Return of the King Review

The Lord of the Rings films have been an undeniable success, with the final segment of the story being released on the 17th December. With the recent extended version of The Two Towers DVD it’s only natural that we also have a new game, a follow up to last year’s The Two Towers action adventure. Return of the King follows on closely from the previous game with a very similar style and gameplay structure, that works very well for the large scale dramatic battles that take place in this third of the story.

The game follows the route of the upcoming movie and allows you to take control of six characters (plus three secret ones) through their various battles. A semi-tutorial level starts you off at the end of the Two Towers movie, where Gandalf arrives to help out at the battle of Helms Deep and serves to impress with the level of detail and the great effects showcased in the last game - whereby footage from the film transitions seamlessly into the gameplay, with a subtle fade between live action and Machinima sequences.

State of play

The bulk of the levels take place on the three paths that are also present in the film. The path of the Wizard (Gandalf), the path of the King (Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas) and the path of the Hobbits (Sam and Frodo) and any path can be progressed in any order up to the final two levels that require the completion of specific paths. Each character fights slightly differently to the others, with Gandalf shooting magical bolts, swinging his staff and casting various other spells and Sam stabbing enemies, throwing daggers and hiding himself in his Elven cloak, for example.

The variety of each character also comes down to what abilities they have unlocked using experience points won from each battle, depending on how well the character has levelled up (much like a RPG). This great system of constantly adding new abilities and keeping the characters fresh helps to make the otherwise repetitive hacking and slashing new and varied. Unfortunately, there are only thirteen levels (plus two simple but immensely challenging bonus ones).

Styles and locations

Thirteen levels may not seem like much, but it seems that the developers have (like the previous game’s outing) ramped up the difficulty settings to compensate for the small amount of gameplay. The areas and paths do look the part though, with some very different and detailed locations, ensuring no level looks the same and remaining consistent with the style of the films.

Sparsely scattered checkpoints help break the levels down into sections that can be completed in one go, though there are a few moments where an incredibly difficult section will be preceded by a long and repetitive section, which you will have to replay if you fail at the last yardstick. A few bosses help the story progress (which you will be able to guess the identity of if you’ve read the books) and do a good job of keeping the mindless enemy slaughtering at bay, though the very final level is extraordinarily simple once you’ve realised how to damage your enemy.

The beauty of Middle Earth

As mentioned, the game world is superbly created to be able to transition from film to game with a simple cross-fade and adding to the visuals (most noticeably with some great particle effects) are the sound effects, voices and music. Dramatic and striking, the music could (and may) have been ripped out of the movie soundtrack and considering almost all of the actors have lent their voices to their onscreen characters (and some pretty close resemblances) the acting is understandably top notch.

A level that stands out for me is one where Gollum is leading Sam and Frodo out of Osgilliath, constantly chirping up with comments and conversing with the Hobbits mid level. This frequent speech brings more life to the game, even if most of the lines are pre-scripted to occur at certain locations. Sound effects too are spot on and help the game to sound exactly like the films.

Fight with a friend

Following closely to the general storyline of the trilogy, certain levels have you fighting with other characters. Aragorn fights with Legolas and Gimli helping out and Sam is never without Frodo to lend a helping hand, but a rather nice twist on that is the inclusion of a multiplayer co-op mode whereby another player can help you out with the hordes of Sauron’s forces.

Battling a few varieties of orks, goblins, uruks, spiders, nazgul and elephants - to give a selection - I never felt that there are too few enemy types to keep me occupied. Animation-wise, they all look perfectly natural, and often remind me of scenes in the first two movies (undoubtedly when the film of this game is released, it’ll be even more reminiscent).

To conclude a trilogy

While purists will obviously dislike adaptations from the books that serve gameplay purposes, the game expands upon the sequences as originally written and as shown in the films well. As repetitive as it may seem, battling through the levels has a level of variety because of the characters, challenges (such as saving 200 villagers, or killing a set number of enemies before continuing) and areas to play through. Personally, I enjoyed the closeness to how I had envisaged this final chapter of the series.

Understandably, the originality of converting The Return of the King in a similar style to last year’s The Two Towers is a bit lacking, but it certainly feels the part. I consider that both games should have been rolled into one to provide a more complete look at the trilogy, especially because of the relatively small number of levels. The game is however a beautiful representation of the world and if you can’t wait for the film, Return of the King is an excellent way for fans to pad out the time.