The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers for PlayStation 2

I bought the PS2 for my children (honest, not for me!) two months ago; I was very surprised at the time to see a licensed version of the 'Two Towers' already available, as the movie had not been released at the time. Electronic Arts have worked hard to create a game that captures the dark atmosphere of the movies while still trying to make an entertaining game. My first thoughts about the game are that the title is incorrect – probably half of the game is based on the first movie, and therefore the title is misleading.

Game Play

Having played the 'LOTR:fellowship of the ring' by a different company, which is based on the book rather than the movie I was interested to see how EA would approach design of this game. Whereas 'fellowship' was more like a traditional Role playing action adventure game, involving running to different locations to find objects that can be used to solve problems, interspersing this with combat, EA have made 'Two Towers' a mission based beat-em-up, which requires no problem solving or irksome wandering around looking for items.

The game is mission based – each mission moves you along the story of the two movies; you get to play one of three characters for each mission, and probably, to get the most of the game, will have to play all missions with all three characters.

The three characters are Gimli, Legolas and Arogorn. Gimli is a tough warrior but a poor ranger, thus is more suited for close combat. Legolas is a great ranger and a poor warrior, thus is more suited for long range combat. Aragorn is a good ranger and a good warrior and thus is suited for mixed combat.

A downfall of the game is that when missions are run, only the character being used gains experience – thus choosing the best character for a particular mission isn't always beneficial, as you want to keep all characters gaining experience. I ended up running each mission with all characters – this can get a little cumbersome and repetitive.

Each mission is generally similar in style. Firstly you will encounter dozens of enemies, and then finally meet one bad guy at the end. Although this may seem boring, each mission is entirely different and this variety does keep you interested. For instance, the first mission involves you fighting 5 Nazgul while trying to defend Frodo – not only do you have to defeat the Nazgul, you also have to ensure that Frodo isn't killed. A later mission involves fighting almost 90 orcs and goblins and trying to do this before Frodo is killed – this is the scene at the end of Fellowship movie where the party is disbanding and Frodo is trying to escape; at the end of this mission you meet the same Uruk-Hai that kills Boromir in the movie. What makes this mission different is that you are not held to one location but are able to roam around the landscape looking for orcs.

Fighting involves several techniques. When in melee combat you have several options – you can parry (this helps against ranged attacks against you) or do various moves – bash, attack etc. As you gain experience you will gain specialized moves, but I found that the combination of keys required became cumbersome and also often I was hit during mid combination and therefore had to start the key combination again – I soon abandoned the special moves. Ranged attacks involve holding down a button, aiming and firing. It is simple to fire, but if you get hit as you aim, you have to go through the whole process again.

As you complete missions you gain experience. As you progress through the combat, you will get a 'grade' for each kill (fair, good, excellent, perfect) – the better the grade the more experience you get.

At the end of each mission you get the chance to spend this experience (the choices you can buy will vary from level to level). Generally you have options to buy better combat abilities, special moves, more health etc.

EA have tried to use this Experience to give the role player something to tinker with, but I feel that EA should have just had the game give the characters new abilities and more health automatically as the game progressed.

Missions

One major downfall of the game is that there are not really enough missions. In all there are twelve main missions (or about thirty if you replay each mission with each character – a couple of missions were for Aragorn only). There are three secret missions that can be unlocked by gaining levels etc, but these really still leaves the game rather short.

The missions in themselves are varied and interesting. Some involve one location, while others require you to explore a little.

Sometimes you play alone, while other times you have help. One of my favorites was the battle as you enter the Mines of Moria – most of the characters from the book help out in that fight; it was fun to fight side by side with Gandalf et al!

Although there is variety within the missions, I found that at times I wasn't really sure how to complete the mission. Two examples very early on:

When fighting he Nazgul I didn't find out how to hurt the Nazgul until the fourth time playing the mission (***SPOILER*** although if I had thought about it I would have realized that I had to use fire – i.e. put my sword in the fire first. ***END OF SPOILER***)

When fighting the 'giant squid' like monster just before going into the Mines of Moria, I couldn't damage the monster at all! I had to cheat and search the web. (***SPOILER*** the method isn't very obvious. You have to go into the water, parry the attacking tentacle, and the slice it off when it stops attacking. At this point the head of the monster raises up out of the water, you then fire an arrow or throw an axe if playing Gimili to hurt the monster. ***END OF SPOILER***)

Graphics

The graphics of the game elevate it above most PS2 games, and hopefully will show the way forward for future games. EA have cleverly included clips of the movie, which then Morph into the computer graphics as you move into the mission. This is an excellent innovation that helps to build the atmosphere.

The animations of the characters is excellent, I didn't notice slowdown during the game. The only problem was that at times there were so many characters on the screen that I lost track of the character I was playing.

The background graphics were simply outstanding and atmospheric. Several of the missions involved very good replications of the scene in the movie. I was particularly impressed with the effects – e.g. the waterfalls, the snow, the water, the mist etc. The graphics make this game a beautiful one to watch.

The only annoyance of the game was the way the camera followed you. As you moved from one scene to another, often the camera angle changed – this often disoriented me.

Often as you played, you would have a 'cut scene' that again added to the atmosphere. In one of the early mission, as your character and Gimili are scouting to find the door to the Mines of Moria , Gimili charges ahead and kills an orc – you spot an orc creeping up behind Gimili and let loose an arrow – the arrow moves in slow motion (in a similar way to parts of the first movie) until it finally hits the orc in the head. These 'cut-scenes' help to abuild the atmosphere and don't interefere with game play too much.


Sound

Sound is very good too although a little sparse at times. The voices seem to be taken directly from the movie, but generally are only a couple of words. It is fun to have Gimili, Legolas, Frodo etc making comments in combat.

Generally though the sound and music is OK. The music is fairly atmospheric, and the sound effects are good and don't seem out of place, they are just not outstanding (it should be pointed out that the game does allow for Surround Sound – I haven't plugged the game into my surround sound yet, but will add details when I do).

Added Extras

As you complete missions, not only do you unlock additional missions, but you also unlock additional extras. These range from interviews of the director or actors, to still photos, and drawings from the movies.

Although they do not add to the game play, it is interesting to see a game include DVD extras. Hopefully more and more game developers will begin to use the capabilities of the DVD.

Overall

While this game will not appeal to many LOTR fans as it is simply a hack and slay game and not a complicated role playing game, I feel that it is a very good game. It is short though and perhaps doesn't merit purchase at full price; it will be a great addition to everyone's collection when it goes on the discount shelf.