Vivendi’s take on ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ is certainly a game that hardcore fans of the novels will enjoy, even if fans of RPG games may be more than a little disappointed. Not that the success of the movies should have had much to do with this game, the official licence being used coming from Tolkien Enterprises, based on the rights to the novels. EA have the official film rights, you see.
So The Fellowship of the Ring is a fairly faithful transition of the novels to an interactive medium, its just sadly not quite as good as it deserves to be. Does that make sense?
The fellowship of the Ring is played from a third-person perspective, with controls very similar to those of a standard PC first-person shooter, and in fact you can switch to this perspective to aim at enemies. Throughout the game, you can choose to play as one of three players – the hobbit Frodo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, or Aragorn. You’ll be aided on your dramatic quest by the likes of Gimli, Legolas, Boromir, Sam Gamgee, Merry Brandybuck, and Pippin Took.
All of these characters from the story will play a role in delivering the Ring to Mordor for its destruction. However, epic this experience is not – smacking of something reminiscent of an ‘RPG-lite’, which, whilst making the game pretty friendly to pick up and play does tend to result in rather linear and uninvolving game play.
One problem symptomatic of this simplistic game play is the speed of the game – the Quests are too easy, and basic, while the combat is made very difficult by slow and decidedly static characters, a constant barrage of baddies, and the occasionally irritating camera angles.
However, some puzzle-solving is included, as are magic spells and potions, which can heal or curse upon your whims. These are accessible through the useful inventory system, which pauses the game and allows you to cycle through an active character’s possessions.
Story-wise, fans of the Tolkien world should feel fairly at home with this reasonably faithful recreation. They may however be a tad disappointed with the length of the plot, which is all over fairly quickly aside from some average side Quests and diversions. Its all something of an anti-climax, though one which fans may still appreciate if only for the interactive recreations of the world, which at times is superb.
If nothing else, The Fellowship of the Ring is certainly an attractive game. The environments are vast, and beautifully realised, from lush green hills to the murky mines of Moria, the architecture of which is quite stunning at times.
However, all is not entirely perfect on the visual front either, the character models suffering from occasional clipping problems, and overall a little more time having been needed to correct the camera angle problems, which can at times leave your view more than a little obstructed.
Onto the game’s audio now, and surprisingly, the voice-acting is actually of a reasonable standard – despite the occasionally over-dramatic British accents (we’re not talking Olivier here, folks), all is generally fairly convincing. The soundtrack also does its job well, if not spectacularly, immersing the player into the game world, and changing to reflect the pace of on-screen action.
All in all, The Fellowship of the Ring just isn’t quite the jaw-dropping RPG masterpiece we hoped it might be. The story is over too quickly, and the game play isn’t as involving as it deserves to be. Whilst the production values are generally high, the camera problems are also an annoyance.
This said, however, fans of the novel will relish the opportunity and freedom of exploring the nicely realised worlds of Tolkien’s unique vision, and may even enjoy the adventuring of the characters – providing the missed opportunities and occasional flaws can be over-looked.
Review courtesy of Orlando Bloom Multimedia.
