Thankfully, The Third Age marries its cool visuals with thoroughly satisfying game mechanics. Those complaints aside, The Third Age won't dissapoint in the visuals department. Plus, some of the textures could have been sharper. They just don't look very fluid, as though they each suffer from a heinous case of arthritis. The only real complaint here is the stiffness of the characters when moving around the game world.
Each local, whether it be Helm's Deep, Osgiliath or the plains of Rohan, reflect the same amount of detail and care shown in the making of their big screen counterparts. Everything from swords and armor, to pendants and boots, look just as cool as they did in the movies. Wargs, Goblins and Uruk-hai look magnificently detailed. EA did a magnificent job of bringing the grandeur of Middle Earth into The Third Age.
In terms of pure aesthetic value, there's nothing cooler you can do in The Third Age than to unleash fiery death on your opponents using the "Dragon Calling" spell, or summoning a giant Ent to come smash everything in sight. The spell effects conjure the same kind of flashy coolness of the films and look downright awesome. But is it the dream RPG everyone hoped it would be? Does The Third Age distil the essence of the film trilogy and pump it into a complex RPG? Has the emotional depth of the characters and story survived the translation? Aesthetically, will gamers recognize their favorite locales from Middle Earth? Will the Balrog look just as menacing in the game as it did in the movie? Will it sound like it did in the movie? Above all, will The Third Age ground the eye candy and aural delights in satisfying game play?Īdventure, Ho! Graphically, most of the The Third Age looks damn sweet. Instead of sitting back and watching Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli defend Helm's Deep, you get to step in and do it yourself. Instead of just watching Gandalf fight the Balrog in the bowels of Moria, you actually get to take him out yourself. And while many of these imaginings will never see the light of day, some eventually transcend the barriers of geek fantasy into reality.Ī Tale of Two Towers Much like The Two Towers and The Return of the King, both released by EA in 2003, The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age delivers one of those "What if" experiences. It's proven fact that nerds and dweebs have established "dream unions." Such unions usually come in the shape of fantasy matches - Aliens Versus Predators and Obi Won Kenobi Versus Luke Skywalker, for example.
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