Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (XBox)

The Lord of the Ring: The Two Towers is a platform game that ties in closely with the first 2 LOTR movies. It is in simulated 3D in the sense that it looks 3-D but you cannot change the viewpoint as in true 3D games.

You start off as Isildur in the great battle when the ring is cut from the fingers of Sauron. And then you are Aragon, the heir of Isildur, many, many years later. As the story progresses, you will have to accomplish missions with fixed objectives. Sometimes these objectives are time limits. Sometimes you need to protect something or someone. Most of the time, however, you just need to survive. Look out for items during the missions that will either heal you, provide more ammunition for your ranged weapons or gain you more experience points.

You have a choice of 3 characters: Aragon (human),Legolas (Elven) and Gimli (dwarf). Selection of character is not superficial as they each have their strong points and weaknesses (as well as fighting styles). Aragon is a great all-rounder, Legolas has great archery skills but tends to be killed off easier and Gimli is lousy at ranged weapons (in his case, throwing axes) but great in close (really close) quarters fighting and is very hard to kill. As each completes a mission, depending on how well you completed the mission (style of fighting, hits and misses, etc) your character will receive experience points. These points may be used to "purchase" additional abilities and/or combat moves. While I found some of the combat moves easy to perform, others were too complex to execute in the midst of battle. My advice is to spend the experience points on abilities, weapons and simple combat moves first.

Each character has 2 weapons. A close quarters weapon (sword, fighting knives and battle axe) and a range weapon (bow, bow and throwing axes). You will eventually need to use the ranged weapons.

Once a character completes a mission, he can return to that mission whenever he likes but the experience points do not accumulate. There are about 10 full missions. Some missions are easier than other. Some missions are rather short and others, fairly long. Some have one or more "big bosses". Some have none. The variation of types of enemies is impressive. The fighting style and hence the tactics you need to employ need to vary for best effect.

As each character fights differently, each mission is played slightly differently with each character. While some missions might seem easy for one character, it might be all but impossible for another. So there is some replay value right there.

The cinematic captures are simple great. And they tie into the game beautifully. Game play is fast and furious from the first mission to the last. Movements are fluid. No hi-tech environment effects, but the settings are well rendered.

My major gripe is that it only covers the first 2 movies and that I only get to play 3 characters. While I probably would not enjoy playing Frodo or Sam (though they do present some really nice possibilities) I would have really enjoyed blasting people as Gandalf (I know he does not do so in the movies, but play this games and you will see what I mean). So I am left with this feeling that something is missing. And I should have gotten LOTR: The Return of the King instead. Hmm. Maybe that was the intention.

Get this game. Then get LOTR: The King Returns.