Though there are a few positive notes to it, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, is likely to disappoint an audience
When you first start the game, it goes to a cinematic, which takes you to the Battle of Helms Deep. Since you first played the game, you have to watch the cinematic. At the very end of the scenario, it starts to animated, and you start to play the actual game playing Gandalf the White. During this first level, Gimli helps you through the level, telling the controls and in what situations. When you defeat this level, you get to another cinematic. After that cinematic, you go to a screen which displays all of the levels. You must complete all of the levels to defeat the game. There are three different paths in the game, though you do have to play all of them.
The path on the left is the Path of the Wizard, in which you take control of Gandalf in his quest to Isengard, and the defence of Minas Tirith. There are three levels. The path in the center is the Path of the King. In this path, you take control of Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, in their path to summon the undead and to help free Gondor. There are five levelsThe path on the right is the Path of the Hobbit is where you take control of Sam on their way to try and rescue Frodo Baggins. There are three levels. And in the last level of the game, you take control of Frodo, and you must kill Gollum (Smeagol) in order to destroy the One Ring. After you defeat the game, you also unlock three new characters: Merry, Pippin and Faramir.
In this game, you go into a level, and you must follow the path in order to get to the end. There are only a few controls in this game. There are some attacks like a Quick attack, Fierce attack, and ranged attack. To kill an enemy, you must knock it to the ground, and press the Kill button in which your player jabs your weapon into the enemy, therefore killing it. However, there are occasional enemies in which you have to dwindle its hit points to zero before killing it. For some enemies however, can cause problems. For example, against enemies with shields, you must destroy the shield with a fierce attack before killing it. Is it really necessary to have to destroy a shield before killing someone in real life? It is probably to add an extra challenge, but I don't know why.
When you kill an enemy, you get points. The amount of points you get depends on the kills rating. There is fair, good, excellent and perfect kills. How this is done, I don't know. To get perfect kills, you must keep your perfect kill bar up. Thus, killing a lot of enemies in a very short amount of time is how you do this. You can also do an instant kill combo in which you get a perfect kill status, and every kill you do is deemed "perfect". These skill points are used get you to new levels. When you grow to new levels, you get access to buy combos which will kill your enemies faster and easier (somewhat). You must buy these new skills with the points you get during the game. However, other than your new skills, your character doesn't do more damage or improves overall. And after you pass level ten (the highest level is 20) there are no more skills to learn, which makes you wonder why this even matters in the first place.
In other game levels, you are often in a small area with countless enemies swarming at you, and you must complete certain objectives in order to defeat the level. However, some of the levels in the game fall up short of what you may think they are. For example, Pelennor Fields (arguably the greatest battle in the Lord of the Rings series) is completely destroyed by a really dumb way to defeat the level. There are other levels that come off a bit of a disappointment, like The Walls of Minas Tirith.
Another complaint I have in this game is the game's cinematics. There are way too many. They are uncessesary in the game, and only waste your time. Also, if it is the first time you've watched the cinematic with your file, they you are forced to watch it, which can really drive a person nuts.
Now, I will move on the Graphics, Sound and Value.
The graphics in this game are quite good. The character models are quite well done, with the exception with some characters like the Uruk-Hai. There are a lot of detail in some characters. The games levels and landscapes also look great. However, there are some flaws in this game. For one, the games backgrounds look quite bad, and they look like a background painting. Also, in the Black Gate level, you will notice as the gate opens, the orcs actually walk through the gate (?). There are also some character with little detail in them, like some of the enemies. There are also are quite a few other glitches in the graphics that you will find in the game.
The sound is also pretty well done. Though the game doesn't introduce much music, as it is often taken from the Lord of the Rings movies, it is still great. The Lord of the Rings music is great anyway. There are also some good FX sounds in the game. From the quick swipes at an enemy, to an unforgiving stab, there isn't a shortage of sounds. However, some sounds are also out of their league, and sound nothing like they would in real life, like the kicking of a ladder in the Walls of Minas Tirith level.
As far as value goes, there is some value, but it could've been better. There are new levels that are given to you after the game's end, which is nice. Too bad that there' s only two, and they both suck. Other than that, after the games' end, there isn't a lot of new features, except cheating. There is also some replayability, but not too much in it. Yes, you can play a game a second time around, but you can't customize your characters, or do new things that make it any different from any other time you've ever played it, therefore making this a category that one of the game's weak points.
In the end, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, can appeal to those who are die-hard Lord of the Rings fans. But even to some Lord of the Rings fans, this game is likely to disappoint to due the lack of replayability and lame levels. If you are itching to get this game, I say this: though there are a few positive notes to it, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, is likely to disappoint an audience.