Fun, faithful adaptation of the book, The Hobbit.
User Rating: 8.3 | The Hobbit XBOX
One of the best aspects about this game is that we get to see and move around in the same world and scenarios as we read in the book. As I played, I kept thinking how well-rounded the production seemed to be. I really liked the character designs, the sounds, the puzzles, and of course the story. Speaking of puzzles, some of them took me a while to figure out. But then there's the gratification of completing the level after having worked out the problems. At first, I thought the combat with Orcs, er, goblins, was going to be purely hack and slash. Well, it pretty much is, but I noticed that they became smarter as the game progressed. Instead of just standing behind their shields, many of them will jump aside and move out of the way. Maybe that's a small thing but it's a nice touch.
The only complaint I have is with the sometimes-frustrating camera, which seemed to always want to move back to some default position after I've moved it to a certain perspective. Maybe there's a setting to change that, but I didn't find it. The angles I was stuck with sometimes made for frustrating falls off cliffs or platforms, but really, the camera problem seems common to most games.
Overall, I was very impressed and satisfied with this game. I recommend it if you like platformer/adventures, and especially if you're into Middle-earth lore.
