Rating: 
Summary: Interesting puzzles and good graphics, too short!
Review: A new Lord of the Rings RPG is out for the PS2, XBox and other platforms. How well does the first book in the trilogy translate to a role playing game?To start with, you're doing a role-playing game and start out as Frodo. There's no fighting, just wandering around in a very nicely rendered Morrowind-style graphic house and town. You have a purity meter, so don't go stealing things from others' houses! You have simple quests to achieve - get a mill working, find the pigs. You gather up some firecrackers and mushrooms (yum!) and deal with your annoying relatives. In hardly any time at all you've met up with Sam, Merry and Pippin and have left the Shire. The game progresses like that - Frodo just creeps along, solves random quests and tries to stay pure. You can use the ring to find secret areas, but using the ring makes you more corrupt. You have to do good deeds (i.e. these little quests) to keep yourself balanced. Eventually you can also play Aragorn and Gandalf, and stop into other locations such as Bree, Weathertop, Rivendell, and up through the end of the book at the river's edge. I was disappointed because the back of the game made it sound as if you could *be* any of the three characters (Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf). Instead you're stuck as Frodo in the beginning, trudging around from house to house. Most houses don't even have anyone in them and the few that do are often empty. The puzzles are solved in about 2 minutes each with little thought. I do enjoy the graphics, and the way each character is a 'type' is fun. Frodo's purity and thieving skills, Aragorn's fighting, Gandalf's magic. The cut scenes are good and help to move the story along, and flow in with what you are doing. Still, I really would have enjoyed something a bit more involved, with quests that involved more actual thought, with real thieving being necessary instead of just 'pick lock - ok got deed' and 'sneak along road -ok got past riders'. The quests are very obvious - you get 2 or 3 explicit clues for each one that push you into the right direction. The voice actors sometimes seem bored with what is a world-rescuing epic. Gandalf's recitation of the 'one ring to rule them all' at the beginning sounds like he's reading through a shopping list! In any case, it's fun to wander around the various locations and interact with the characters from the book. The graphics are nice, and they include many characters that the movie didn't have time to include. A must have for Lord of the Rings fans, if only to participate in sort of a 'moving story book' that lets them, for a time, return to that fantastically detailed world created by J.R.R. Tolkein. As a HUGE fan of the series, that includes me!
Rating: 
Summary: Dont Waste your time
Review: This game is a mockery of the LOTR image that we have all come to love. By exagerating miniscule details to try and tell a story, you are lost in a lump of hard to see and just plain stupid puzzles and games. You would be better off watching paint dry then playing this game. Do yourself a favor, get Two towers or return of the king, you will not be unhappy with those purchases. This game is seriously making Tolkien roll over in his grave.
Rating: 
Summary: Question from Someone who is a bad gamer
Review: How Do You Get Past Old Man Willow? What Do You Do? I think after reading the reviews that I might know, but if someone reads this soon and knows, please respond!!! I'm Stuck!!! I rate this a 5 because so far I like it!
Rating: 
Summary: Major Disappointment
Review: I'll try to be nice and start with the good: There are parts of this game, visually, that are beautiful. I played it to the end just for that aspect alone. The graphics in all modes, whether you're playing as FP, 3rdP or watching a cut scene, are very nice...really beautiful. Moria was my favorite; the Balrog and Gandalf's fall into Shadow was cool. In many ways, it's true to LOTR books and a nice way to learn the basic story if you can't/won't read the books. Also, there are parts of the books that you don't get in the movies. Tom Bombadil (as annoying as he may be) and Narzil reforged being the biggest points. One quirky thing...in the cut scenes, the characters look much different than the characters when you're playing them...which is odd. I found it funny that in the cutscenes, the Hobbits have curly hair (as Hobbits do), but in the game, they all have staight hair...in fact, everyone who has hair has straight hair. Here are the major downfalls...some of which are maddening: The gameplay is shamefully bad! Did no one test this game? Shame on them! First, you can't fight in FP mode, other than to use your alternative weapon (rock, bow, magick). So, you're forced to fight in 3rdP mode and suddenly the 'camera' angle goes haywire! You can't see who or what you're fighting or suddenly there's a tree or a wall in your way. This is inexcusable IMHO. Also, you can't choose which character you can play and there's no changing the difficulty. You can't venture very far and just look around either = no replay value! Add on that the characters all move like they're Cave Trolls on smack, and you've got a recipe for disaster. No skill really required...you keep pounding away at your mouse. Not so much fun or good for the hardware. If that's not enough, I found the game to be rather buggy. Once in Moria Gandalf was stuck in a wall...I couldn't move and had to start over. It crashed my system many times and I have a 'stout-hearted' system that even Samwise the Brave would admire. Also, there are times when you really don't have to fight anyone at all to pass the level. This is especially 'helpful' when you're Frodo since he can't do much of anything. If you just run to the end, picking up Mushrooms, Cram and Lembas as you go, you can pass to the next phase. I did this several times with Frodo with the ghosts (Paths of the Dead?), the Orcs in Moria and the Urku-Hai just before the end. Why bother playing at all? And what about the Ring, which I think I used once just to put the darn thing on a see what happens! Who cares about gaining purity when you don't have to use the Ring?? The 'puzzles' were laughably easy and the game was so short, I was angry that I'd actually paid for this bundle of [junk]. It's a total ripoff that completely takes advantage of the new generation of Tolkien fans that the movies have created. Obviously, Peter Jackson had nothing to do with the game. I've played more engaging games on a Commodore 64! Bottom line: Save your money...Tolkien Enterprises doesn't need it.
