Lord of the Rings: The Third Age for GameCube Reviews by Gamers

To say the Wii and Gamecube produce the lousiest RPG's in the world might be the biggest understatement in the gaming community.
"LODR: The Third Age" is another in a long line of snoozer, yawn-fests thrown out by Nintendo. If it doesn't contain the name "Zelda", don't bother.
Where to begin...
The battle sequences are very long. Your characters look pretty cool when they attack, but you can run to the grocery store in the ammount of time it takes to complete a round. Yawn!
Your characters lack any real personality, and we never learn much about them. Yawn, Yawn!
No town exploration or interaction. Snore!
The game is dark, and I don't mean spooky. I mean, "Where the heck am I? I can't see!". I spent a lot of time following the map instead of taking in the scenery, especially in Moria.
As stated previously, the cut scenes are nothing more than advertising for the movies.
The voice acting is good, but who cares when you feel zero attachment to the characters.
You are constantly overmatched, and since you don't acquire money to buy useful items, you are left with the meager droppings you find in treasure chests. 90% of these items are useless in battle.
I tried to get into this game for about fifteen hours, but just couldn't. "Clunky", "Dull", "Been There, Done That", ect.
The PS2 put out better, more involved games a generation ago.
I can't wait to get my tax return, buy a used XBox, and keep the Wii for my kids.
How this system remains competive is baffling to say the least...

A modest, entertaining melee game with the major characters from the LOTR series. Not for hardcore RPG players, rather this game is ideal for young fans of the movie series.

You begin as Berethor, a Gondorian exile, and your party slowly accumulates characters until you get to the standard set of six: Gondorian, Elf, Dwarf, Dunedain Ranger, and two Rohirrim - male and female.

Along the way you fight alongside major characters starting with Gandalf. There is an "evil mode" that I'm not going to keep the game to bother trying.

The game discs are heavy with 109 remixed segments from the movie series. In fact, these cut scenes are so frequent at the beginning that it annoys the veteran gamer who already read Tolkein 30 years ago.

SPOILERS FOLLOW.

Once you're in Helm's Deep, about 30% in, the melees and treasures become much more interesting and challenging. It was there that my party was first annihilated. Play continues like this through Osgiliath - about 75% into the game, where your party is split into two groups and wage battle more or less simultaneously.

After clearing out Minas Tirith, you're diverted to Pellenor Fields. Normally as your party leader moves through a maze or tunnel, the action freezes and the screen dissolves to load the next segment. That's fine when you can run for 30 to 60 seconds, but when the screen dissolves EVERY FIVE SECONDS, it drives you crazy.

Sadly, you have to run around a lot in Pellenor Fields to attract encounters with the enemies you need to overcome. Fighting a set batch of enemies at each stage is the heart of this game. There are no genuine side quests or any compelling reason whatsoever to backtrack. Your level 65 character needs just one attack per kill to wipe out any enemies from the first third of the game. Snooze.

The final battle - contrary to my high hopes - was not at the Black Gate. It's a letdown to fans of the movie series. Nobody ever climbs to the top of the Barad-Dur. Honestly.