Hello ar' creoso a'
ToriJ's Video Game Reviews. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
comes out today! We're ending another movie trilogy, it's crazy! I
can't think of any better way to honor the end of one trilogy, than
by talking about the end of another. It's The Lord of the Rings:
The Return of the King by EA
Games! Some of you may remember my review of The Two Towers last
year. We'll be doing a little compare and contrast to see what all EA
has learned since the previous installment. For Middle-earth!
Hail
to the king, baby!
The
game starts off with a beautiful image of the one and only Viggo
Mortensen as
Aragorn with his whole army behind him, of course being accompanied
by the epic Lord of the Rings soundtrack. I'd say I wish I could see
Aragorn and Eddard Stark from Game of Thrones team up, but that
already happened in the first movie. 2001 was a crazy year, people
still liked President Bush.
Here
we have – Wait a minute, what's that?
It's
everything I ever wanted!
They
have a co-op! An actual co-op mode! You can't play the opening level
with Gandalf, but still, they finally did it! Best thing about it is
after you beat the game, and unlock everything, you can play as any
character you want in any of the stages. Speaking of the
characters...
GANDALF!
Look
at all the characters there are to choose from! Well, not in that
picture because they're all locked, but still. You aren't just
limited to three characters and one bonus unlockable, all of the
main guys are here. Gandalf the White, Frodo, Sam, the three from
the last game, even Pippin and Merry! All with their own play style.
It's a happy day in Middle-earth, except for all the monsters that
wants to kill you.
A wizard is
never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
We kick
things off near the end of the Battle of Helm's Deep where Gandalf
swoops in with the reinforcement to save the day. Once again we're
treated to footage from the movie before transitioning into
gameplay, and I can think of no better way to get you pumped up for a
level than watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
My god,
that's a lot of experience points!
You can
only play as Gandalf in the first level, but once you're done with
that more characters open up to you. Nothing has changed controls
wise from the previous game, so if you played The Two Towers then
you already know what to expect. Return of the King makes it easy to
get lost in the crowd of enemies by making it damn near impossible
to see where you're at, and panning the camera so far away from the
characters doesn't help. I'll be swinging left and right only to
realize I'm hitting the wall. Beware of ents, they will step on you.
Everybody
wants my bling.
Multiplayer
doesn't come with a split-screen, instead you'll just be unable to
continue on until your companion catches up. Given how much of a
headache split-screens bring with them I think I honestly prefer
this method. Some times main characters will accompany you as NPCs,
mainly when you play the Path of the King. Replace any of these
characters with people who weren't there in canon and the scenes
won't be as insync. A small price to pay for having the option to
mix things up.
Some stages
are straightforward with killing enemies and getting to the end,
others require you defend
a castle from being overrun by orcs if you wish to advance, or
they'll have an added objective like not letting the Wraith above
spot you. A good chunks of the actors from the movies reprise their
roles. You have Sean Astin
as Sam, Billy Boyd as Pip, Christopher Lee as
Saruman. Most of the people who voiced the last game come back
except for Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom, which you wouldn't
even notice playing the game because the people they got to play
them do a pretty spot on impression of their voices. The game comes
with interview with cast members, artwork, etc.
Burn you orc
bastards!
Enemies are
a bit more varied in this installment. Don't get me wrong, you're
still going to be drowning in orcs, but you have the army of the
dead that Aragorn gets as enemies, as well as the King of the Dead
himself as a boss. The mumakil that Legolas take down in the movie
makes an appearance, and trust me you're going to want to play as
him to complete the level. You can have Aragorn or Gimli up to level
twenty and their projectiles won't do jack to it. You'll just be
firing at it for all eternity.
Shelob
makes an appearance as a boss, and so does Gollum in the last stage.
The game follows the movie pretty closely as the last game did, and
I think Return of the King was the best one to make a game out of
because of all the things that happened between the three main
groups. The Two Towers relied on a lot of Fellowship scenes in the
beginning whereas here we have three stages tops that take place at
the end of The Two Towers.
Saruman,
Gandalf comes to Isengard no longer seeking your counsel!
The
Return of the King is a fun game. If you're a fan of the series and
just looking for something to kill time while playing as your
favorite character, I'd give this game a go. In fact, I would
recommend you just skip The Two Towers altogether and go straight to
this one. EA rectifies (I can't believe I'm saying that) the
problems that the last game has and makes Return of the King all the
more better for it. Play with a friend! The fate of Middle-earth
could very well depend on it, and if you have a friend you can just
put all the blame on them.
Get
it
Legolas
is ridiculously overpowered! Not just in the game, but in the movies!
Have you seen The Desolation of Smaug? He's just jumping all over
the place putting arrows into EVERYTHING! Did somebody get the
bandana from Metal Gear Solid because he never runs out of arrows!
Okay, guys, who would win between Legolas, Green Arrow, Robin Hood,
Hawkeye, Link, and Katniss from the Hunger Games, if they were to
face off in six way winner take off arrow competition? That'd be a good match, I'd
pay to see that.
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