Recent reviews by Chazz Dingo

This game is definitely one of my favourites that I own. It isn't exactly amazing, but it isn't bad at all. The story is pretty good, nothing too exciting however. You don't really get any sort of connection with the characters. You're kinda just an elf, dwarf and a human who are tossed together, it feels. Throughout the game you get to visit places such as Fornost, the Barrow-downs, Rivendell and even Carn Dum, the capitol of the old Angmar empire.

As far as pros go, the story is alright, and you can tell the devs did put a bit of research into things. There's a few nice name drops here and there as well. The soundtrack is pretty good, and none of the levels are exactly impossible, though in some cases it can get that way pretty easily. Combat is alright, consists mainly of LMB for light attacks and RMB for heavier attacks, or a critical attack when the enemy has a yellow arrow over their head. You also have 3 abilities for melee and 3 for ranged, used with the 1, 2 and 3 buttons. You also have a handy eagle to call with the fourth. Combat isn't exactly amazing however, I'll admit, though it's pretty simple to get the hang of. Isn't slippery or hard to adapt to whatsoever. You and your companions are, in a way, tied in with that of the Fellowship, and several things that occur in the movies happen because of things you did, which is pretty neat.

Now to the cons. This game is pretty well known to have a LOT of bugs. There's a few quests in particular that are very buggy, and you can easily screw yourself over with them. If you're focusing on whether this is canon, I've seen mostly people saying that it is not canon. The achievements aren't very bad at all, either, though the "strength of our alliance" achievement is extremely tedious to get in my experience, and is very buggy as well. There is a lot of issues when it comes to balance. As Farin, the dwarf, unlocking the explosive bolt can do up to 150k damage from what I've seen personally. Which can instant-kill trolls and usually 2-3 shot a boss. Took around 8 shots or so to kill the final boss with it. Now, what I said earlier about the levels sometimes being crazy hard comes down to you. If you run out of health potions, you do NOT have the option to save manually. So, if you go into a level, run out of potions and can't leave (example being a later stage of Nordinbad) you're pretty much ♥♥♥♥♥♥, and you have to do it on your own. Ended up doing this myself and trying to do it with no health potions, which isn't too easy.

To 100% complete the game there's a minimum of 3 playthroughs to get the achievement for beating the Legendary mode. This is a little bit of a con as well, in that there isn't really any sense of a challenge. Mobs do a little more damage and take some more as well, but it never really is an issue.

Now, be warned, two levels in particular, the Barrow-downs and Carn Dum are very well known for crashing computers. I run the game flawlessly on ultra settings, but I crash constantly in these spots. I read that it has something to do with AMD drivers or something along the lines, but I don't know much about that. Just be warned that it does have some crashing issues.

In the end, the game is pretty good, has a good bit of replayability, it isn't boring or stretched thin, and it's pretty well rounded. It does have a lot of bugs and isn't the greatest with balance in the second and third playthroughs, (being in your favour as opposed to being in the enemy's favour) but there isn't really any game breaking issues. The community isn't too lively, though if you really want the one online achievement, you only need to post in the forums of the game that you want help and people flock to it. I believe the game has a built in system that causes open mics constantly, which is EXTREMELY annoying when you're an English speaking man, but get stuck with a very angry spanish child being scolded by his father while a Russian laughs and calls him a ♥♥♥♥♥ for it. It isn't amazing, but it isn't bad at all. I personally really like the game, it has a great feeling to it, and it's nice to be able to have a good lotr game. Be warned that the voices of the few fellowship members you meet are not the same as the movies, so don't get too hype thinking they'll make a cameo.

I'd definitely recommend this game. I'd give it an 8/10, only lacking the two points for the crashing issues, lack of a challenge in the later levels, and balance issues that break whatever challenge would have been from the Heroic and Legendary difficulties.

(Probably worth mentioning you have NO interaction with Mordor, Sauron, Isenguard or anything of the such. You have your own quest that you and your companions are going on dealing with the North. Don't go in expecting to see the black gates.)