The Lord of the Rings Tactics

This is properly the best lord of the rings game you can get on a games consol (tho i havn't played conquest yet). Mordor mode is so much easier than the fellowship when on the same difficulty but mordor is more fun. I realy enjoyed the game and it is a real PSP game so if you try play it for more than 2 hours staright you'll probs get very bored.

Lotr, does what it says on the tin. Good cinematic scenes between gameplay. Are you Good or Evil ? Find out for yourself, worth playing.

The word pleasant is definitely appropriate for this game. Neither terrible or brilliant but occupying a middle ground that fails to arouse passion but nevertheless keeps you drawn in so it is possible to play it in a fairly intensive manner.

It essentially consists of little vignettes that are not linked together by the plot of the game but do bear some slight consistency with the events of the film. I think it is very disappointing in comparison to the film as to me the film's greatest strength was in its epic battles. In this game those battles are reduced to a handful of characters and side players battling against Mordor at a time when MordorTV was showing coronation street so the Uruk Hai decided they would rather stay at home and not bother with a battle. Admittedly I have not played all the way through to the end yet but having played about half I think it would have been a good idea to allow control of battalions rather than 7 or 8 characters at a time.

Something else that annoyed me is the system by which experience points are allocated. You can play a scenario with Aragorn and Legolas but when you have finished Frodo and Sam will also receive experience and Gimli will get new armour. Call me old fashioned but surely a character's experience should be determined by what he has experienced not his friends.

Gandalf's relative weakness in comparison to Sauron's powers stands out as well. While Sauron is doing all sorts of amazing magical spectacular things Gandalf doesn't seem to have that much up his sleeve, but then Gandalf never exhibited particularly showy magic in the films except when putting together a fireworks display.

Another flaw is the lack of continuity. Each scene stands alone. In my first scene Gandalf was slain, however, it was not long before he turned up in another scene. Obviously the same rule applies to the opponents. Rather than being one epic adventure this means that you are instead playing many very small tactical scenarios each of which have no bearing on any of the others except that gold you receive can be used to purchase things that will be of assistance in later scenes.

Despite noticing many disappointments in this game I still think it deserves a fairly high rating, certainly higher than it is posted as. It has beautiful graphics and when your decisions are played out at the end of choosing your attacking strategy there is a cinematic feel to what you are watching. The sound is nice as it is derived from the Lord of the Rings sound track and in between scenes you get quite a few clips from the films which all add to atmosphere and prevent the game from seeming too shallow.

Most importantly of all it is comfortable to play. A lot of games annoy me very quickly but this one is something that is very good for using up spare time with. I could quite happily take this on a long train journey and sit quietly to myself slaying orcs for the entire trip. I don't think it will have a particularly good replay rate but I would certainly try to play it more than once to experience a higher skill level as easy definitely is too easy. If you are a fan of the film and a fan of this sort of game then purchase might be a good idea as it is definitely slick and well presented. As this is a rental site though I have no hesitation in recommending it. It really is a nice production despite its faults and is well worth idling away a few days with.

I enjoyed the game but it is easy to complete. Always liked the turn based games and graphically very nice. Recommended.

I'm not a big player of these types of games but thought I'd give this one a go.

I must say that I did enjoy it, the LOTR setting really drew me in. Having said that though the game does seem fairly simple to complete. I managed most levels on the first attempt with only about three needing multiple goes and even then I usually got it on the second.

I completed the whole game in a week.