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Fun, but very mass market

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 86 / 93
Date: November 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Sincerely, it is difficult to rate this game.
It has all it needs to be considered a good game, but also has some issues:

Graphics 9/10: Simply great and beautiful. The landscape looks as if it comes directly out of the movie.

Story 7/10: this is where I think hardcore LOTR fans will be divided from Mass Market customers. The story is a bit of a slap in the face for anybody who read or loves Tolkien. Your party is basically always 5 minutes behind the company of the ring. Especially at the beginning of the game... a bit too much for somebody but very appealing for those who would like to feel as if they were in some way part of the trilogy story line.

Sound 10/10: how could it be better?

Gameplay 5/10: Weird things go on in 3rd age.
*Monsters appear from nowhere while you go around on the 3D world map.
*You can only use three members of your party as you work through fights. Since your characters will become stronger as they use their abilities, the fourth guy you leave out will soon be so behind the other ones he will almost be useless.
*You can't cast healing spells while not in combat. At least I didn't manage to. So either you use items or your wait for a fight.
*Each character has a skill set. For example, the elf has healing powers. Everytime you use one of those powers, her "spirit skill" will go up by a point. Once you achieve enough points you unlock the next skill. Since you use skills in combat it becomes paramount to use the most possible everytime.
*No game economy. No shops. No buying and selling stuff. No random NPC encounters. Low feeling of being part of an "alive" world.

Overall the game is fun but it really is not an RPG. It seems that RPGs have gone down to define every game where your character grows during the game and you can personalize her. Not true. Role playing is about playing a role, and you really don't get this in 3rd Age.

Plus the fact you have no possibility of roaming freely the land, you don't buy and sell stuff, and every treasure you find is in a nice chest. Yes, chests everywhere: in Moria, in the Mountains, in Fangorn...always chests.

Bottom line
Buy this game if:
1) you are a LOTR fan, liked the movies and like simple RPGs.
2) you are LOTR fan and will own anything with LOTR written on it.
3) you mildy like the LOTR and you like fantasy.
4) you like "simple RPGs."

Don't buy this game if you were hurt by all the differences the LOTR movies had from the book. This game would kill you.

HINT/SPOILER: to gain "specialization points" have the Gondorian learn "Company Grace." This will give you a boost in AP (action points) every round. You need these to use your skills. Go through a fight and once you have only one foe alive, use the dwarf to cast "stone shield" on the Gondorian. This will grant him physical immunity for a while. Then use the Gondorian and "taunt" the last foe. Your enemy will only attack the fighter from Gondor. At that point just start using skills. Your enemy will wast attacks and you will gain a specialization point every round. Remember to have "company grace" always active and to recast "stone shield" once it expires.

Final Fantasy came to Middle Earth

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 34 / 43
Date: November 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

That is just a way to put it. This RPG is a Final Fantasy game played with Tolkien carachters and story. Maybe you are not going to use any of the main carachters of the book, but you will have some encounters with them, and you are going to help them or receive help at certain moments. The game has excellent graphics, especially the environment and background. You decide how to use the experience you are earning in order to build the carachteristics of your carachters. You start playing Berethor, Captain of the Citadel of Minas Tirith you under orders is looking for Boromir. Soon, he ism joined by Idril, an elf woman with great powers under the orders of Lady Galadriel. Carachters you will use include a Dunedain, a Rohirrim warrior and a Rohirrim women warrior. Also, a dwarf is tossed to the mix. Fight orcs, trolls, Nazgul, etc. This game is great for Tolkien fans, reliving most of the issues of Middle Earth. But, if you are not a Tolkien, even better. The story is great, graphics are amazing, and action is awesome. Very easy to learn, especially for RPG players. The carachters have the same carachteristics as in Final Fantasy, minus the Eons. They even have the perfect points attack. You cannot become disappointed with this game.

Excellent LOTR RPG!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: November 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I rented this game to check it out after reading reviews. I agree that the gameplay is very similar to Final Fantasy X (turn-based). The turn-based battle system I don't entirely prefer, but in this game it works well. This game may not take as long to beat than FFX, but I've played over 6 hours and only achieved 11% completion.

