The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Wow, isn't this a suprise. I'm reviewing the sequel to the game I reviewed a week ago. And it feels like it's a week ago. Why?

This is the exact same freaking game, only different maps. In the world of gaming, usually poor sequels are given SOMETHING to fight off criticism. Halo 2 was given dual wielding. Final Fantasy X-2 was given b***s. However, it seems like EA Games has dropped the ball on the last series-related LOTR release, and just used the same engine and graphics to re-hash the rest of the story.

Through playing this game, I was under the distinct impression it was 2000 again and I was playing games made on RPG Maker 2000. Why? It felt like the same mechanics were used between the two games, just someone "Ported" or whatever-the-hell'd the new game with a new story. While this is great and fine, this is absolutely nothing new to the engine, which basically means I could consider the sequel an "Expansion Pack" and less of a new game. Sad.



The few changes that have been made have, of course, been made to accomodate the story. The Hobbits are now available to play, but that's only there because:

A. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli make for poor sequel players.
B. The story basically demands it, being as the last movie focuses on the hobbits so much.

Get it? This is NOTHING NEW. Even hardcore Lord of the Rings fans have to admit that while this game might be good in their eyes, this game is absolutely nothing different than the original game, and as thus should be punished. The first game gets the grace of originality in that it ALWAYS is "New", regardless of how it ripped off Gauntlet. This game loses a star in my eyes specifically because it did nothing new.

As for the story and the presentation, as like the last game, it's decent. While I'm no fan of the Lord of the Rings as a whole, I will admit that this game, possibly over the last one, gives a lot of service to the fans. I will admit that it seems like by using the same engine EA finally figured out how to make fun areas, especially those bigass dragon things (Don't ask me, last time I read the Lord of the Rings was when I was 11).



Overall, this game deserves two stars, as opposed to it's predecessor's 3. Why? Simply because this game seems to be nothing new to the series. If they would have made this a RPG, I would have much more readily accepted a lack of engine change (Such as the .hack series did), but it seems like Action games need a re-tinkering every release or they get old...

2 star(s) out of 5

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