| Introduction:
Lord of the Rings - by Lord Nazerous
The nineteen rings of power came into being during the first years of
the second age. There were nine made for mortal men, seven for the
dwarf lords and three for the elf kings.
The evil lord Sauron mastered the art of ring making and constructed
the Master Ring-one ring to control all others. Prince Isildur defeated
the evil lord and obtained the ring. But he didn't destroy, and
subsiqently, Sauron lived on.
For a long period of time, the ring lay at the bottom of a great river.
During this time, Sauron's power grew as he captured the nine rings
made for mortal men.
Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, was able to come into possession of the ring
and brought it back to his shire. On his 111th birthday Bilbo decided
to leave his home, the Shire. He had grown attatched to the ring, but
the powerful wizard Gandalf was able to convince Bilbo to leave his
nephew, Frodo, with the ring.
Now it is Frodo's quest to carry the ring safely to Rivendell in order
to learn what will become of the ring from the council of Elrond.
Joined by his friends, his quest will be one filled with treachery and
adventure, as the mysterious 'Ring Wraiths' follow his every move.
Lord of the Rings Volume 1 is based upon J.R.R. Tolkien's classic
series.
Lord of the Rings is not rated, but deserves a 'K-A' ('E') for mild
animated violence. LOTR is a 1-5 player Action/RPG hybrid. It is
compatible with regular controllers, the SNES mouse, and the
Multi-player tap.
Graphics [7/10]:
The graphics in Lord of the Rings (LOTR from here on in) are smooth and
easy moving. But the extra step was never taken to give te game any
amount of detail. None of the characters have any amount of facial
features, just a skin-tone outline. The characters (eight in all) all
have different heights, sizes and colors. They move with fluid, life
like motion. The enemies, likewise, move fluidly and vary in
appearance.
The backgrounds are usually dark and forbidding, creating a mood of
doom. There are only a few areas where there's actually bright cheery
colors.
Overall the graphics incorporated many good ideas, but in the end did
little to dazzle and amaze me.
Music and Sound [9/10]:
I know that many will disagree with me but I really like the music in
LOTR. The music is excellently blended with the sound and background
noise, to give you an awesome experience. It's almost like the sound,
and music are one, something rarely seen in video games.
The sound effects are tied in with the music so well, it's sometimes
hard to tell one from the other. But there are noticeable screams and
sword clashes that are noticeably not music. I especially like the howl
the Barrow Wights make when slain.
Game Play [7/10]:
The game play in this Action/RPG hybrid can sometimes be a bit slow and
annoying. First of all, if a character dies, he's dead forever. (Very
realistic, but very annoying at the same time.) There is also no save
feature, rather you have to copy down four lines of a password. (And
believe me it's very easy to copy the code wrong.)
For a good portion of the game, you're underground. Inside either a
tomb, cave or lost city. This makes the instruction manual VERY
important because it contains maps for many of these areas. (Email
Nazerous@yahoo.com for scans of the maps.)
Though the early stages of the game can be slow, the very long end
stage is exciting and fast paced! One of the saving graces to the Game
Play category.
Challenge and Replay [7/10]:
The weird thing about LOTR's difficulty is that sometimes it's so easy
you can breeze right through... but other times it's a struggle to not
have your character killed by a giant troll. The difficulty is
completely unbalanced, though it's not too bad, it can be a hindrance
to the Game Play.
There really is little to no replay value in this game. I really don't
want to ever go back and play this game again. But in it'd defense, you
can have up to five of your friends (Using the multi-player tap)
battling right along side you. So if you want a large group of friends
with you... this would be for you.
Conclusion/Overall [7.5/10]:
Lord of the Rings is a good game for those RPG buffs out there (Such as
myself) or anyone who loved the Lord of the Rings books. The graphics
are mediocre and really offer no great eye candy. The music and sound
are so intricately woven together it gives an excellent feel. The game
play is sometimes slow and dull, but picks up at the end with the
extremely long final level. And the difficulty varies too greatly to
even make sense out of it all.
As for replay value, well if you have a multi-tap and five friends, it
would be really fun to play. Lord of the Rings is also compatible with
the SNES mouse.
And one final good quality of the game... towards the end you have
eight characters in your group... a massive number indeed and maybe one
of the largest controllable numbers yet!
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