Lego Lord of the Rings

Today's review is a bit late because, well, this is a one man operation here. And I do have a day job. AAAAAANYWHO. It's no secret that I thoroughly enjoy the lego games. As far as games where the point is to collect stuff to buy more stuff, they're alright in my books. And an educated guess could be made as to what my opinion on Tolkien's epic fantasy trilogy is (I love it). So, are the lego games and Lord of the Rings a match made in heaven? Read on to find out!

STORY
Lego Lord of the Rings follows the plot of the film trilogy, from Fellowship of the Ring, all the way through to the end of Return of the King. It's all played out in true Lego style, very funny with lots of visual gags. People familiar with the movies shouldn't expect many surprises here.

PRESENTATION
The first thing I'd like to talk about concerning the presentation of the game is the voice acting. While not the first Lego game to feature full voice acting, this IS the first ADAPTED story to feature it. While seeing Lego figures spout the dialogue ripped straight from the films is quite novel for a while, I must say that I miss the vague pantomime used in previous games. Since it's a story so many have seen before, I think the more visual style of the older games would have worked better in it's favour. That said, the game still features a lot of visual gags, and theres plenty to laugh about here.

Also following on from Lego Batman 2, Lego LOTR features a fully explorable Middle-Earth, from the Shire to Mordor and everywhere in between. The locations all look true to the film, and it dawns on you just how amazing it all looks when you look from the top of Minas Tirith and spot the Black Gates of Mordor, the Saruman's Tower in Isengard and the ruins of Osgiliath. It all feels like one big connected world, which makes you feel truly lost in this world.

Soundtrack-wise, the game pulls heavily from the movies, with epic orchestral scores to fit the setting and scope of the adventure. There's also the more subtle woodwind sections for the "humbler" moments (in the Shire for instance).

GAMEPLAY
This is your tried and true Lego game experience if ever there was one. You progress through levels following the adventures of the movies, using the skills of the party at hand to continue past obstructions. For example, Gimli can smash certain walls, whereas Legolas can shoot arrows and use them to jump his way up to higher ledges.
The puzzles are quite fun, even if it all comes down to knowing which character to use and when.

This all sounds very familiar, so lets move on shall we? The main story often diverges, due to the multiple stories happening at the one time. After the end of the Fellowship levels, you occasionally follow Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, or Frodo and Sam. So that's pretty cool, giving you the option to continue with whichever story you want. However, to stop you progressing too far with certain characters, Sauron's gaze often falls upon certain areas of Middle Earth. So in a cool gameplay meshing with story moment, you must distract his gaze by playing other areas of the game. It's a small feature, but I liked it.

Also different in this Lego game is the expanding inventory. Usually, certain actions would be restricted to different classes of characters, but with the inventory it's possible to construct and use new tools, such as wall shattering axes and hammers, or fishing rods. While it sounds like a good idea in theory, I feel like this detracts from the classic gameplay style of switching between relevant characters. Using all the different characters was always part of the fun of the Lego games.

Collecting is still the name of the game, and getting new characters is still the best part of the game. Aside from that though, there's not a whole lot of variation. But, if you're a Lego game fan, you already knew that.

REPLAYABILITY
Like I said, these games are based around collecting. Collecting studs, Mithril Blocks, Characters, cheats; collect-aholics are in for a real treat. Often areas are locked during story sequences, requiring you to replay with other characters you unlock later. Then once you've collected it all, you've won. That's it.

OVERVIEW
While I love the Lego Games and LOTR, I feel like this sort of missed the mark. I'm finding it hard to figure out if I enjoyed the game more with voice acting, or if it would be funnier in pantomime. The gameplay is the standard Lego fare, but to be entirely honest, I feel like Lego LOTR needs a shot in the arm at this stage. Collecting begins to wear thing after a while.

All of that said, and I still find this game so god damn charming. It's Lego and Lord of the Rings, it's funny and somehow epic at the same time. The world has a sense of epicness to it, and the puzzles are fun, even if they are just using characters abilities correctly. So what more can I say than this? Lego Lord of the Rings sure is a Lego game. And Lord of the Ring's fans who need a new look at this story should take a look here.