You get six characters to use, and if you play in co-op mode, player 1 plays the first, third, and fifth characters, and player 2 plays the second, fourth, and sixth characters. Each player can swap characters - player 1 can switch with a player 2 character and vice versa.

I don't like the fact that only player 1 can assign level-up points to attributes and equip armor, weapons, amulets, etc. Only player 1 can move around the landscape. The only time player 2 gets action is in the battles.

The graphics are incredible, just like FFX. The abilities, spirit powers, and focused skillsets (along with skillsets obtained by equiping certain items) are very well-suited for LOTR. These abilities also look very much different from "Fire" in FFX - instead there are "spirits". Elemental spirits are an original idea, and look fantastic! All abilities (other than regular attacks) have great animation sequences.

The landscapes in the game are very accurate recreations of the actual moviescapes. Moria looks like Moria (the huge underground city, the fire, the Balrog, goblins), Lothlorien looks like Lothlorien (the stairs round the tree trunks, trees themselves, elven architecture, lighting), the Fellowship's camp sites look like camp sites (burnt logs, flames, rocks), and Weathertop looks like Weathertop (the watchtower, stone altar).

Although this game could have used another 6 months or so in development to smooth out gameplay and character animations/movement, it's a revolutionary software title nonetheless!

MAJOR PROS:
* Excellent LOTR music
* Excellent LOTR sounds (lots of bass!)
* Excellent graphics
* The first co-op fantasy game like FFX!
* Excellent LOTR themes, textures, environments, characters

MINOR PROS:
* You control the strategy and speed of the battles
* Each piece of equipment changes a character's appearance
* First game to have Shadow - opposite of Light

MAJOR CON:
* $49.99 price tag

MINOR CONS:
* Turn-based battles (may have been better with Active system)
* The characters move stiffly and roughly
* Player 2 only gets action in the battles

Bottom-line: If you like Final Fantasy (X specifically), and LOTR, rent (or buy) this game and enjoy it!

This is not an action Game, but a cool RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 17
Date: November 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

If your are looking for an action game like the previous two games of the franchise by EA, The Two Towers and Raturn of the King, then don't buy this one.
This is a Very Good RPG, with good graphics, cutscenes, story and you can unlock featurettes from the trilogy narrated by "Gandalf", Ian McKellen. You fight foes and bosses from the film. And you learn new skills, you can customize the armor and weapons of your characters, and the character image changes not like other RPGS that you upgrade armors, and helms, etc. But the carachter always looks the same.
This game is addictive, and if you have played any kind of RPG's in the past is very easy to pick up the gameplay. The Characters are from a sort of parallel world to the one of the trilogy, but still you visit and fight the same bad guys from the movies. You can also play as the bad guys once you have finished a chapter. You can also travel from one chapter to another at tha save points, which are plenty, avoiding in that way having to play over and over a world when you are killed in a difficult, specially boss fight.
As in other RPGs you can do normal or special exclusivelearned attacks for each character, magical attacks or defenses, use your turns to use items to power up or restore health, use leadership to improve attack or defense, you can even skip your turn opr change your character to the 4th party member who is not actively fighting.
You can get items in treasure chests or as rewards for winnning fights.
I wrote in another review I would never play RPGs again, but this one is worth it, even if it's long, reason why I don't like RPGs, otherwise these are great games technichally and its game play which is more of strategic fighting than smashing buttons in certain patterns.

Its an RPG for Goodness Sake!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: December 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

You people you critisize this game don't realize what an RPG game is! This game has you exploring more openly than Two Towers and Return of the King and the fighting system is turn-based. That is what an RPG game is all about. Third Age is a fun game and its very strategic as well. The spell powers your characters use are awesome! And you can even play on the dark side. Now thats cool! I highly recommend that you buy Lord of the Rings: Third Age!

