Gaming Target - Xbox: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Written by Ryan Genno on July 16, 2002

First Impressions: Elvis Presley isn't dead. He just traveled back in time.

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings fan base was once only limited to a few hardcore readers of the old novels but ever since the big budget movies came out, the LOTR series is really getting a lot of attention as of late. Electronic Arts not only scored gold when they got the big Lord of the Rings license but EA also gave us a pretty good game out of the deal in the fun LOTR the Two Towers. Sure, most people liked the Two Towers video game for it's easy to get into game play but for EA's Return of the King sequel, the pressure is on to create something really special. EA is looking to improve the latest game by adding a new co-op mode, more playable characters, and even better graphics to help bring the movie to life on the Xbox (you'll also find it on the other systems by the way). Let's see if all these features can come together for the huge grand finale.

If you don't know why everyone is making such a big deal about the third LOTR, then here is what all the fuss is about. The Return of the King is the final installment of this trilogy series so you now find out whether or not if the legendary but cursed Ring actually gets destroyed. Everything is on the line here and the evil Sauron will stop at nothing to conquer all of Middle-earth and get the Ring at any cost. Do the heroes succeed on their massive quest? Can Frodo resist the lure of the Ring's power till he reaches the crack of doom? All of your questions will finally be answered.

It looks like EA has been listening to the complaints about the last game because this LOTR is no longer limited to only one player. Two people can now team up to fight the hordes of Orcs on the battlefields to help even out the sometimes incredible odds, something fans were begging for. The changes don't end there. Instead of controlling only one of three heroes from the Two Towers, you now have the ability to take control around eight different characters (although the full playable list isn't quite finalized yet) in Return of the King. This list includes the now playable Gandalf the White (the powerful good wizard) and Frodo the Hobbit (the small owner of the powerful Ring) just to name a few. Some adventures will either be stealth oriented or just straight up hack or slash action; it all depends on who you pick.

Although the Two Towers had some killer looks, EA is looking to sharpen this game's graphics even more by making the environments more interactive and increasing the animations. The developers are working closely with the producers of the film so that they will know first hand what the movie will look like ahead of time. EA is also using the real actors from the movie to do the character voices for the game just like before and the game's sound is even being composed by Academy Award winner Howard Shore. Talk about some impressive production values, eh?