The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Preview

On December 17^th of this year, Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema will sally forth and unfold the next chapter in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The previous installment, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, grossed almost $900 million worldwide and is currently fifth on the all-time blockbuster box-office chart. An impressive number considering that the Fellowship of the Ring follows closely behind in seventh place with an 860 dollar income worldwide. The final chapter is looking to blow those numbers away, possibly being the first movie ever to gross 1 billion dollars. About the time that The Two Towers was released, EA and Stormfront Studios produced a next-generation console game based on the successful movie license. Although the game didn’t receive much critical acclaim, it managed to generate considerable earnings for those lucky dudes at EA and the game did well on sales charts in Europe as well as the US. Now, Electronic Arts continues this hugely popular franchise, developing the game for the PC and the remaining next-generation consoles.

Both the movie and the game are going to follow some of the major events that were taken from the epic trilogy Lord of the Rings. Enthusiastic Tolkien-worshipers are no doubt well acquainted with the course events that went on throughout the books. But, the storyline follows Tolkien’s tales only to a certain degree, or to put it another way, the plot of the game will greatly depend on the movie adaptation. Of course, it is good to note that the movie versions follow the events of the books with only minute details lost. Without revealing too much of the things to come, I’ll try to summarize what’s next on the storyboard.

After the Ent siege of Isengard and the downfall of Saruman and his Uruk-Hai warriors, the fellowship continues to support the efforts against the Dark Lord, Sauron. From here on, according to Tolkien’s book that is, Return of the King takes us through four separate stories. Gandalf and Pippin head to the White City of Minas Tirith, Merry travels with King Theoden of Rohan, Sam, Frodo, and Gollum carry on their perilous journey into Mordor, and finally Aragorn, Gimlil, and Legolas head out through the Path of the Dead... Well, if we consult the book on that... just a sec... yep, this is probably best case scenario. (Ed.- Gotta have that fix.) Anyhow, the game lets players get around through the rich environments of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Events will most likely unfold throughout Minas Tirith, the White City, the walls of which can clearly be seen in the screenshots, the Fields of Pelenor, Mordor, possibly the Gap of Rohan, Lebennin and others... Hm, these last two are purely speculation on my part, so don’t make too much of it at this point. The levels are expected to be somewhat restricted, but nothing different than what we’ve seen the previous game Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Gameplay wise, it’s safe to assume that the game will offer a similar combat system like we’ve seen in LOTR: TTT. One thing though, Return of the King allows a wider range of characters for players to control. To put it simply, you’ll get a chance to experience the breath-taking story from the perspective of five different characters including Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Sam and Frodo. Many issues are still unknown here. For instance, what sort of weapons and special abilities were bestowed to characters like Sam and Frodo? Will both be able to use the ring? Well, you never know, but it’s a possibility. After Sam and Frodo run march into Shelob’s Lair, unaware of the (Ed.- SHHH!) Whoops, may have said too much there. (Ed.- Forget about Shelob, you never heard of Shelob, there is no Shelob!) At any rate, using the One Ring will clearly a part of the gameplay at some point, it’s simply inevitable. An important note here is that the developers mean to maintain the action-oriented gameplay that was an integral part of the previous title.

So, whatever may have happened in the novel or on the big screen, the game still remains an action-packed ride through the realms of Gondor and Mordor, during the turbulent times of Middle-earth. The basic gameplay in Return of the King represents sort of a mix of good old Golden Axe and, say, Devil May Cry (well, that’s the way EA described it anyway). Of course, you can also expect a touch of RPG-like features, which denotes that characters will gain experience and special moves throughout non-stop combat. One of the major improvements over The Two Towers is the game’s increased longevity and replayability. At present we can only assume that this could include additional levels and plenty more characters and bonus levels to unlock.

Visually, we think the game has already shown extreme potential; just take a gander at those sweet-looking screenshots. Characters have been beautifully modeled and they obviously represent a truthful portrayal of the actors who portrayed the characters on the big screen. NPC’s, the environments, and other background details look very rich in detail (and I rather like that Gondorian armor). Recently one of game producers at EA revealed that the designers are working very closely with the filmmakers, which gave them great insight into the direction of the film. They were lucky to have access to the scripts, drama, plans, props, costumes, thousands of production photos, work-in-progress visual effects, etc. With such abundant information and resources from the filmmaking crew, the developers are going to have an easier job in attempting to bring Middle-earth to PC screens once more.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is being development by EA's Redwood Shores Studio for PlayStation 2 Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and PC platforms (all platforms are getting their incarnation of Return of the King on the same day). The game is set for a worldwide release in late 2003 - as always it is scheduled to correspond with the movie launch. To be honest, I’m just happy that EA decided to make a PC version as well, finally...