Rating:
Summary: WARNING!
Review: DON'T BUY "THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING" PC GAME IF YOUR PC DOES NOT HAVE THESE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS LISTED ON THE BOTTOM: 1. Windows 98/2k/me/xp
2. 600 Mhz Processor
128 MB RAM
3. DirectX 8.1b Complient Video Card (32Meg with single pass, multi-texturing and T&L)
4. DirectX 8 Complient Sound Card
5. 4X CD ROM Drive
6. 800 MB Hard Drive Space IF YOU DON'T HAVE THOSE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR YOUR PC THEN DON'Y BUY THIS GAME BECAUSE IT WON'T WORK (INSTALL) FOR YOUR PC. BUT IF YOU DO HAVE THOSE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ON YOUR PC THEN YOU ARE VERY LUCKY. "THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING" PC GAME SHOULD INTSTALL INTO IT. THIS GAME HAS GREAT GRAPHICS AND SOUND. THE STORY LINE AND GAME PLAY ARE WELL-DONE FOR THIS GREAT GAME. ITS WORTH EVERY PENNY (IF IT IS CAPABLE OF BEING INSTALLED INTO YOUR PC THAT IS).
Rating:
Summary: Do not buy this game!!!
Review: Ok, firstly, i would like to comment on the good parts of this game. 1. The front of the box is well designed and would look good on my wall.
Now that I've got that covered, lets go on to the bad things:
1. The game will not install. Now, I DO have the system requirements. My Computer: 1Ghz pIII, 256Mb memory, GeForce2 Ultra (64Mb), 52x CD drive, DirectX 9.0b, windows update service pack 4, Windows 2000.
I spent several hours on the phone with tech support, and they led me into more problems, then led me right back to where I started. Do not waste your money on this game. Play PacMan or something that won't waste 4 hours of your time trying to install.
Rating: 
Summary: Depends . . . . . .
Review: Wether or not you like this game depends on: How well you know the story of The Lord of the Rings, how resourceful you are, and if you like killing things. I was really impressed when I first started, the graphics are the best I've ever seen in a computer game, and it was fun and challenging sneaking around black riders and distracting them with rocks. I didn't like killing wolves, though, because wolves are my favorite animals, but that's just me. They're actually wargs, you can tell by their rat-like tails. But then I got to Bree. I was Aragorn(Strider), heading out to find materials to make decoys of the hobbits. And this guy came up to me, and literally started attacking me!!! I don't know about you, but I don't remember any HUMAN attacking the characters in the books or the movie. I didn't feel comfortable going around slaughtering people, even if it was just a game. So I left that part to my brother. So, this game was fun (so far), aside from some principals I didn't agree with. Just a warning to all you parents: The battle sequences are extremely violent and gory. There are sound effects (people grunting as they stuff swords and axes into each other, splurting noises as blood goes flying, and moans when someone crumples to the ground), and also, - and this is just me - I was dissappointed with how the characters looked and talked. For such a maturely designed game, the people sure sounded like little kids.
Rating:
Summary: Great Game
Review: Well I finished the Fellowship of the Rings game. At first I thought this game was kinda hard but after I got used to the movement it wasn't so bad. For those few hard spots I went to the online user forum provided by Vivendi and found hints to all the difficult parts of the game. This game is awesome. Somewhat short compared to RPG video games for the PC, but nonetheless it is very fun. If you are a Lord of the Rings Fan do not pass up this game! Unless 3D holodecks are created like they have in Star Trek this is the closet thing to actually being in middle earth. :) I will definately be playing this game over again. I love the Lord of the Rings and this game is like stepping into the story. My favorite level was Moria. There are at least two levels(one in Moria and the other before the final battle with the flying Nazgul) where using Frodo's ring helps him run past orcs and Gimli or Aragorn can kill them later.
Rating:
Summary: Ths Game is pretty average
Review: Ya sure this games grphics are crap and it sometimes makes you go slow mo but it gets better towards the end When you face the Balrog and the Nazgul. Howeve3r just get the return of the king.
Rating:
Summary: It could have been better
Review: I have played other LOTR games before, including The Hobbit for Gamecube, but I couldn't enjoy this game.
The first disadvantage is when you first start the game. A long ctscene plays, and every two to three seconds, the screen flashes white, which causes splitting headaches for people with eye problems.
You also must use a keyboard to play, which is extremely difficult; I can't even get out of Hobbiton without falling off a bridge. The game doesn't support gamepads (special controllers that you can plug in to your computer to play a game), and if it had, the gaming experience would be easier.
The graphics are choppy, which also tend to hurt your eyes occasionally. Sometimes, when you're walking around, it's hard to tell where you're going as trees and such sort of flash by.
There are two advantages, however, for this game. One is that it doesn't take as long as other PC/Mac games to install, and the other is that this game is purely based on the LOTR books, not the movies, so that you feel like you are playing the original adventure.
Overrall, get this game if you are a die-hard Tolkien fan, but keep in mind that there are more disadvantages than advantages to playing it.
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