tree.

The process for leveling up your character has a customization element to it that players can choose to explore or ignore depending on their levels of skill with RPGs. The Third Age will give you the choice of manual or automatic systems for character development and item equipping, which ensures that you get the experience you want from the game. The manual system works like a standard RPG, so it lets you choose your characters' skills and abilities, as well as exactly what armor and accessories to equip them with. The automatic system will set up your party with the best possible configuration for your next confrontations. This system is a fine addition for newcomers to the genre (or for those who are short on patience). However, if used by RPG veterans, this system is grounds for revocation of a player's staff, cane, pointy hat, or RPG fanboy membership card, so be wary.