The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Pros • Nice soundtrack and voicework • Good variety of gameplay elements: sneaking, fighting, exploring • Play as Frodo, Aragorn, and Gandalf • Get to play parts of the story that weren't in the movie • Successful camera system	Cons • Many enemies you can simply run past • Visual production values could be higher; i.e. characters' mouths don't move very well with the words and the out-of-game movies are a bit fuzzy • Probably not tough enough for hardcore action gamers • Certainly not long enough to squeeze in an epic story like the one the game is based on
Bottom Line It will help tide you over until the next movie arrives in November, but without the LOTR license this game would only be satisfactory. With Vivendi/Universal having the videogame rights to the LOTR books, and Electronic Arts having the videogame rights to the LOTR movies, we'll soon be swamped with every type of Lord of the Rings game you can imagine. Vivendi/Universal is first to the market with their Fellowship of the Ring adventure-action game and it's a decent effort, but I hope there's better coming. Solid voicework and music and a really swell depiction of the Shire mostly salvage the poor AI and the sense of been-there-done-that.

Since this game is based on the writings of Tolkien, you've got the chance to play some parts of the story that weren't included in the movie; meeting Tom Bombadil (silly singing and all), battling Old Man Willow, and going through the Barrow-Downs for example. You start out playing Frodo, then play Aragorn, then Gandalf.

There's a real variety of gameplay, with sneaking, exploration, and combat all being important. There are some side-quests that need not be completed to advance in the game, especially near the beginning with Frodo. In fact, at the beginning it's really an adventure-style game, with a sense of openness and non-linear progress. Once you leave the Shire though, things are pretty well glued to the train tracks and the game becomes much more action oriented.

Unfortunately, The Fellowship of the Ring for Xbox has some significant load times to wait through. This is partially because the game must follow the story and there are parts of the story that can't really be "played:" the Council of Elrond, for example. These story parts are presented as in-game cut scenes or out-of-game movies, which can be quite lengthy. Load times do remove you from any sense of game flow though, in particular the ones that occur in the Mines of Moria, where the game actually blacks out some doorways until it can load the next section.

Graphically this game is a mixed bag. There are some nice water, shadow, and spell effects and some of the creatures are very well done, but the characters' mouths don't move very well with the words that they speak. The characters have a cartoonish design, but I like the way they look and move for the most part. The out-of-game CGI movies are blurry and definitely aren't pushing the Xbox technology. Luckily, a very good soundtrack and voice acting contribute much to the atmosphere and mood.

Controls are decent, with Frodo having the most maneuverability of any of the characters. He can sneak, jump, lift objects and carry them, push and pull large objects, and grab ledges and shimmy across them. Aragorn and Gandalf can also jump and Gandalf can push and pull objects, but it's seldom, if ever useful--there were constantly places where I though I should be able to jump over something or up onto something and couldn't.

Frodo also has the ability to use the One Ring to make himself invisible (which is a good way to run past enemies) and can get to some secret places while wearing it (areas containing helpful items like more health). Wearing the ring too long can corrupt Frodo though, so be careful. However, you can easily play without using the ring at all. Gandalf has a variety of spells to cast, rather than having a ranged weapon.

Characters have the ability to go into a targeting view for their ranged weapons by pressing the right thumbstick button (though they can't move in this view); otherwise, the camera is manipulated by the right thumbstick and can be centered behind your avatar by pushing the left thumbstick button. The camera system works out very well and I didn't run into any snags.

I did have a bit of a problem with the combat controls however. The left trigger can be used to cycle through your weapons, and also to target enemies. I kept accidentally changing weapons when I meant to release and re-target a new enemy. I never got the hang of this set-up. You can block in combat, which is useful but you'll still take some damage, so I didn't work on defending too much. Your melee weapon can be charged up to inflict more damage by holding the attack button down for a few seconds before striking, but it leaves you vulnerable, so carefully choose when to use it.

The AI of the enemies is not very competent, even the bigger boss type baddies, and in many cases you can simply run by them or stand back and pick them off with your ranged attack. The game is also pretty short--somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-12 hours to finish, and your desire to replay it will likely be minimal. All of which doesn't sound good, but I enjoyed myself playing through this familiar story, especially poking around the Shire as Frodo, helping neighbors with little side-quests.

The soft spot that fans have for The Lord of the Rings will carry this game quite a distance, but it's not really a remarkable title otherwise. Think of it as an appetizer that just teases your palette with the promise of things to come and get your tickets early for the Two Towers movie.

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