The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (Sony PlayStation 2, 2004)

The Lord of the Rings The Third Age (PS2) has excellent graphics, gameplay, and storyline. The game utilizes Final Fantasy style combat but incorporates Lord of the Rings characters and locations. You'll get to fight through the Mines of Moria, on the Walls of Helm's Deep and even in the streets of Minas Tirith,as well as numerous other Middle Earth locations. Although you'll fight alongside several key characters such as Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas, etc, you'll be playing the majority of the game as previously unknown characters. Each of these charcters has different skills and attributes you'll need to utilize and develop to win. Each different location presents new and more difficult enemies to defeat so the game gets more difficult the farther you get.

A nice feature of the game allows you to customize your hero or villain. After you gain enough experience points your level will increase and you can then upgrade your character. You can increase everything from his ability to use ranged weapons to his resistance to magic to his strength etc. Also, during the game you'll find lots of weapons, armor and magical items that can help your character develop. Many of these items will be very familiar to any Lord of the Rings fan. Remember, even if an item can't be used by one character in your party, don't discard it because it could be of use to another character.

Lord of the Rings Third Age is also very free roaming as you can wander around quite a bit and see the world of Middle Earth. There's a lot to explore and many of the missions will be very familiar to fans of the films. There's a large amount of familiar bad guys to defeat ranging from Orcs to Trolls to the infamous Balrog and even Sauron himself if you live that long.

One of the best features of the game is that after you complete each location challenge with a 100% rating, you unlock a mission in which you can play as the forces of Sauron or Saruman. The game is also visually appealing but not tiresome as the backgrounds continually change. But don't forget to keep an eye out for treasure and enemies because they're hiding in every corner. Also many of the voice overs are done by the actual actors from the movie which adds a nice touch to the game.

Overall this is one of the better Lord of the Rings Games released for the PS2 platform thus far and will provide hours of enjoyment for any fan.

If you're a fan of turn based games, and "Lord of The Rings", you'll probably like this game. The characters and battles scenes are cool. The graphics are ok too. The story follows the movie, I guess. ( I never seen any of the movies.) What you basically do is go on diffent quests, fighting baddies along the way. You aquire weapons and armor upgrades throughout the game. You can also toss a little magic around, here and there. Each character has their own special thing they do. It helps in a pinch. So go ahead, get the game (at a cheap price). If you don't like it, then just add it to your coaster collection. Hope this helps.

This turn based rpg game takes on a different perspective of the Lord of the rings trilogy. It brings together a completely different set of characters behind the visible cast of the movies. the great part about this game is the path these characters take, following the fellowship but always helping them from afar ( but sometimes directly).
There isnt anything about this game i do not like; it plays smooth, the grapics are great for it's time, and the gameplay is terrific. so far ive beaten this game 3 times many years a go, but i thought i would pick it up once more, and enjoy it a few more times. this is a must buy for any true lord of the rings fan!

So good, I'm already waiting for a sequel! This was all in all a great RPG, but what made it great for me was that it was a TWO player co-op RPG where you are literally fighting together. I've played baldur's gate and games like that where you follow each other around fighting, but this is more FF style in that when you get into a random fight, it your characters against the enemy (less action type, more RPG type). I played this with a friend and we each took half the characters and half the control.

As far as the details of the game, its very good. The story is solid, the fighting is great - hard enemies and lots of them, fun accessorizing, and the characters (even though aragon fights with you rarely) - they aren't no aragon or gandalf - they're still quite good. I was quite impressed as far as this game goes and would highly recommend it for ANY RPG'er out there!

I love that the game is very long, so you get to play it for hours on end. I like the new characters, though I also dislike that you don't get to use the old ones very often. I love the evil mode, you get to fight as the bad guys (orcs, the octopus, trolls, nazgul, the balrog, etc.). I'm not a big fan of RPG (I think that's what they are called) games (where you take turns attacking), though it does allow you to be more than one person at a time I feel like it's too easy. But all in all it is a good game.