Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King for PlayStation 2 Reviews by Gamers

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is an action hack and slash game from EA. In this game you follow the paths of Gandalf/ Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas/ Sam and Frodo.

You start out with three paths, each for the separate adventures in the movie with the paths eventually coming together as does the movie. Through this adventure you will get plenty of real time movie clips, bonus clips from the cast of LOTR as they sat in on the game development etc. There is some all new dialog the actors recorded for the game.

There is a combo purchasing system, as you build experience points you can purchase upgrades for each of your characters or in some instances if you are willing to spend a bit more the upgrade can apply to the entire Fellowship.

Graphics are pleasant on the eyes, level layout is just fine no complaints. The story is obviously great and the sound is good.

The one glaring issue for me and it is a big one is the combo system. If your using a Logitech wireless PS2 controller the combos will go off much more sluggishly then the old dual shock so I would switch to dual shock. You can purchase quite a few interesting combo but the design of the game makes most of them mostly useless for two reasons.

First you don't really need the combos to be successful, your most efficient option is to use a parry and attack move from the bane line of combos. This is executed with square during an enemy attack followed by R2, its an insta-kill and puts you into PERFECT mode, perfect mode nets you much more experience per kill and makes you move stronger. Your best bet is to use a Bane then quick attacks in perfect mode and you can mow them down.

Second most of the time there are just to many enemies closing to quickly to make these combos effective. Getting mobbed by 4 or 5 enemies at time just doesn't
make it practical.

Average game at best but not bad for a movie based title.

I had to give this game a 7, because it IS a good game. However, if you played Two Towers already do not bother. These games are exhausting and very rewarding when finished, but to play essentially the same game twice is too much. Especially because this game is a total button crunching hack and slash game, pretty tiring. Otherwise it has great graphics and true to life movements and scenary. But like I said, it is the exact same game with different levels.