• Fight through hordes of enemies as Aragorn

• Cast a LETHAL arsenal of magic as Gandalf

• Use stealth, cunning, & The One Ring as Frodo

The game's strengths...
· Beautiful graphics faithfully adapt the characters and locations of the books. What's more, the game offers an alternative vision of the story and the characters therein, and, if done well, that is always a welcome thing. Peter Jackson's interpretation isn't the only one, and the fact that this game isn't based upon the movies shouldn't dissuade you from being interested if you're a fan of the books.
· Mostly splendid voice-acting, cut scenes, and dialogue - much of which is from or inspired very much by the source material.
· "Mission" objectives are pretty fresh, interesting, and usually in keeping with the events of the book. For instance, at one point you must guard Gandalf from the Watcher in the Water as he struggles to unlock the gates of Moria. Awesome.
· Friendly AI is excellent. For example, orcish archers in Moria will be computer-controlled Gimli's first target. This sort of threat assessment keeps things feeling very much alive. On top of that, it's great fun to have backup that actually backs you up when you're in trouble.
· Battles are well-animated and should excite spectators who just happen to be looking on as you play.
· The game lets you take control of Frodo, Aragorn, and Gandalf as the story progresses, and each of them play differently from one another.

The game's weaknesses...
· First and foremost, this game is for fans of the books. If you don't fall into this category, this game probably isn't for you. Many of the game's reviews state as much, but bash the game unfairly for this fact. There are millions upon millions of Tolkien readers, and THEY will appreciate this attention to detail. Therefore, this is only a flaw depending upon how you look at it. So, if you're an avid gamer and a Tolkien fan, this comes highly recommended - I don't care what the Gamespot reviewers say.
· While it is so true to the novel that it sometimes embraces faithfulness over gameplay, there are moments where the game's designers take unnecessary liberties (but, hey, the same is true of the films, right?). For example, you battle orcs on your way to Weathertop in one of the game's nods toward action - and believe me, some action is welcome by this point. However, in a few moments, you'll be in Moria, and goodness knows there are plenty of orcs to slay there. Why did the designers jump the gun? There's no good reason. There are a few unwelcome moments like these, but by and large the game is very respectful of its roots.
· For those who are not avid fans of "The Lord of the Rings," and even for those Tolkien fans seeking instant gratification, this game will be a bit slow-going. You will often find yourself watching long movie segments followed by short missions. This allows the game to be true to the books, but gives you a feeling of lesser interaction, and it is especially problematic given the game's length - but I'll get to that in a moment.
· While the game often gives you the impression that you are a member of the Fellowship, sometimes it drops the ball. While playing through Moria was fun, it could have been so much more had the designers put the eight remaining members of the Fellowship at your back. I know the game has the capabilities to handle friendly AI in decent numbers, but for some reason, Gimli, and Gimli alone, is your sole support (until a puzzle at the end of the segment). I can only imagine that Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippen, Aragorn, Legolas, and Boromir were removed from the equation because, together, they would kick too much orcish arse and, as a result, make this portion of the game too easy. However, this problem could have been corrected by throwing more bloodthirsty orcs into the fray. Chaotic, story-driven action would ensue, and it could have been the highlight of the experience. As it is, you are just supposed to pretend that the Fellowship is there, since they show up in the cut-scenes only to mysteriously vanish when the gameplay resumes. Come on, guys - I know the difference between 9 and 2.

So, you might be wondering how this game stacks up against its most predominant competition, the movie-licensed "The Two Towers." In my own humble opinion, it's a better game. It's less linear than its counterpart, and the gameplay doesn't become nearly as repetitive. On top of that, "The Fellowship of the Ring" takes far fewer liberties than "The Two Towers."

On the other hand, "The Two Towers" employs more gameplay and less watching and waiting. "The Two Towers" also has more replay value, and will likely appeal to a wider audience with its non-stop action (not to mention the movie's impressive production values). Both games suffer from the worst plague of all, though, for both "The Two Towers" and "The Fellowship of the Ring" are short, short games. The two combined might equal one good game's content, and both lose serious points for this. On top of that, neither has much of an ending to make it feel as though your valiant efforts have paid off.

Still, when the smoke has cleared, I think the "The Fellowship of the Ring," clearly the underdog of the bunch, wins the war, if only by a hair. Note that I am speaking as a Tolkien fan first and foremost, however - and I like both offerings despite their many failings. So, you Tolkien readers/gamers out there, give this underrated adaptation a try. It's clearly not for everybody, but in the right hands, it can work magic.