Not just another Lord of the Rings game, but close.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: November 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Ok, how to tell you about this game. Well as I said, it's not just another of the games. It's a little different.

The graphics are really good. The music is great and the whole environment is great. As for the play, this is one of the best examples of an RPG game if ever I saw one, and I've soon a lot, the only one probably better is the Sims.

There are 6 new characters to play as, 4 humans, a dwarf and an Elf. You'll start as a Gondorian and pick up the other 5 characters as you go, maing your own band of heros following the Fellowship, whom you are always about 5 mins behind, always in their wake. You may have to avoid the same enemies they did as well. At almost every turn there will be a fight signaled by a green screen that pops up to warn you or a little "Eye of Sauron" indicator that lights up as you get closer to danger. All fights are turn-based fighting, pick your weapon of choice and attack, maybe the bad guys will do something, maybe not, then it's your next players turn and on and on until all bad guys are dead. You can chose to skip players so if someone's close to dying, it's a good option. The better you do with chosing your weapons the more points you'll get and upgrades. This is how the while game progresses, here and there you'll run into the Fellowship themselves and fight along side them. In Evil Mode, you fight against the Fellowship itself, which I found quite fun. You have to get through the game to play in Evil Mode, then the fun begins, kill the Fellowship. *MWAHAHA* Hey, I thought it was fun.

Anyway.....

For any Tolkien fan who's looking for anything more Lord of the Rings like than what the other 2 LOTR based games were, this will be a rude wake-up. This does not follow the book or movies, so if it's not what you want, don't bother with this game. For any flat out Middle-earth-ish, Lord of the Rings-ish fan, this is nice because it gives you another view to a long story with a lot behind it. Actor voice-overs are nice and add to the whole effect. The scenery looks very much like the movie's backgrounds and here and there you will recognize things from the movie, so it is very pretty. :-)

All in all, if you liked the hand to hand fighting of the Two Towers or Return of the King, you might like this, it's much more RPG than action, Fellowship of the Ring was RPG and more book based. If action is more you thing, go for the other 2 games. I personally liked Fellowship, Two Towers and Return of the King much better than this, but this is a nice change.

Rent this game before you buy it. It's definately something you gotta try first.

Cool game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: October 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is pretty cool. It has awesome graphics and lets you get new armour and new weapons every time you achieve something. The game is not all about fighting though. It follows a good storyline and the characters have their own story as to where they came from and things like that. You start out in an elven land called Eregion. You start with a man named Berethor. He is from Gondor and he is very strong and is searching for his friend, Boromir. Now as you may know if you like the Lord Of The Rings Bromir gets killed in Amon Hen, after Moria. While you're in Eregion, Berethor gets hurt and is saved by a she-elf named Idrial. She is going to Rivendell when she gets stopped by Berethor and leads him to safety. That is when Idrial becomes a part of his adventure. You get many characters along the way. Their names are, Berethor man of Gondor. Idrial elf of Lothlorien. Elegost whom we find in the mountains(he is a ranger like Aragorn). Hadhod, a dwarven warrior from the clan of Fundin. Eaoden a man from Rohan who is very skilled with the spear, and Morwen a woman from Rohan in search for her family after her village is burned. Each character is skilled with different weapons and personalities. While traveling you can only control one character on foot. In battle, you use three different characters. You go to places where you meet some of the fellowship. You can go to Moria, Amon Hen (where you see Boromir die and where you try to let Frodo leave),Rohan, Helm's deep where you control Gimli, Aragorn, and Legolas along with your party and many other places. You can even be evil and control orcs and anyone who you have battled in good mode. So order the game cuz its cool!!!!!

A Triple if Not Quite a Home Run

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: October 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

LOTR: The Third Age by EA is a good RPG style adventure game set during the events of the LOTR films. Tolkien fanatics will not care for it but gamers should keep in mind that EA has the rights to make video games of the movies and not the books (which probably means there is a bunch of legal hair splitting going on). The connection to the movies remanins one of the strongest parts of the game. The soundtrack from the films lingers in the background and cinematic shots provide a good deal of the world you will adventure in. Even better Gandalf, with the actual voice of Ian McKellen, occasionaly talks to the main character as clips from the movie are played.

