LOTR: The Third Age carries Tolkien's works very well, but to cram the trilogy into ONE game was not the best of ideas!
A cool thing (but also pretty corny) that makes this interesting is, that the storyline in The Third Age threads a slightly different path from what we've seen in the movies… here we get the opportunity to follow a number of "fictional" Tolkien-characters on their own great journey, following in the footsteps of the Fellowship – creating an "alternative" version of the original movies' storyline.
Most things are excellent here;
~The graphics looks surprisingly good & realistic!
~The "travel" mode, and turn-based battle system works fine too.
~And the music is (as with the movies) very good too!
~A nice customization menu for all your characters - changing your current armour, weaponry & magic items with newly found items!
~When the player has cleared specific chapters of the game, a part of "Evil Mode" (a cool off storyline mini-game) is unlocked for you!!
The bad things;
~As I stated earlier, it wasn't the brightest of ideas to shove the whole trilogy into one, single game! but it works pretty good with the storyline anyway...
~The EXP-system is a given thing in any RPG, but it brings the game-joy down a notch. -on a positive note, you're completely free to use / level up any of your characters in any battle!
SEMI-SPOILER!!
One of the sad things with LOTR: The Third Age is the final battle; I really wished for an epic battle against the "real", physical Sauron – or at least against the tower of Barad-Dûr… not just The Eye of Sauron! ...that was a major disappointment.
Overall this is an awesome game, especially for all Tolkien-fans, but probably a good purchase for anyone into RPG's.