A great ride that improves significantly over its predecessor and proves there's still plenty of life in the genre.
User Rating: 8.3 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King PS2
Last year, Electronic Arts debuted their first game based on Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The Two Towers did an outstanding job of capturing the atmosphere and intensity of the film upon which it was based, coming closer than most other recent movie-inspired games to achieving the goal of making players feel like they had stepped inside the film. The combat system of the game was an engaging and satisfying compromise between classic beat-em-up button-mashing and more complex combo execution. However, the game certainly left room for improvement. Some players lamented the fact that only three characters were playable, and felt that the ability to play as the hobbit Frodo or the powerful wizard Gandalf would have resulted in a richer game. An even bigger oversight in many players' minds was the absence of a cooperative play option, which seemed like a no-brainer in a game about the joint adventures of three characters whose action follows in the footsteps of such classic arcade games as Double Dragon, Golden Axe, and Final Fight, all of which offered cooperative play. Electronic Arts' new entry in the series, The Return of the King, addresses these particular shortcomings of its predecessor, and those improvements, along with better level design and a more engaging presentation, make the new game a truly excellent release that any fan of beat-em-up action will enjoy and that fans of the Lord of the Rings films will take particular pleasure in. While the first film followed the adventures of a unified group of adventurers, the conclusion of that film saw the group splinter as some headed west on one errand and others headed east on another. The Two Towers game followed three of the heroes, the human Aragorn, the elf Legolas and Gimli the dwarf, in their journey westward, forsaking Frodo and Sam and their journey east toward the dark land of Mordor. The Return of the King, on the other hand, has three separate but related stories to tell: that of Aragorn and his two aforementioned companions, that of the wizard Gandalf, and that of Frodo and Sam. The game refers to these three stories as The Path of the King, The Path of the Wizard, and The Path of the Hobbits, respectively. The Path of the Wizard includes four levels, the first of which is a dramatic tutorial which the game launches into automatically the first time you put it in your Gamecube. The Path of the King contains five levels, and The Path of the Hobbits contains another four. Only the Path of the King gives you a choice of characters, as Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli make their journey together. The Path of the Wizard levels must be completed by Gandalf and each Path of the Hobbit level requires you to be either Sam or Frodo, depending on the level. The levels you'll find yourself tackling are often much richer and more varied than the levels in the previous game, making better use of scripted events and situational objectives. The first of the hobbit levels, for instance, which actually takes place before the conclusion of The Two Towers, has you in control of Sam as he attempts to escape the besieged city of Osgiliath along with Frodo and their conflicted guide, Gollum. As you fmake your way through the city, walls of stone will be blown out, massive towers will crumble and fall, and flaming catapult stones will crash all around you. What's more, in addition to fighting your way through the orcs who are attempting to prevent your escape, you'll occasionally find yourself also having to quickly escort Frodo to a sheltered area where the evil Ringwraith circling above won't be able to spot him. During these moments, a meter in the upper right hand corner measures the wraith's awareness of the Ring. Environmental objects, such as spears, torches, and even catapults, also play a significant role in this game, unlike The Two Towers. All of these elements really help create a sense that you have been transported into the war-torn environments and intense, chaotic situations of the films. The presentation of the game is also significantly better than that of the previous game. While there was some attempt to have The Two Towers be told from Aragorn's perspective, it ultimately felt somewhat underdeveloped. For The Return of the King, the wizard Gandalf is the storyteller, and his role as such is far more substantial than Aragorn's was in The Two Towers. Ian McKellen as Gandalf has recorded fine voiceover work setting up most of the game's levels, and this, along with the game's use of footage from the films during these introductions, helps give the game a more cohesive feeling than its predecessor had. Those who haven't read the books might not know exactly what's going on, at least not until the film is released next month, but they'll learn enough to understand and appreciate the desperate logic behind the strategy the forces of good are employing and the hopeless odds they face in the epic battle that makes up the final level in the Path of the King. The gameplay of The Return of the King will feel instantly familiar for anyone who played last year's game, and is simple enough that it won't take newcomers very long to grasp. Each character has only two primary melee attacks, one quick and one fierce, as well as a parry to block enemy attacks and a ranged attack, either in the form of arrows, throwing knives or axes, or, in the case of Gandalf, blasts of magical energy. As you progress throughout the game, you earn experience points that enable you to build up your characters by purchasing more health, more powerful attacks, and combos. The chaotic sense of combat the game often conveys, in which you'll often have a hard time even keeping an eye on your character with all the onscreen action and all the enemies surrounding him, gives the game the feel of a button-masher, but, while a good wailing on the attack buttons might sometimes get you out of a desperate situation, the game is challenging enough that some level of strategy and defense is often required, and the game rewards more skillful attacks with more experience points, allowing you to build your characters up even faster. Like last year's game, the combat this time around strikes a great balance, requiring enough thought and skill to be quite engaging, but without being so complicated as to slow things down or pull you out of the moment. The game is quite impressive to look at. While the character models are not all that detailed, the environments certainly are. The levels are positively filled with great little touches, from slowly falling leaves to crumbling pillars of stone to rotting planks of wood. Beams of light dramatically pour through holes in ceilings and convincing clouds of dust and debris result when walls and monuments are destroyed. An epic sense of desperate, hopeless struggle is conveyed at times by images of a seemingly infinite number of orcs charging in the distance. It's clear that a great deal of thought went into planning and designing each level, and the end result is a nearly flawless evocation of the atmosphere of the films. The sound in The Return of the King is truly outstanding. The game makes use of Howard Shore's rousing film score, to great effect. Convincing clangs of metal striking metal abound during sword fights, and all the environmental sounds you'd expect from these sorts of epic battles are present. Good voice acting, provided by the film's cast, rounds out the game's sound. As previously mentioned, Ian McKellen delivers his narration for the game with great skill, and while all the actors are in fine form here, it's particularly enjoyable hearing Christopher Lee's enchanting, melodious voice as the treacherous wizard Saruman and Andy Serkis' remarkable work providing the voice of Gollum in a few of the game's levels. The game, like most games of this type, isn't terribly long. It's challenging enough that most people won't breeze right through it, as long as they don't opt for the easy difficulty setting, and this will result in some levels needing to be attempted several times before successfully completing them. Some may find the level of difficulty a little frustrating, but the challenge means that you'll really feel as if you've accomplished something upon first passing some of the game's more challenging levels, and you may even breathe a sigh of relief or two as you narrowly escape with your life from some desperate situation or other. The game provides unlockable extras as you progress through it, including interviews with cast members, three secret playable characters and two bonus levels. The interviews don't have a great deal of substance, and have an overly promotional feel to them, as if the actors were asked to talk primarily about how totally incredible they think the game is, but many fans of the films will nevertheless find it amusing to see things like Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan teasing Billy Boyd about what a terrible gamer he is. Despite the game's relatively short length, some of the levels are so gripping and impressive that you'll want to play through them several times. The cooperative play option also contributes to the game's overall value, provided you have someone to join you in your quest. It's great fun playing through the game with a friend. Strangely, though, while in the single player game you can choose to progress along the paths in any order, the cooperative play option mandates the sequence in which you complete the game's levels, requiring you to tackle some of the game's hardest levels relatively early on. The Return of the King is a great ride that improves significantly over its predecessor and proves there's still plenty of life in the genre whose roots go back to classic games like Double Dragon and Golden Axe. Anyone looking for some rousing and intense beat-em-up action will enjoy The Return of the King, and those gamers with a particular interest in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy shouldn't miss it.
