Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings

Technical Specs:
Publisher - Black Label Games
Developer - WXP Inc.
Genre - Action
Platform - Xbox (also available on PS2 and PC)
Number of Players -1

Ten-second Rundown: Tediously mash buttons for hours on end while listening to a Windham Hill soundtrack.

Fans that waited decades for a big budget retelling of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy got their wish with the most recent series of movies. Unfortunately, if they want to adapt the Tolkien experience to the gaming platform, this is not the way to go.

In the gaming world, when a blockbuster movie spawns a video game spin-off one of two things usually happen. #1 is that the parent company creates the game in house and puts just as much effort into the game as they did the movie (Spider-Man or most of the Lucas Arts games). #2 is that the license is sold to a second party company that then produces the game themselves. Typically the second party spends so much money on the license that there just isn't any left over to produce a quality game. Sadly, Lord of the Rings falls into the second category.

Actually, it's more of a corollary to the second category. Inspired by the sudden Tolkien mania set off by the New Line Movies, Universal went after the literary rights to compete with the official movie game, The Two Towers.

As a result, The Fellowship of the Rings is based on the book, not the movie. All this would really seem to do is give the creators a lot more freedom when it comes to adding side quests. That may sound like a plus, but I don't recall Frodo running errands for everyone in The Shire before taking off on his quest.

The game starts with you controlling Frodo Baggins, a hobbit who has been given the quest to destroy the One Ring. The Ring contains all the power and malice of the dark lord Sauron. Frodo is joined by his friends Sam, Merry, and Pippin as well as the wizard Gandalf, the ranger Aragorn, the warrior Boromir, Gimli the dwarf and Legolas the elf. Together, these eight must accompany Frodo as he bears the ring to Mount Doom where it can be destroyed. At least, that's the theory.

In actuality, you spend a lot of time talking about joining up while performing such exciting side quests as gathering herbs for an elderly hobbit. Though the game has a map feature, it doesn't provide much help. If you're in The Shire trying to figure out where you need to go, you can call up a beautiful relief map that says "The Shire," but provides no other detail. (Next to that is "The Village," "The Island" and "The Ocean." Just call Frodo "Number Six.")

Similar to the Legend of Zelda series, FotR is set up in the third person style. There is no leveling or exping to do. Rather, you'll control different characters but in all honesty they all play about the same. Some differences exist, in that Frodo can use the ring to become invisible, Aragorn has a bow with multiple types of arrows and Gandalf has a variety of magic spells. But it still ends up being not as exciting as you might wish.

Forehand knowledge of the movie or books is strongly recommended before you begin playing. The Fellowship of the Ring is such an epic story that there is simply no way the game designers could put it all into the game. Do you really want to watch three hours of cut scenes anyway? Knowing some of the terminology can be helpful as well.

Most of the many wasted hours you'll spend playing this game will be spent either solving tasks given to you (collect item A and take it to location B) or fighting hordes of enemies using the frustrating combat system. At least things look pretty along the way; the designers have done a great job building the environment.

If you're a Tolkien fan than this game may be worth a rental or two from your local video store but the average fan just isn't going to have the time or interest to get into it. It's not as fun as Legend of Zelda or as entertaining as Final Fantasy.

(Derek's editorial note: We also received the PS2 and PC versions, which by all accounts play similarly, though the Xbox boasts the most advanced graphics. As PS2 guinea pig, I have found my own poor night vision to be an unintended obstacle in dodging Dark Riders; they're everywhere, just like nuns in a drug store the first time you try to go buy condoms.

The PC version has proven difficult to install, but our designated PC player is still excited about it.)

XBox Version

PS2 Version

PC Version