The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Review - Richard wields his sword and admires the polish.

It's official folks; we have to stop making fun of EA (challenge everything) and their eponymous movie licenses. With Return of the King they have crafted an extraordinarily good tie-in that is more than worthy of the source material.

The game begins with bold confidence, throwing you into the role of Gandalf at the battle of Helms Deep. Compared to the normally dreary and patronising tutorials some games offer up this one is an altogether different experience. As the battle rages around you, commendably brief sets of instructions tell you how to defend yourself by parrying and the appropriateness of your quick and strong attacks. You are then swiftly introduced into the simple interactive elements of the environments, with small glowing circles indicating any interaction, such as climbing up a ladder or throwing a conveniently placed spear. And as you relish in the sounds of anarchy, doing your bit to fight the evil hordes, you realise that it is all incredibly good fun. Thankfully it's but a taste of things to come.

f you've played the other releases in the series you will already be familiar with the combat model. Very little has changed this time around. All the characters essentially share the same set of moves and combos, with variations in their animations where appropriate. For example every character has a ranged attack but they will use different weapons; Gimli throws axes; Gandalf uses magic and Legolas predictably uses a bow and arrow. Legolas is also a little faster with this attack and it can be upgraded further. The main thrust of the combat comes from the combo system, where each combo move must be bought by earning experience points. The combos system is reasonably diverse. Some moves are good for dealing with larger groups of enemies whereas others are more suitable for dispatching a single enemy quickly. There are also parry moves that will let you block, then attack, and immediately kill the aggressor. You might raise an eyebrow to the fact that Sam can be as effective a fighter as Aragorn but it works well thanks to the way each character is animated.

Blocking successive attacks and using combo moves will also charge up your skill meter. You gain less or more experience points depending on how far up this meter is. The meter goes down with time and should you take a hit it will jump down. If you can get it up to perfect your subsequent attacks will be more powerful so a mix of skill and prudence are rewarded. I think the only real flaw in the system is that a glancing blow can very easily interrupt your move. So what tends to happen is that you get surrounded by enemies, at which point you tap the parry button furiously thus miraculously blocking all attacks. And as you block the skill meter rises up to perfect at which point you can rather crudely hack your way out. To best use the combos then you want to be just out of the fray at the start. The challenge is then to maintain your momentum so that nothing can get close enough to cause you problems.

The combat system then is quite good but hardly revolutionary. That on its own would not make the game stand out. What does impress though is the sheer professionalism of the production throughout. It's a feat that is all the more impressive given that this game has been released on all the major platforms simultaneously. Even an aspect like the level select screen is much more than a simple labelled box. Here you are treated to a large ornate room with three paths to choose from. It allows you to leap from one story arc to another as well as show-casing a number of galleries and interviews with the cast and crew.