Posted December 1, 2003
unitdaisy: I was thrilled when G. Turner showed up with RoTK - certainly waiting for the movie would be more bearable if I had a little teaser along the way. Knowing that Two Towers had been good fun, and that RoTK would feature co-op play I thought it would be perfect. Finally a game I could enjoy playing with someone rather than handing the controller back and forth or just sitting and watching. (Yes I know there are many other co-op games out there, but ones like Baulder's Gate just didn't hold my attention.) Well the actuality was a slight let down on both points. The easy mode in co-op turned out to be far from easy, hence not fun at all, and the game (as one would expect) gave away so many spoliers I refused to let the unread Peccaui finish it.
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| Frodo, why are you lagging? Oh, right, cause you aren't going to help anyway. |
unitdaisy: It was incredibly frustrating, levels that we had played over and over in co-op until I was ready to give up on the game altogether were easily finished in two or three passes in single player mode. That said the single player mode was quite enjoyable, the 'kill 600 enemies to move on' sections are a brawler's dream, usually the guys with the health show up just as you are yelling for them. The interaction with your surroundings necessary to reach the next set of enemies are worked into the flow and environment well - without making you think you have been thrown into an illogical survival horror puzzle. But while I sat raptly through tantalizing film clips of the movie to come, I was bored by the third or fouth time I was forced to watch each one when repeating a level without the option to skip it.
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| Gandalf makes things go explodey! |
unitdaisy: Ug - yes the autoscrolling scetion was completely demoralizing - I can't think that I would ever want to go back and repeat that level. But as Peccaui said the visuals really do help convey a feeling for what I imagine being in that type of warfare would have been like. The instantaneous frustration of having your field of vision obsured by clouds of dust, smoke, light, or instability is instantly replaced with the common sense rational "Well of course I wouldn't be able to see through the dust kicked up by falling rocks or focus when the wall I am standing on is hit by a shot from a catapult." Obstructions of that type were challenging and disorienting in a satisfying way. As for book vs movie vs game I was upset by the Gandalf voice-overs in the game - he takes credit for everything, to the extent that if this had been a game about The Hobbit he would have claimed that he took the ring from Gollum and personally handed it to Bilbo. Nonetheless, more Ian McKlellen is always a good thing. For anyone who has not read the book and still wants to enjoy the movie, I do not recommend playing this game until after you see the film. Although it alters events from how they play out in the book (as it had to in order to become an action title), it does not stray from the progression of those events. Playing this game will ruin the unfolding of the story for you if you are not already familiar with it. Go see the movie in the theater and then play this game until the DVD comes out.
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| Why go see the movie when you've already played the game? |
G. Turner: Yeah, I'll finish the game eventually after seeing it, although it certainly won't be at the top of my priority list (unless the film excites to me an almost pornographic extent). I will probably play it again in the future, but only with friends - not as the single player campaign.
unitdaisy: Yup - absolutely to both. I have too much fun beating up on orcs, and once we have experienced characters to play co-op with it will be easy to include friends with no experience for much party fun.
