The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

K. Fields
2011-01-30T16:10:20-05:00
Video Games

It took me one week to finish but it wasn’t easy. Today, I completed the single player campaign of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Broken up into 13 levels, the game followed a subset of the movie’s plot. It was quite cinematic with cut scenes taken right out of the Academy Award winning motion picture. There was no mistaking that it originated as a console video game. From the button-mashing combat to the unlockable characters and interviews, it showed its console roots. For my taste, I’m not sure that was completely a good thing. Like XIII, the last game I finished, it had a limited save game system. Once again, I was forced to rely on checkpoints. That isn’t so bad but the game can be very difficult at times. A little experimentation was involved as I had to reply several of the levels to get through them. Accepting it for what it was, however, The Return of the King was a solid third-person action title with some thrilling and enjoyable moments.