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The Lord of The Rings: The Third Age Review
Common sense is a wonderful thing. If only everyone had it, the world would be a much better place. Thankfully, Electronic Arts has it, and puts it to good use. While it can be said that sometimes the budgets of their games outweigh the actually quality, it’s always backed up with the notion that a lot of effort was placed into the projects. One of their best used properties is the widely known Lord of The Rings franchise. The games they have developed off of Tolkien’s (and Peter Jackson’s) saga have been consistently good, and that doesn’t change with the Third Age. Long have people wondered what a traditional LOTR RPG would feel, look and play like, and EA has finally answered that with The Third Age. It’s not the best, most original or even the most entertaining RPG out there, but it holds its own.
Fans of the franchise may be a little confused with the way The Third Age is played out. You control a group of people who are trying to save the world from Sauron, an evil force who has set out to cover the world in darkness. The first thing that needs to be said is that players do not control the Fellowship, but instead, another group of warriors on their own quest to stop the evil lord. Where it may become a problem for some fans is when the storylines overlap each other. Let’s just say, in the minds of fans, and in the pages of the books, a second fellowship does not aid Gandalf in fighting the Balrog in Moria. The reason why it actually works is because it’s made believable. The game starts out with you playing Berethor, a warrior under the command of Boromir. The quest starts out as a mission to find Boromir, but ends up being completely different. Various characters join you in your quest and the story treads a fine line from becoming too intrusive to the source material. It’s impossible to explain without spoiling the story, because even if you have already seen the movies, the storyline presented here is just as interesting as those, although not as long or memorable. Aside from the in game storyline, it is further explained by Gandalf through epic scene orbs, scattered throughout the world. They are found from winning battles and accessing new areas. These scenes use footage from the movies to convey a better understanding of the world around you, and you also feel a little closer to Gandalf himself. This is no Return of The King in terms of plot, but it’s also no Catwoman, so be thankful. EA has presented us with a solid story to back up some genuinely good gameplay.
If you have ever played Final Fantasy before, then you should know what to expect in terms of gameplay. It’s a turn based strategy game with adventure elements (outside of battle). It feels a bit streamlined though as there are no stores with things to buy, and it is quite linear overall. If it had been open ended, the storyline would be placed in jeopardy because of a high chance of ruining its accuracy in relation to the trilogy. All of the armor and weapons you will use are scattered throughout the world in chests and as loot from winning battles. I found the omission of shops to be quite refreshing, but a bit hampering when it came time to find more healing items. You are basically running around middle earth on a linear path trying to catch up with the fellowship that is always conveniently ahead of you. Unlike other games where random battles just pop out of nowhere, you will begin to see an icon at the top left hand part of the screen when a battle is near. This also means that every time you play the game, the battles will be in the same spots. It’s good for memorizing, but bad for replay value.
 
When you enter a battle, your characters are placed in a formation of three (there are six characters in all, not counting temporary allies) and you have a turn order list similar to the one used in Final Fantasy X. You can use a basic attack, a weapon special or inherent abilities which consist of spells and status affecting movies. Memorizing what is most effective against each type of enemy is key. If you jump into a battle aimlessly throwing attacks, you will most likely find your party out of supplies and low on HP. Leveling up is not a chore, as it seems to occur every few battles to keep the pace moving. You have the ability to assign ability points to several attributes that affect various things like Max HP and speed of attack.
Equipping new items to each character is the single most important part of the game. If you have a good combination in armor, you will most likely fare quite well, but if not, expect a painful death. When your party’s perfect meter fills up (a meter filled over time by attacks used) you can call upon a special move to deliver massive damage. It’s not too hard to fill up, but it is a very important thing to remember when facing bosses. If there are any problems with the gameplay, it would of course be its linearity and the fact that you cannot escape from battles, even small ones. While this is of course used to maintain realism, it’s not a good feature to omit, when you cannot simply go to a shop and replenish your healing items.
You can expect to face almost all of the popular monsters and villains from the series and each battle is satisfying in its own right. Some battles are insanely easy, while others are the exact opposite (damn Balrog). Overall the game can take an average player anywhere from 20-30 hours to complete. It’s a bit short for an RPG, and you do tend to stay in certain parts of Middle Earth far too long (Moria, ZZzzz), but for every gripe you can have with the game, there is always some sort of logical reason to back it up in terms of the game’s design. The developers have added a Co-op mode which while fairly primitive (a second player can use the other party members in battle, but not on the field), I found it to be very entertaining with the right people. An “Evil” mode has also been added which allows you to command the troops of Mordor, and do evil things, and all that good stuff (wait, that’s not right). It’s a bit more fleshed out than co-op, as it too is another neat addition that tries to extend the game’s length.
 
To put it bluntly, Middle Earth never looked so great. The visual presentation of The Third Age is the best so far when talking about previous games using the license. The environments look like they were taken straight out of the movies and the immersion factor is unmatched. Character models are a bit stiff, but they too present an excellent depiction of characters from Middle Earth. Cut scenes are well animated, backed up with some very good voice work from both the new characters, and returning favorites like Ian Mckellan as Gandalf and Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn. Ian Mckellan’s spot on narration is excellently complemented with an amazing score taken straight from the movie. Of course, what would a LOTR game be without authentic sound effects? These too, make their proper impression. The only problem noticed was a somewhat unstable framerate, mostly in the environments. It’s not really noticeable in battle, but sometimes you will find yourself chugging along through forests and it does tend to be a bit annoying.
If you don’t like RPGs, do not buy The Third Age, but if you were looking to start, then you should probably try this one out. In order to keep the story and experience accurate, the gameplay has been streamlined to appeal to all players, and easy (and challenging) enough to introduce you to the genre. If you don’t happen to like The Lord of The Rings though, this may not be your cup of tea. As much as it tries to explain the Middle Earth universe to the players, it’s not going to make much sense if you have absolutely no recognition of the source material. In the end, The Third Age is a solid role playing game, an immersive Middle Earth experience and overall, a jolly good time.
Written by Joseph Bennett. Posted year 2004.
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Released on
November 2, 2004
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