MEMBER PROFILE FOR Tanaki
Average Overall Score Given: 7.00000 / 10
Total Forum Posts: 0
Reviews
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
Overall: As a fan of the LOTR trilogy (both books and film), I was exited to try this game, especially as it is based on the book, which is absolutely brilliant, but I was VERY dissapointed. For one, the dialogue is very hurried and cut. Although it gives the message accros (most of the time), the beauty of Tolkien's words is completely lost. I wouldn't mind if it was a hack-and-slash game, like the Two Towers, but this is meant to be an RPG-puzzle type game. The player is supposed to be living the book, and quite frankly, I thought all the characters I spoke to couldn't wait to get rid of me.Gameplay: The gameplay is pretty simple: find and solve puzzles, kill enemies, avoid ringwraiths and try to stay pure. The clues to how to solve puzzles are mind-numbingly simple, even a child of eight who has never read the books or seen the films could've solved them. The enemies are mostly easy to kill. Most of them you take out from a distance or sneak past. The bosses are the ones who provide a moderate challenge.
Graphics: I was really dissapointed with the graphics. XBox boasts and amazing graphics engine, but obviously the effort just wasn't put it to make this game look good. I was pleased with the terrain though, especially on the barrows. The building however needed more work: it looked like they were painted. Also the characters themselves were very badly drawn. The hobbits were indistinguishable from one another except for the colour of their cloaks. The facial features were pathetic, especially when they were talking. The mouth was hardly moving. The movement of the characters was very repetitive and really dulled the atmosphere.
Audio: The sounds were excellent. They were the only thing that added tension and set the scene. The voices were good, but sometimes they sounded as if the actors were bored. Also the variety wasn't great. Rosie sounded just like Lady Goldberry and they both sounded silly. I thought that Rosie was voiced by a child. I do like the enemy sounds and battle sounds, especially swords clashing.
Suggestions: Spend more time on the game. Think about the graphics and how the XBox can enhance them. Try to make the players feel like they are in the book, not playing a video game. And for goodness sakes, get real people to beta-test the game and ask them about it!
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
