Lord of the Rings: The Third Age Reviews
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Overall The Third Age is probably in the bad books of Final Fantasy fans for taking a very similar approach to the game's delivery, the formula is one that just doesn't need improving so it's obvious why it was chosen. With a pinch of a few extended scenes from the upcoming ROTK Extended Edition, an exorbitant amount of film footage with narration by Sir Ian Mckellen and Sir Christopher Lee, the game is packed with lots to watch and places to explore. It comes highly recommended.
The second is at GameBiz with an overall score of 88%:
LOTR: The Third Age provides what the three (movie games) couldn't offer. Although it follows a close system style much the same as Final Fantasy, EA Games have made up for this with a massive game running through an entire side story that ties in with all three of the movies. It's not quite the free-range RPG that we've been hoping for where we can prance along the fields on horses playing as Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli permanently, but its close enough to make for a great game. Hopefully though we'll see an Elder Scrolls type LoTR game in the works for the next generation consoles.
The third is at Extreme Gamer with an overall score of 70%:
If you enjoy the more traditional style RPG games you will probably love The Lord of the Rings: Third Age. That is, if you're not a die-hard fan of the series. The overlapping storyline, basic role-playing elements and dulled out graphics are crippling downfalls, but even so the game is entertaining. Overall, Lord of the Rings: Third Age is an average attempt with a timeless license. Next time let's have a new adventure.
And the fourth is at PSX2 with an overall score of 5/10:
RPGs are not just a cool battle system and pretty effects everywhere. The whole idea behind a 40 hour game is that you grow to like (or hate) a character, and then experience their transformation in real-time as they grow, grain new abilities and apply them in a way that affects the storyline. The Third Age offers little -- if any -- of this in all but the most cookie-cutter fashion and often bastardizes the reference material that it tries so hard to pay homage to. Give this a rental if you're still curious, but the limited time you spend with it will be more than enough to know the full game.
