In LOTR: The Third Age, not only do you get to meet a new cast of assorted players, but you also get to choose between hero and villain as well. In an interesting twist, the developers have put you in the middle of the trilogy, but as different supporting cast members. Now you can fight along side of Aragorn, Gandalf, and the others, or you may fight against them. You quests intersect with the original plot line and it is your choice in the end to either save Middle-earth, or fight along Sauron to take it.

Your quest has you hitting key points of the trilogy’s storyline. As these new characters, you wander the ove world territories such as the Mines of Moria, Helm’s Deep, Pelennor Fields, Minas Tirith, and many others. Each locale is richly detailed bringing the worlds to life in their entire splendor. You will find many surprises along the way that tie into the movies. The player models look just as marvelous, as you will notice not only the sheer amount of detail in each character, but once you equip new items, they appear on your character. What’s more, you have full control over the camera in the overworld so you are aware of everything around you.

The presentation is top notch, utilizing the full license of the franchise. You can expect to hear the brilliant score from the film in the background as you make your way through the game. The voice work has been done by many of the actors from the film to ensure the game’s authenticity. The animations while wandering through the overworld are a bit on the stiff and jerky side, but the action sequences once the game goes into battle mode, are near flawless. Speaking of the battle sequences, the amount of special effects and attacks are astounding. Even more impressive are the visuals in which they project such spells and attacks.

LOTR: The Third Age is a full fledged RPG when gameplay is concerned. Using a turn based style of fighting, and the ever-frustrating random battles, fans of the Final Fantasy series will be right at home with this title. While the combat and techniques are not as deep as most of today’s newer turn based RPG’s, The Third Age still will hold many gamer’s interest without being overly simplistic. Each character has a few choices in which they can handle themselves in battle. Whether you want to use a Spiritual Power, an item, a Weapon Craft, or just attack, the choice is yours. That is if your character has such crafts as an option. Some characters have more choices than others when deciding on how to deal with a foe, and this is where the tactical part of the game begins and ends. Sharing duties with another player is an option as well, as The Third Age offers a cool co-op option. One major flaw found in the game is that you level up quite easily. This can make for an easy adventure, even set on the more difficult settings. Overall, while The Third Age may seem too remedial for veteran RPG’ers, you can be sure that even with its lighter style of tactical means, there is still enough to hold any fan’s interest.

EA may not be known for their line of RPG titles, but for a newbie, they did a pretty good job bringing fans of the LOTR trilogy something they can hold near and dear to their paper and dice hearts. You will not find much of a challenge, or even a particularly long adventure as far as RPGs are concerned. What you will find is a game that will make you lose track of time, as you will be too engulfed in the experience. Fans of the movie and books alike will be pleasantly pleased with EA’s latest offering, as it is one of the more exciting, if not terribly easy RPGs on the market today.