Rating: 
Summary: Good graphics, poor menus and instructions
Review: Do you want to save your game sometimes? If so, you will have to finish an entire level. I thought I would never get that far. (Yes, I have spent a great deal of time playing games that are this difficult, but better designed). After you get the the 2nd level, what if you want to start a new game? The only way I could do it was to go to the Windows Task Manager and kill the process. After that, I had to restart the game and watch the video intro again. I know they are proud of the graphics (yes, I liked the movie), but....
Rating: 
Summary: WAY too hard
Review: Let me start this off by saying that I absolutely LOVE the Lord of the Rings. I got this game for Christmas and I was dying to play it! I started it up and it worked great! It starts with some video clips from the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers movie, then throws you in to the Battle of Helms Deep as Gandalf for a "tutorial." It's a little confusing, but also an interesting and unique way to learn the game. I did manage to beat it with no problems.From there, I've had nothing but problems though. To put it simply, the game is WAY too hard. To make matters worse, there is no way to save in the middle of a level. After you beat the Helm's Deep tutorial part, you have three options. You can play the Path of the Dead (as Gimli, Legolas or Aragorn), play the Road to Isengard (as Gandalf) or an Osgiliath level that I have not tried. I tried the Path of the Dead level about 20 times and managed to make it to one "save point" but kept dying after it. I finally gave up for the day, only to come back later and find that the "save point" isn't really a save point. If you decide to come back and try again a few hours later, you have to start right from the beginning. I tried again and again, and could not beat the level - even on EASY. Also, on Path of the Dead you pick who you want to play and the other two characters follow along. All of the bad guys go straight for you, never for the other two. So when I was playing Aragorn, all the bad guys came after me while Legolas and Gimli sat around and did nothing. Every once in awhile Legolas shot off an arrow, but he never killed anyone or did much damage. Why even be there? I got so frustrated I was screaming and cursing at my PC. I decided to give Path of the Dead a rest and try the Road to Isenguard. In that one you play as Gandalf. I managed to make it past 2 save points and finally hit another roadblock. There is a very difficult portion of the level I haven't managed to beat. I've died about 25 times on it so far. It's just way too hard. I switched it between "normal" level and "easy" level and there was ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE. Easy level is insanely hard. And without any option to save in the middle of a level, it's just plain frustrating. Games are supposed to be FUN.. and while this one has its moments, it's been more of a frustration for me than a good time. I finally decided to look up some cheat codes on the internet to see if I could get some assistance because the game was basically kicking my butt. I come to find out there's zillions of great cheat codes.. YAY! But wait, there's a catch... you can only use cheat codes after you have beaten the ENTIRE GAME without using any! ARGH. Why even have cheat codes? Do lots of people beat the game on their own, then want to play it on an easy level using cheat codes? Most people I know, when they beat a game they then want to play it on a HARDER level. I honestly don't know what the game designers and programmers were thinking. Maybe it's because this game was designed for a console and was poorly converted to PC, I don't really know. Another big annoyance is the camera angles. They switch on their own, you have absolutely no control. This tends to be especially aggravating when you're running around a corner and the camera angle suddenly switches and you can't see what's ahead of you. The graphics are beautiful and the gameplay is interesting. It's more than just running around killing guys. My favorite part on the Road to Isenguard level is where you have to blow up the arrow towers (which is also the part I keep getting stuck at). Some other reviewers complained about the cut scenes, but I loved them. I adore all three movies which is the main reason I wanted to play this game. I am just so disappointed that it is so hard and so frustrating, with no cheat codes or anything available to help ease the difficulty. I was so impressed by the graphics and I so wanted have a blast playing this game. If it wasn't so hard, or had the option to save more often, I would enjoy it so much more. So for graphics, I give it 5 stars. For enjoyability (is that even a word? ) I give it 2. Overall, 3.5 and I will round down to 3 because I too often end up wanting to punch my computer screen after playing this game for an hour.The makers of this game should have spent more time making it PC friendly. Also, there should have been effort to make this game friendly to casual gamers who don't have the skill of the "uber gamer" who like games to be so hard. There are different levels for a reason, easy level should be just that: EASY.
Rating: 
Summary: this is a great game
Review: this games is cool a lot of say this game is no good because the levels are to hard that is because they have a ps2 or a consal and you can get cheat codes with the consal and there hard to find on pc the levels are chaleging but fun this game has very good graphis so if you want a chaleging game and you like lord or the rings this is the game for you
Rating: 
Summary: A ridiculous & disappointing experience
Review: We bought this game for our son, who has an affinity for these types of hack-and-slash games, only to discover that the game won't run. This is a brand new computer, with more than plenty of hard drive space & RAM to spare, with a 64mb graphics card. Unfortunately, there are only TWO graphics cards that this game will recognize. You can have the most powerful card in the world, and if it isn't NVIDIA or ATI Radeon, you are out of luck. Do we want to blow $100-$150 installing a new graphics card, all for the sake of one lousy game, especially one that has gotten the mixed reviews that this game has? I really don't think so. We have never had any problems with any other programs we have installed on this system. The idea that I need to drag a brand new computer back in for an upgrade just strikes me as ridiculous. This game's designers need to be more flexible when configuring the system requirements. Our son never got to play this game, but I know that he would have been driven crazy by the lack of a quick-save feature. Once again, the game's designers display a profound lack of flexibility. They must live in some fantasy world where people have all day to kill, slogging through an entire level before being able to save the game. Get real folks. We have a couple of other EA games, and I have generally been lukewarm about what are obviously console games that have been reconfigured for a PC in a sometimes slap-dash manner. This most recent, very disappointing experience leaves me extremely reluctant to purchase any EA products in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: best game ever played
Review: This pc game is the best. The action is the best, the graphics are the best, EVERY THING IS THE BEST!!!!!. Now people say it is too hard to control on keyborad, it is true somewhat, but you can get a gamepad. I got mine for 10 bucks in bestbuy( it is the ps2 controller except it is on a pc controller format.) The view is good, because you can see every thing around you. It is like a 360 view. Also you can play two player which is cool. You can get points by killing orcs, and later buy cool moves or wepones. Overall the game is a really good PC game.
