LOTR: The Third Age

[Jolly Rogers]

Come on, I know we've got some D&D types on these boards. So who bought & played this game? Is it a FF online type of RPG or closer in spirit to the 2 previous LOTR action games from EA? Reviews please.

[GRAND CANNON]

From what I have briefly read, it's an FF type. Dunno if it's online or not, though.

I also want to hear from someone who's played.......before I rent it, that is.

Here's a review :

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/tlotrthethirdage/review.html

[David Hingtgen]

Rant time!

1. I *love* FFX. I have a save with 92 hours on it.

2. I think FFX has about the most perfect battle system of any RPG in a LONG time.

3. I got fed up and annoyed with LOTR pretty quickly and am not going to finish it. Trading it in for Metroid Prime 2.

Detailed analysis:

1. In LOTR, the battle system is like FFX with one big exception. (well, 2, but they go together). You are slow, and miss a lot. You can easily have enemies get in 4-5 hits in a row, causing your death, before you can have a character take another action. Also, you can easily miss 3 times in a row. So by round 4, having had maybe 2 characters hit twice (if you're lucky), you've taken off 1/2 HP of 1 of the 3-4 bad guys. That means LOOOOONG fights.

2. Enemies have high HP, as RPG's go. Yes, you can get lucky and get a triple-critical hit and take out badguys in a single hit. But not nearly as often as you'll miss time and time again, and then die because the enemy got in 4 or 5 free hits, plus double counter-attacks every time you miss (because they always get to have their regular attack right after their counterattack). Yes, they miss too, which only prolongs the already long fights.

3. Story. I like LOTR quite a bit, otherwise I wouldn't still have my 15-year-old copies of the books. But this is not a "parallel" story. It is EXACTLY the story following EXACTLY in the fellowship's footsteps. Kinda boring IMHO. Also, the characters are so utterly like their Fellowship counterparts, from clothes to speech, it just kind of feels stupid. The ranger is SOOOOOO much like Aragorn, and the dwarf is SOOOOO much like Gimli, it feels like you're playing a knock-off of LOTR, rather than a "real" LOTR game.

4. Yes, everyone else seems to have nothing but praise, but I started disliking the battle system at about round 2. Oh yeah--magic does have a 100% hit-rate (thank god, there's been dozens of battles where I've had one bad guy with like 5HP left, but it took another 2 rounds to kill him because EVERYBODY missed time and time again, and he got in like 6 hits and killed off 2 of my guys) but magic is quite weak.

5. Quantifying the above: no I'm not screwing up my stat-building or anything to have such slow, missing, low-damage characters. Even the elf-chick (with naturally high magic and dexterity, with me devoting most of her points to even higher magic and dexterity, with similar armor/accesories for even bigger boosts) still does sh*t for magic damage, and misses all the time. Even using the most powerful water spell against a fire-based enemy who has had his magic defense weakened from a previous status attack.

[1st Border Red Devil]

I'm waiting for Middle Earth Online myself. The Dev team has gotten better over the last year. They certainly suprised us when they revealed that they listened to our concerns over the fantasy-dork look (spikey armour and all that kind of dumb poo) and went with realistic (Dark Age) looking armour.

So far, some of what they've shown us is good (like this pic here) while others need improvement (their Wargs SUCK!)

[Jolly Rogers]

Detailed analysis:

1. In LOTR, the battle system is like FFX with one big exception. (well, 2, but they go together). You are slow, and miss a lot. You can easily have enemies get in 4-5 hits in a row, causing your death, before you can have a character take another action. Also, you can easily miss 3 times in a row. So by round 4, having had maybe 2 characters hit twice (if you're lucky), you've taken off 1/2 HP of 1 of the 3-4 bad guys. That means LOOOOONG fights.

5. Quantifying the above: no I'm not screwing up my stat-building or anything to have such slow, missing, low-damage characters. Even the elf-chick (with naturally high magic and dexterity, with me devoting most of her points to even higher magic and dexterity, with similar armor/accesories for even bigger boosts) still does sh*t for magic damage, and misses all the time. Even using the most powerful water spell against a fire-based enemy who has had his magic defense weakened from a previous status attack.

One review I read said this game takes a level-adjusted monster difficulty approach, meaning the creatures get stronger as you level up, so you can never overlevel your party to overpower the monsters like people always do with Japanese RPGs. This actually forces the player to be resourceful and think about tactical employment of their characters and skills in battle instead of taking a brute force approach.

[David Hingtgen]

At the end, I was frustrated enough to set it to easy. Didn't help much. I could cast haste on myself, blind on the enemies, and still miss a lot and not get off many attacks. I could spend 2 rounds casting nothing but buffers, and still be in a tough fight, against basic lackey orcs. It reminded me of like Persona 2 for "long hard battles".

