Console: PS2
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Stormfront Studios
Number of Players 1

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is actually a mix of the first movie (The Fellowship of the Ring) and the second movie (The Two Towers). I was surprised that they didn’t include the third movie (Return of the King) with this game, I think it could have made it a little longer if they did. But this is one of the few games that truly do match up to the movie.

The story goes like this. “It began with the forging of the great rings. Three were given to the elves- immortal, wisest, and fairest of craftsmen of the mountain halls. And nine, nine rings were gifted to the race of men, who above all else, desire power. For within these rings was bound the strength and will to govern each race. But they were all of them deceived. For another ring was made. In the land of Mordor, in the fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged, in secret, a master ring to control all others. And into this ring he poured his cruelty, his malice, and his will to dominate all like.” Inscribed on the ring was this, “One Ring to Rule them all, one Ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.”

Now on to the game. The game starts off with a nice little movie, then we start at the first battle in the first movie. The first fight for Middle-Earth, where the ring was cut off of Sauron’s hand. After another short movie and level you get to the point were you can play as all there characters. Each character has special moves, weaknesses, and powers that take awhile to completely learn and master, but once you do the game becomes a lot easier.

The game consists of 12 regular missions where you can play each mission 3 times under each character (Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli). 3 secret missions that you unlock after getting your character to a certain experience level. 1 more secret mission that you get after you play one of the first three secret missions with any character. After you beat that secret mission you get secret codes. There are also 11 videos, interviews, photos, and etc that you can watch after you beat a certain level, or get your character to a certain experience level.

The regular missions aren’t too hard but some could take awhile to get past. A nice feature is once you get to a certain point in each level, like to a boss, and die, the game starts you back there. Which is pretty good, because most bosses are hard. There are many creatures in every level, and each has there own strengths and weaknesses. The forces of evil include Orcs, Uruk-Hai, Ringwraiths, and Goblins. Most have armor, which doesn’t take long to destroy. But sometimes they can be hard to kill; their long weapons don’t help you when you get near them, so watch out.

The lighting could be a little better in this game, a lot of the times you can’t see your character or an enemy good enough. Also camera angles screw you over a lot. But even with those flaws this is very good game. I highly recommend that you buy or rent this game. But like I said earlier, if the third movie was included in this it would be better, since the game doesn’t take long to beat. (Only a few days, not playing constantly.)

Overal: 8/10.

Review by: Yankee35643