Note: THE GRAPHICS WILL ONLY BE GOOD IF YOU HAVE A GOOD GRAPHIC CARD.
Rating:
Summary: Great Game
Review: I love this game. I have not played many fighting games but this one is great. However I was a bit disappointed with the secret charactors.
Rating:
Summary: Great Game for the experienced PC Gamer
Review: First let me say to the skeptical buyer, this game isn't as difficult as everyone makes it seem. It IS annoying to not have a quick save function which would make the missions WAAAAAAY easier to complete, but you have to THINK to accomplish the your goals to progress to new missions. You can't just hack and slash like people seem to think, you'll get wrecked. You need to parry (block) almost as much as attack, and observe your surroundings, the enemies around you. They all take turns to strike you and you need to time your blocks and counterattacks, something that requires good skill and should be a welcomed challenged to PC gamers bored with dull first person shooters and slashers that have pitiful enemy AI.
You need all your concentration for this game. You also need to remember your tasks at hand, many of which require you to manage your TIME above all else...HINT: don't always stop and fight. It can steal crucial seconds from you that you need to complete other objectives at that moment. It really just takes multiple attempts at each mission to figure out the correct method to finish each one. Luckily, there are a few simple
"just stay alive" hack and slash missions which require much less from you.
As far as CPU power, I'm running it through Win98 with a P3 600Mhz ( 100Mhz BELOW the recommended ) but I am using a GeForce 4 128MB video card which takes a HUGE load off my soon to be replaced P3 fossil. But case in point the game runs great on my system with no chop or lag whatsoever. I was really suprised.
All in all it's a great game for the PC and you can just buy a $10 Gamepad Pro which I use after comparing that and the Keyboard/Mouse control. The game I think is easier playing with a Gamepad. Movement is smoother and the combos are easier to execute which can mean life or death. I gave the game a 4 out of 5 simply because I feel every game should have some sort of quicksave/in game save feature that would break up the missions into more manageable sections.
But anyone who likes quality games should buy this. No one even mentioned that once you persevere and beat the game through, you can play ANY mission as ANY of the characters and as unlockable extra characters. That in itself is worth the challenge of the game. A must for any good game collection.
Rating:
Summary: Too Hard Even on "Easy Level".
Review: I brought this for my 31 yr old son for the Holidays. I have watched him play. He usually finishes all the games so fast! Not this One!!! Ha! Really cool graphics and nice clips from the movies. Happy New Year
Rating:
Summary: Probably better on a console.
Review: I have to say that I really wanted this game to work. I played the demo and it was enjoyable enough, if a little difficult. So, now that I have the full game, I have to say it's quite disappointing. This is obviously just a cheap transfer from a console platform. This will be the last third-person action/arcade game I play that isn't built specifically for the PC.
The controls are very unnatural with mouse and keyboard. The mouse should control camera angle but instead it just mimics the forward, back, left, right of the w,s,a,d keys. This results in often unplayable angles and the inability to 'aim' a ranged attack properly.
In fact ranged attacks auto-aim in such a random fashion that I question their usefulness. And this really affects the 'fun' factor, as well. In the early levels, it really is nothing but 'click, click, click, click, click,'<yawn>, 'click, click, click, click'. In other words no skill is really required.
Now just to contradict myself, the difficulty level is outrageous. This is not because gameplay is really hard, but due to the fact that you can't save your game just anywhere. Instead you can only save a game at the completion of a level. Oh, and don't be fooled by those checkpoints along the way... you can't start a saved game at any place but the beginning of a level. This may be standard operating procedure for a console, but for a PC game, it doesn't work.
Graphically, this is a pretty stunning game. The story line is convuluted, but at least it looks nice.
Overall, I imagine this would probably be funner on a console or maybe with a gamepad, but the lack of control, the messed up saving and dificulty make this game somewhat of a disappointment on the PC.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect!
Review: Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! The game is great! Got it for Christmas and have not put it away yet! Great Graphics, sound and Gameplay. Cutscenes are amazing! (You can skip them after watching them once by pressing ENTER.) The controls are weird, but you can configure them to your liking. Nine characters: The old trio, Gandalf, Sam and Frodo, and three secret characters. Thirteen levels plus other secret levels. WARNING: The game is VERY DIFFICULT!!! You will be fustraited. This game ranks among the most difficult games I have ever played in all the years of my life. But the more difficult something is, the longer it lasts you, and the more fun it is.
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