The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age Retrospective
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Remember when I said that EA only held the rights to the film version of the Lord of the Rings story? That meant that they could only use things mentioned in the films or not mentioned in the books or films. Anything in the books, but not in the film was off limits due to the rights being held independently elsewhere. While this did not prevent EA writing new material (something that arguably would have been a better choice) it does go some way to explaining why they chose to go the way they did. Writing new material would move the story a long way from the main Lord of the Rings story that people know, so would have been risky.
Questionable writing aside, the 3rd Age game is a very solid and enjoyable RPG in the Japanese style, mechanics wise and the Lord of the Rings world, through film footage, is expertly overlaid on this structure to form a stylistically excellent game. While playing it thought, you get a slightly disquieting feeling, as if something's not quite right. This amalgamation of Eastern and Western styles is, while enjoyable, unusual and feels out of place; not by any inherent flaw but more due to how unusual it is to see the two styles mix.