Final Grade (as a Tolkien fan): B+
Final Grade (as a layman): C

15 of 16 found the following review helpful:


Awesome, once you get past the beginning  Oct 21, 2002 By John Coyle
A great addition to the fantasy world! The story is amazing--if you have read the book, it stays true, while if you have only seen the film, you are in for a pleasant surprise (wait until the Barrow Downs). Somwehat awkward in combat, since the camera doesn't follow you always and much of the movement is based on turning the camera... but easy to get accustomed to. The initial board, where Frodo must sneak past the Dark Riders is...tedious at best. Far too difficult, until you get a handle on it, than it should be. Must have saved and loaded a hundred times without exaggeration. A clear flaw. BUT once past, the game picks up speed and becomes an amazing adventure. Just enough NPC interraction and character switching to make it interesting. The switch from Frodo to Aragorn is welcome and signals the beginning of the action part of the game. Five stars overall, despite the (small) shortcomings, a fabulous game.

21 of 25 found the following review helpful:


Very Disappointing  Oct 27, 2002 By Jeff Benedict
This may not be the worst game of the year for the PS2, but it is certainly one of the most disappointing. Let's cut right to the chase, because I only have 1,000 words to describe how bad it is.
Short. Really short! The movie was almost longer (almost).I didn't use a stopwatch, but I would estimate I beat it in about 6 hours. The levels were all very small and fragmented, so there wasn't a very good flow to the game. The only thing long about this game was the loading times.
Easy. Easiest game I've ever played. I probably used the block button about 10 times. Didn't need to. There was an incredible amount of health, unlimited projectile weapons, few enemies, & portions of the fellowship would help you. Sometimes you didn't even have to attack the enemy, you could just run away and let Gimli wipe out the orcs for you. I only used the ring on Frodo once (to become invisible) just to try it out. Didn't need it. There was one mind numbingly hard part though. Sneaking past the Dark Riders in the Shire took me nearly 50 trys. The puzzles were little more than wandering around these very small levels to collect various easily found shimmering objects. Boring.
Hard to control. Frodo was especially hard to control. He could sneak, walk, or run (pressure sensitive). But I'll be danged if I could get him to walk more than 2 steps before he would start running, or sneaking. It was hard to get him to jump on things to. Not impossible, just harder than it needed to be. Aaragorn & Gandalf were much easier. The combat system was fairly easy to control because it consisted of mainly mashing the square button.
Other qualms. Gandalf's spells were kind of weak. The BOSS characters didn't really require any special techniques to defeat. No real sense of taking a journey, like the book or movie conveys.
Things I liked. The music was pretty good I thought. The graphics were decent. I also thought it was neat when I realized the fellowship could help you in battle, until I realized the battles would never get any harder.
I am a huge fan of the book and the movie, and no matter what the reviews, there was nothing going to stop me from getting this game; but I am also a fan of good video games, so I don't understand how anyone is giving The Fellowship of the Ring 5 stars. They must be from the Black Label production crew's mothers. If you just can't get enough LOTR, then go ahead and get it, but if you just want a really great fantasy action/adventure game, try Drakan.

14 of 17 found the following review helpful:


Much better than reviews describe.  Oct 27, 2002
I almost didn't get this game due to the reviews I've been reading but I took a chance because I loved the book and wanted to see the Tom Bombadillo (sp?) character & others left out of the movie.
(To the reviewer who said the lines from this game are the same as the lines from the movie, .... Most of the memorable lines from the movie are the same lines from the book, that the game follows.)
Unlike some reviews I've read, there are no game lockups or freeze type glitches and the loading time isn't that bad, if you got used to playstation 1 Madden football loading times, you'll get used to these.
The game has very good graphics and yeah, the camera angles are confusing during fight scenes but you can easily control the camera yourself which doesn't take away from the playability.
The first major task of hiding from the nazgul was hard at first, until you learn how to distract them by throwing rocks. Everything else is smooth and the game is very fun.
Oh yeah, almost forgot. If you're lucky enough to pull the Gandalf or Aragorn collector cards from the game, save them, I heard they're very rare (I got Sam, oh well).

11 of 13 found the following review helpful:


Stunning graphics and combat  Oct 04, 2002
I was so excited when I played this game, it has a very smooth and easy to control combat system. The context-sensitive attacks are really fun to pull off. Frodo starts out a bit slow, but then Aragorn and Gandalf are really good, and the game really REALLY picks up from there! Later I realized that Frodo's gameplay consists more of stealth and sneaking around. You can use his rocks to distract enemies it's really fun. The lighting and details are above average for the PS2, definitely.

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