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Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (PS2) Reviews & Ratings
Reviews, Ratings, and Professional Opinions
Review/Rating:
Ignoring the instantaneous reaction to the title and its comparison to the first movie of the trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was quite a disappointment. Now before the uprising of Tolken-lovers bombards my house and beats me over the head, let me be the first to tell you that I myself am a huge LOTR fan. Being so, I can’t allow a single person to waste their money on this game without hearing my words of wisdom.
There are so many things wrong with this one, I am not prepared to go into full detail about its faults without writing an epic trilogy of my own. For starters, the basic concept of the game brings me to utter confusion. You start out as Frodo, a young hobbit who must travel many lands away to destroy Sauron’s sought after Ring of Power. Along the way, you run across familiar faces from the book and movie and you are even given the chance to play as Aragorn and Gandalf. Unfortunately, this is where it goes down the toilet. With mindless puzzles and even lamer assignments given to you from random people through the game, you will soon find yourself questioning when the real storyline of The Fellowship of the Ring will begin. At times, I had the urge to shut off my PS2 and check the box, just incase I had picked up the wrong game. "Though not groundbreaking, [the graphics] brought out the one thing that made this game rentable."
However, this wouldn’t be half as bad if the game play weren’t a complete disaster. The majority of your gaming experience will be spent running away from enemies, running toward enemies, and sometimes running for no apparent reason except for a little hobbit exercise. The only good thing to come out of its playability is the interactivity you have with the characters around you. Each person you come across has something to talk about or something to ask of you, and in order to progress through the game, you must complete the task. If you are looking to buy the game for its combat portion, better you stick that wad of cash back in you wallet and wait for the sequel, The Two Towers. The battle’s you find are little more than skirmishes between the Fellowship and a few Orcs. The fighting style is too basic to be enjoyable, and the lack of special moves for each character is laughable.
The one saving factor, which prevented me from throwing this game out the window and rather wrap it at Christmas, passing it around like a holiday fruitcake, were the graphics. Though not groundbreaking, it brought out the one thing that made this game rentable. Just as in the movie, the environments play a huge role in the game. The lighthearted feeling of life in the Shire and the cold, damp, darkness of the Mines of Moria raises this travesty of a title from the dead. And though the character models and animation aren’t out of this world either, you will still be intrigued by what the game’s graphics have to offer.
The games overall appeal and potential in no way matches up to what it truly is, a bomb. Only if it were a demo in its earliest stages could one excuse its many faults and glitches. Put it back into the oven boys; it isn’t done yet.
Rating: 5 / 10
