Developer: Electronic Arts Publisher: Electronic Arts Release: 11/06/23 Genre: Action
The Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers was a huge surprise in 2002. Licensed games are nothing new but few had the production values and scale of this one. Electronic Arts worked close with the producers of the movie to craft a game that captured the most important moments of the first two films in game form extremely well, and in a genre that was not en vogue at the time. A year later they would return with The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and the time was well spent. The excellent foundation of the first game allowed them to expand nearly every aspect of the game to craft one of my favorite action games of that era.
Return of the King follows the story of the film to a tee. Because Electronic Arts only had the movie license (Vivaldi had the book license) they could not create new scenarios not depicted in the film. But they make the most of it and with a three hour movie there was plenty of content to mine for in game levels. While the clips from the film are nice it is a bit disjointed. But you did not come to this game to rewatch a movie you have probably already seen you want to play it.
The cast has doubled in size with nearly the entire fellowship playable from the start. Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Sam, and Frodo comprise the roster with other heroes unlockable. The experience and leveling system from the first game return but is now two-fold. Whereas before you could only build up one character at a time you can dedicate experience to character specific skills or fellowship ones. Fellowship skills are global with everyone in the party benefiting from the unlocks. This makes it easier to hop around the campaign as everyone is not necessarily starting from scratch.
There are a few changes to combat that makes things a little more technical. The grading system (fair, good, excellent, perfect) returns. To rack up experience you want to reach perfect status as soon as possible. That is significantly harder in this game. The combo window is shorter with any hit returning you to square one. Previously Isildur’s Swift Terror was a simple combo that nearly broke the game. That move no longer exists meaning you will to engage with the full moveset. Enemies are more aggressive and attack in greater number plus the game varies their combinations. You will fight more shielded enemies as well as ranged attackers that hang in the back. Achieving better grades takes skill now plus you cannot buy everything in one run. The later moves and combos make it worth a second trip as they are cool and you know what to expect.
Some of the additions do fall flat. There are charge attacks that are powerful. But pulling them off successfully when surrounded by 10 Uruk-hai (a common occurrence) is rarely worth it. Similarly you can buy a temporary shield of invincibility or for Sam and Frodo, invisibility. These run in to the same issue as the charge moves; you will more than likely take more damage activating it than you would have avoided otherwise. As much as I like the interactive elements like spears and catapults in some cases you can deal more damage with a regular combo than slowly interacting with them. That being said while their use is questionable they do relieve the repetition of combat and help quicken the pacing.
The structure of the campaign has changed. Rather than being linear Return of the King has three separate paths to the end. The path of the wizard follows Gandalf during his moments throughout the film. The path of the hobbits lets you control Sam as he protects Frodo on their way to Mordor. Lastly the path of the king is essentially the main campaign and the longest and follows Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. The structure mirrors the movie (and book) perfectly with slight deviations for gameplay. In the movie we see Aragorn confront the King of the Dead but not the journey to get there. Likewise Faramir leads Sam, Frodo, and Gollum to a sewer to escape Osgiliath before the orcs arrive. In the game you fight your way to the sewer.
It is a creative way to skirt the limit of the license while offering new content. The new stuff fills in the blanks while creating some cool set pieces and mission variety. Although we played the Battle of Helm’s Deep in the previous title playing as Gandalf is a different experience. It is basically a tutorial and also demonstrates all of the new interactive mechanics. Pelennor Field is a defensive mission as you battle a seemingly infinite number of uruk-hai and oliphants to try and protect Merry and Eowyn from the Witch King. Many interactive elements aid in this task but it is still possibly the longest in the game. When taken as a whole there are few straightforward adventure levels but you will barely notice. The various mission objectives and increased action make a great alternative.
EA went for scale and succeed at it. The battlefields are twice as large with double the activity at any given moment. The camera is closely controlled to avoid objects fading in. The special effects are lighting and particle effects are similarly fantastic. Character models are significantly improved with far more ornate detail, even the enemies. Watching the chaos unfold as cannons rock a battlement while dragons fly by and dozens of enemies attack is a spectacle with minimal drops in framerate. EA outdid themselves with this one and it is a first class production.
In Closing
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is an excellent beat em up and one of the best licensed titles of that era. I thoroughly enjoyed this one from beginning to end and did not want it to end. From mechanics to production values Electronic Arts knock it out of the park. It is also bittersweet. This is an excellent example of how to translate a brawler to 3d. It makes the near death of the genre that generation sting that much more. Regardless enjoy this one, it has held up wonderfully even after all these years.