The second string fellowship that is gathered wanders through all the normal haunts of Middle Earth from Moria to Helm's Deep. That is one of the chief problems with the game as there is little reason to linger behind anywhere since everything you need is pretty much shown upfront, including the not so subtle treasure chests just hanging out on the side of the road. The combat system is solid, not trying to be overly complex.

Be warned going into the game this is not "Final Fantasy" or one of its clones. There are no towns full of people with inane dialogue and there are no merchants just hanging out in the middle of a dungeon. The heroes are stoic veterans, not a bunch of talkative kids in their late teens or early 20s. To play as a party of adults may take some adjustment for some gamers and there will be some letdown in terms of character development and romance. Fan girls and kids wanting to make music videos on youtube may want to stay away.

For the rest of us, EA has cooked up a good adventure through Middle Earth which is fun and always holds the interest.

Lots of Fun or a DUD? Well it depends...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: May 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

OK...As you can see by the other reviews, there are basically 2 camps of thought: great game or despite the awesome graphics and sounds it [...].

I am a LOTR fan. Books, movies, games, soundtracks, etc. I enjoy playing video games, but I'm not a master at it so I get frustrated occassionally by games that seem too hard. I haven't played Final Fantasy X (FFX).

It's pretty well accepted that the graphics and sound (THX certified) are exceptional and visually appealing. The accuracy of the graphics to the creations of WETA are amazing. I felt as if I was journeying into this world. The one drawback is the cut scenes are too repetative and made exclusively from the movies, though Gandalf's narration has been changed to fit the game. I was watching each one, but have pretty much quit altogether.

At the outset, I was disappointed that the characters were basically ripoffs of the originals and I still am. My 10 year old son called them by the original names and I have to keep reminding him that they are different characters...by name anyway.

Putting that disappointment aside, I was pleasantly surprised by the relatively easy learning curve and the challenge increase in battles. I don't like that you are limited to 3 characters (4 if another character comes to help you). I haven't played an RPG since Link II on GBA and on that I still haven't managed to get the candle or the hammer.

The battles can be a bit monotonous, but with a little thought and some deft character changing I've managed to get through almost half the game thus far.

The fact that you can play on the evil side of battles is a nice bonus feature to explore. The Co-op for 2 players is terrible and not worth it unless you want an extra hand in combat.

I'm enjoying this game a lot and love the fact that I can get 100% completion on the chapters, even if I do have to go back and roam for a while to manage it. I like that it was relatively easy to learn and I'm definitely going to get FFX when I'm done with this game to try my hand at a true open RPG.

Bottom line? If you're a hard core RPG fan and are looking for the "freedom" of going through a world and finding things out on your own, this game will be disappointing. If you are new to RPG's, like I am, this is a great starter game to learn the basics of battles, turned based combat vs. hack & slash, and the customization of character attributes. If you are a hack and slash die hard who loves the vibration of the console when you whack an enemy, don't waste your money on this one.

Very fun game, but not much game play.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: November 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This was a very fun and interesting game.It had a great storyline, it followed the movies with scenes from the movie. I did like watching the scenes throughout the game, it was very interesting. It was also cool when you got to help the characters from the movies and the other games. But it was lacking a lot of things.

First of all the battles got kind of repetitive after a while, you couldn't even come close to getting all the characters abilities w/out battling around for a long time. There also should have been something more with evil mode than just fighting battles, it got pretty boring.

There should have been side quests you could do throughout the game for the. I was also hoping that the game would have lasted a lot longer than it did. It could have went through the entire series, and let you go all the way around Middle Earth finding quests and items along the way. Instead of forcing you to go to some places, it could have let you choose to go wherever you want in Middle Earth.
It could have done so much more with this game so overall I gave it three stars because I liked it for a couple reasons, but overall I was very disappointed with the way they made it.

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