![]() Lord of the Rings:The Third Age
Submitted Tuesday, August 2, 2005 - 12:58:24 PM by Klaitu
It sounds like a good idea: Take Final Fantasy, and hose it down with Lord of the Rings juice, thereby producing a Japanese RPG based on Tolkien.
So, Third Age turns out to be very similar to Final Fantasy X. 3 party members, swap them out with the trigger buttons. Elemental damages and physical damages, etc etc. If it were just a direct clone, Third Age may have succeeded. Instead, they decided to "improve" some things that should have stayed the same.
First off, Third Age hits two off the "things I hate the most in game design" list. 1. The characters feet do not move in conjunction with the ground, and instead they slide around the ground and the feet just flail about uselessly. Game Designers have been doing this on and off since the early 90's, but it still pops up every now and again. 2. If a character has a cloak, it is glued to his heels. Listen to me now, game designers: If your character is wearing a cloak, or long coat, or a robe or something that extends past the butt, IT FLOWS, it doesn't stick to their legs. I know that's easier to program, and I don't care.
Secondly, Third age has a battle system that forces you to use special moves to learn new, better special moves. There are several problems with this, the first being that the normal "attack" is superior to all but a few of the special moves you can do. The second problem with this is that the special moves usually have graphic eyecandy and sound effects that take forever to execute, extending a quick battle with flotsam orcs into the 5 minute range.
Thirdly, sound design. They make a big point of how the game is "THX mastered" which means it was actually just mixed in a THX certified studio. There is no way to adjust the music against the sound effects. The result is that the sound effects are loud, and the music is quiet. I tried this on several modes, including DD 5.1 (which it said it supports, but only does in the cutscenes) and it is always this way. The music becomes a constant useless drone that helps nothing.
Fourthly, the story. People play Final Fantasy for the stories, not because they love the stupid random battles. Whereas Final Fantasy is about 50% story and 50% gameplay, Third Age is about 97% gameplay and 3% story. Not that I blame them.. I mean, I already know what's going to happen.
Also, you don't play Aragorn, Boromir, or anyone else that you know of. You play as poorly rendered stereotypes based on the main characters. The main character is Benethor, who looks, sounds, acts, and fights exactly like Boromir. Darned if your party doesn't end up with a Dwarf, 2 humans, and an elf.. and what is your grand quest? It is to find Boromir. Why? It never says. However, since Boromir dies in the first 3 hours of the game, and you STILL are chasing the fellowship after that, the whole thing becomes rather pointless.
As if that weren't enough, the game decides to go ahead and throw in some plot inconsistancies. As you play through the game, Gandalf tells you what he's doing as you're doing things.. for instance, Pippin drops some crap down the moria well, and it falls on your party. The trouble here is that it isn't in the right order (and believe me, my mom has made sure that I KNOW the correct order of events).
Oh, and you know how Gandalf fougbt that balrog? Well, he didn't do it alone, your entire party was there helping him.. and also, that witty-bitty narrow bridge somehow instantly got wide enough for 4 people to stand on side by side.
And after Gandalf falls to his "demise" and your party is cut off from escaping (you know, because Gandalf blew up the bridge) you still somehow manage to get out (it just cutscenes you out of the place). Oh, and by the way, Gandalf cnotinues to narrate your adventure even during the period where he is fighting the balrog or "dead".
Oh, and narrate he DOES. Your average level has no less than 20 different 3 minute long movie segments from the movies, in which Gandalf says things like "There's a Balrog in moria, and you'll probably have to fight that later" or "The elves live in trees and they'll give you stuff, but you'll never catch up with the fellowship because they took boats, and you have to walk through a maze getting attacked constantly by orcs first" you know, crap like that.
You'd think they'd give you a little character development as Not-Boromir, Not-Aragorn, Not-Gimli, and Not-Arwen travel the realms of Middle Earth.. but no. Don't ask too many questions, like "What are a Dunedain ranger and a dwarf doing together, anyways? and why are they following Benethor in his quest to.. chase the fellowship?" Just accept it.
So, Third Age has all these problems.. is it fun? ehh, it's alright, but if you're looking for RPG action, check out a title by Aruze, Namco, or Square.. and forget EA Games. The game certainly will provide some very beautiful screenshots.. things like swords and armor look amazing.. just like in the movie. The problem is when stuff starts moving. It moves like crap, and takes forever doing it.
They could have made this game better if: 1. You played the MAIN CHARACTERS. 2. They based the game off the books, and not the movies (and just used the movies for stuff like the prop and set design) and 3. included less than like.. 170 clips from the movie.
Overall Score: 3 of 10
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