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The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (GameCube)
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There was a time when The Lord of the Rings was just a book; now it's a billion-pound industry churning out films, merchandise and games. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is EA's foray into the realm of Middle Earth, and they've chosen good old-fashioned hack-'n'-slashery rather than offering up an RPG. You choose one of three of the fellowship of the Ring, Aragorn, Legolas or Gimli, and guide them through 16 missions of melee combat, where you use your superior fighting skills (and combinations of buttons on your controller) to beat back the hordes of Sauron. How you fight is very important; in a Devil May Cry-style rating system, the more daring moves and perfectly executed combos you pull off, the more points you get at the end of the level. The more points you get the more you can upgrade your attacks, weapons and defensive tactics. In terms of a storyline, although it bears the name of the second film, the game includes set pieces from Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Rings too--Aragorn beating back the Ring Wraiths at Weathertop, the battle with the goblins in the dwarvern caverns of Moria--plus the Battle of Helm's Deep and more footage from The Two Towers. There isn't much more to the game; it looks great, provides a good dose of action, is well executed and it's obvious that a lot of thought has been put into capturing the feel of the films. But it's woefully short and most gamers are going to breeze through this in less time than it takes to watch the special features on the Fellowship of the Ring DVD. But if you're a fan of the film or love a bit of mindless button bashing, then this is a good tie-in. --Kristen Bowditch This review refers to the PlayStation 2 version.
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4/5 |
Fun but short!
(January 09, 2004) |
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I read the reviews for Two Towers and so didn't have particularly high expectations for it - but i was pleasantly surprised to find that actually... It's quite good! The beginning of each section features an actual clip from the Fellowship or Two Towers movie (not CGI but a real movie clip) and the majority of the voice overs are the actual actors. You work your way through the levels by pretty much hacking up anything you come across and there are some pretty easy end-of-level baddies....this might sound a bit boring but the cool graphics, fab movie music and ever increasing tough-ness of the 'orrible Orcs makes it a fun ride. oh and there are cast and crew interviews to watch and unlock as you go along. My only real critisisms are:
1. sometimes after you've been killed it restarts up in the middle of the level pretty much where you left off and other times, after much orcish massacre-ing, if you die you're whisked right back to the beginning (frustrating to say the least!)
2. Its way way WAY too short - you can easily finish in about 6 hours Anyway, those annoyances side, I liked it and I'm now saving up my pennies to get the Return of the King. |
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4/5 |
The Lord Of The Rings - The Two Towers (Gamecube)
(July 08, 2003) |
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This eagerly awaited game for the Gamecube has hit the shelves a few weeks back with huge success. Although this game has been released on the popular PS2 and X-Box gaming consoles this games true success has come from all those Gamecube owners out there. Based upon the box office smash hit "The Lord Of The Rings - The Two Towers" this game has stayed true to it's movie and literary roots with each level being based upon an event in the first or second movie. Thanks to EA Games and New Line Cinema, you the consumer get a truly spectacular gaming experience. Once again EA games has managed to rise to the occasion giving you total control of the hexagonal looking computer generated characters Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli and Isildur...if your good enough. However even if you don't manage to unlock the notorious Isildur until a few weeks after you bought the game you still get a taste of his power and the start of this truly gripping game. As you would expect from a game of this standard the graphics are nothing short of brilliant. Long gone are the days of watching a black screen load just for some highly questionable graphics. With this game you not only get a variety of quality movie scenes accompanied by some extremely impressive graphics even if the characters heads do look like squished boxes every now and again. As for the scenery I think almost everyone who has played this game will agree that flowing rivers, pouring waterfalls and rustling trees are truly a work of art. And now we get to the fun part, your characters arsenal. Like most games you gain points for a good performance making you grow to higher levels but in this game you get so much more. As your many characters slowly gain experience you swiftly unlock stunning weaponry and intense fighting techniques all of which are easily obtainable to the average player without making the game patronisingly easy. Now many of you must be thinking, "If this game is so wonderful then why did he give it a measly 8 of 10 instead of an impressive full marks?" Well truth be told, the storyline itself leaves a lot to be desired. Sure the characters are well beyond "decent" and the graphics are some of the best in the gaming world the story itself is known by almost everyone over the age of 10 in the free world! This makes the video clips tedious from time to time which is a real shame considering the quality of the clips. I shall finish my review with these few words. This game is a piece of gaming magic with everything the gaming population could possibly hope for. From its lush scenery to it's minimalist scoring system this game is worth its weight in mythril. |
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1/5 |
VERY disappointing...
(May 12, 2003) |
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I originally played this game on my friend's PS2 and was impressed with the film clips, the excellent graphics and fun gameplay (albeit not mentally challenging). The Gamecube version is dire by comparison. The film clips are much shorter (it seemed whole sections were removed presumably to fit onto the smaller disc), the clips themselves are choppy and the graphics very poor indeed. I can't believe I spent 35 quid on this and only 30 on Zelda: The Wind Waker which included 2 bonus games!!! |
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5/5 |
Bored of the rings? - No chance
(April 29, 2003) |
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If I were to ask you what you thought were the top five games in Nintendo's illustriaous history, games such as Perfect Dark, Super Mario Sunshine and Metroid Prime would certainly crop up very often. The fact is though, that a game which is based on a book and a film may never be as popular as the original. The only very successful Nintendo game epic that sticks in the mind is Goldeneye 007 for the N64. The Peter Jackson films of the J.R.R Tolkein classic series lived up to all expectations, which made it extremely difficult for the Gamecube game to live up to the two that had gone before. But, this lives up to the challenge, which the best graphics on the Gamecube, and some of the most addictive gameplay around. It stays faithful to the books and films, and once arrows and Gimli's axes, which are thrown at orcs, uruk-hai, besurker and cave trolls, come into use at around mission 3 (there are 12 missions + 1 secret one) a great deal more depth and enjoyment is added to the game. Watching an orc sink to it's knees on fire has to be one of the most satisfying feelings out there on any format. With three playable characters (Legolas, Gimli and Aragon) for you to use, and one secret character (I won't spoil the suprise for you),this game replicates the movie so well, and traces each characters footsteps through the main scenes of the first two films so well that you should be tempted to part with your cash, as this film re-make really is worth having. |
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1/5 |
Beautiful but tedious
(March 17, 2003) |
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It all starts out so well... Even if you aren't a fan of the film (I didn't think much of it, for one), you cannot help but be impressed when you fire up 'The Two Towers' on your PS2; it's one of the best-looking games yet produced for the console. Each level begins with a scene from the first or second film, which dissolves into a cut scene and finally you take control of the action. EA have done a superb job of graphically recreating the film scenes, and the in-game graphics are excellent and very smooth, especially considering the large number of characters usually on screen. In fact, for the first ten minutes or so, it feels like heaven. And then the rot begins to set in.. It's soon obvious that the 'gameplay' consists of nothing but mindless, tedious button-bashing, which rapidly becomes a chore rather than a joy. Enemy after enemy advances on you, and you cut them down - THAT'S IT. There's a paltry RPG element (you can improve your abilities based on your success) but it amounts to very little. I was terminally bored after half an hour; to play any longer would have been sheer torture. It's a great shame, because Lord Of The Rings seems like ideal material for a game; perhaps Vivendi's XBox/PC role-player based on the books will do a better job. All in all, this is the gaming equivalent of a Supermodel - nice to look at, but mentally barren. |
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