I play RPG's more than anything else, (they're like 2/3 of what I own) and this is the least fun one in a long time, IMHO. Amazing, considering it is FFX with a LOTR setting.

[eugimon]

wow, thanks for the review, looks like I saved myself 50 bucks.

guess I'll be getting knights of the old republic 2 when it comes out.

[1st Border Red Devil]

At the end, I was frustrated enough to set it to easy. Didn't help much. I could cast haste on myself, blind on the enemies, and still miss a lot and not get off many attacks. I could spend 2 rounds casting nothing but buffers, and still be in a tough fight, against basic lackey orcs. It reminded me of like Persona 2 for "long hard battles".

Reason enough not for me to buy it. Ugh, buffing in Middle-Earth? No such thing. About the closest are items like miruvor and lembas that help with getting rid of de-buffs. Maybe the Star-glass Galadriel gave Frodo could be considered an item buff, but thats stretching it alot. You could probably also call upon the Valar (like Elbereth) and be enheartened to face creatures of the Shadow....but nothing like a buff in a CRPG or MMOG.

The devs of Third Age should be taken out and shot.

[Golden Arms]

I might check this game out. Currently I'm really enjoying the x-men RPG. I'm really waiting for KOTOR 2 which comes out later this month.

[twich]

I have been playing this game for a little bit...it is awesome...I love it, but I guess I would say that anyways since I am a huge LOTR fan. Go Fig...LOL

Twich

[Effect]

When I first heard of this wasn't sure if it would be any good. From the sounds of things I don't think I'll be picking it up. I was hoping it would be an original story running side by side with the Fellowship's quest but what is the point of simply following them? Or showing up to help them fight certain things when that sure doesn't happen in the novels or even movies? They could have simply had a story take place before or after the Fellowship left or after the Ring was destroyed.

[Seven]

I read an interview with the executive producer for the game in Gamepro and the reason why the game does not expand out to new scenarios and such is that they were prevented to do so by who holds the rights for the books and movies. Vivendi Universal holds the rights to the books, so they can't draw upon any original Tolkien material and are prevented from expanding from what happens in the films. They were tied to making a game that did not "re-invent" or add to the Tolkien/Jackson mythology for Lord of the Rings. You never saw Aragorn or any other character in the third age being able to summon up the Valar to strike down the enemy, so you won't see any game character being able to do so either. I would have loved to see that though...

So they could not just come up with an alternate plot involving any of the movie characters, or make up their own storyline during the War of the Ring, so basically you end up with a game that's on rails, stuck in one plot moving from established battle to battle. I'm disappointed myself since I would have liked to explore more of the world than be stuck moving from one battle to the next just basically tagging along with the fellowship.

Edited November 14, 2004 by Seven

[1st Border Red Devil]

So they could not just come up with an alternate plot involving any of the movie characters, or make up their own storyline during the War of the Ring

I question why they simply could not visit the locales within Middle-Earth that are included in the license. Its not like there aren't lots of ruins they couldnt run around in to find things and such. Why have characters from the novel? I want to create an original character and let him play the in the grandeur that is Middle-Earth. All that can be done well within the canon that Tolkien established. I sure as heck don't wanna play Aragorn (at least not as he is portrayed in the movies).

I question that their hands were tied. VUG is also working with Turbine to make Middle-Earth Online. Its not like they couldnt make an original RPG set in Middle-Earth. Essentially come up with an offline version of something similar to their MEO Project. It sounds more like VUG wanted to get something on the shelves and pushed it out without even considering things.

[Seven]

So they could not just come up with an alternate plot involving any of the movie characters, or make up their own storyline during the War of the Ring

I question why they simply could not visit the locales within Middle-Earth that are included in the license. Its not like there aren't lots of ruins they couldnt run around in to find things and such. Why have characters from the novel? I want to create an original character and let him play the in the grandeur that is Middle-Earth. All that can be done well within the canon that Tolkien established. I sure as heck don't wanna play Aragorn (at least not as he is portrayed in the movies).

I question that their hands were tied. VUG is also working with Turbine to make Middle-Earth Online. Its not like they couldnt make an original RPG set in Middle-Earth. Essentially come up with an offline version of something similar to their MEO Project. It sounds more like VUG wanted to get something on the shelves and pushed it out without even considering things.

Is Middle Earth Online a MMORPG? If so, maybe then they can skirt around the rights issue since MMORPGs usually don't have any sort of cohesive plot. They could just introduce a broad plot of defend Middle Earth against Sauron. But I also agree that EA probably just wanted something out by Xmas to boost profit.