Fun game but a little repetitive.
User Rating: 8 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King PS2
I haven't played this game for a couple years, so forgive me if this review is not too detailed. Anyway, it is pretty much a hack and slash button masher where you play as the main characters from the Lord of the Rings movie. The story line is basically the same as the storyline for the third movie, so I won't get into that too much. The first level is Helm's Deep, a castle in Rohan that is being besieged by Saruman's Uruk-hai army.You play as Gandalf who has arrived with Eomer and an army of Rohirrim to defeat the Uruk-hai army. After there you can pick the order of levels by playing on three paths: The Path of the Wizard- You will play as Gandalf, the first mission in this path is Isengard where you have to help the Ents destroy Isendgard. The Path of The King- You play as Aragorn, Legolas or Gimli, the first mission in this path is the cave of the dead where you are trying to get the Oathbreakers to fight for you but must fight your way through them. The Path of the Hobbit- You play as Sam, the first mission here is in Osgiliath where Gondorians are fighting against Mordor Orcs (or Yrch if you prefer Sindarin) and you have to follow Gollum's lead and escape with Frodo. You can go back and forth between various paths, which is what I did, so that I can play in the Order of the film. As you play you gain experience points and level up. You use these experience points to buy fighting combos or special abilities which could be common to all characters (in which case you can purchase it for everyone in one shot) or it could be unique to a certain character, though I think all the hobbits have pretty much the same move. The Last level is Mount Doom, but I won't go into much detail because I don't want to spoil it. You also unlock bonus levels (which aren't that great) and some "secret" characters. All in all it's pretty fun, coupled with voice acting from the movie and even scenes from the movie. The graphics are so-so. Overall I liked it and played it many times.
