The Lego video game franchise has seen eight installments now and last oat recent one, Lego Batman 2, brought some much needed life into the repetitive structure. Now Traveller’s Tales hope to have the same success with their ninth installment, Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately though it appears as though they have tackled material that was beyond their capabilities.
By now if you’re a fan of the Lego games, then you already know what to expect when it comes to the gameplay side of things and it’s no different here. There are a few additions that add to the length of the game if you want to 100% the game, these are side quests that can be found off the beaten path as well as the blacksmith, which can be used to create tools with Mithril, a precious metal in the universe of Middle-Earth. Apart from these additions you’re getting the same Lego game you purchase every time, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as the game is still fun to play but it needs to display more innovation. Whilst the gameplay hasn’t changed, there are some elements that have gone a bit downhill, for instance the puzzles have been simplified down to the level of basic solving. I can understand that the Lego games are aimed at children, but a lot of adults play these games as well, so there needs to be some system in place to tackle this situation, perhaps a difficultly level? The platforming though, the most essential part of the game is, at some points frustratingly bad. Even if you determine the jump right, you will more than likely just slide off the edge when you land, this happens far too often and is quite frankly unforgivable.
If there is one word that would describe the trilogy of films it would be “Epic” and this is something that the game does not capitalize on when it comes to the main story missions, weather it’s due to the limitation of the engine or something else, the game just feels timid in comparison with less enemies to fight and not enough scope to the levels. The only addition to the collectable side of things is the 250 Mithril bricks which can be found around the Hub of Middle-Earth, you still have the ten chests which can be found in each level, the red bricks, bricks for collecting all the studs in each level and finishing a level etc. There is a lot to collect in the game that will keep players busy for weeks.
When not doing the story missions, you are free to explore the wonderfully created Middle-Earth, problem is unless you really want to 100% the game there really is no incentive to do so, the side missions are not very interesting and there are not any characters to interact with. This leads to a somewhat lifeless place no matter how good it looks.There are over sixty characters to collect, but when each character falls into a character class, is there really any point to collecting them all?
The biggest problem with the game though is the subject material. With previous titles the material that the games have been based on have always had that partial humor to them, in a way that would work well with the inclusion of Lego. The Lord of the Rings is the first mature license that Traveller’s Tales has tackled and the first game to feature original voiceover work from the films. Already there is going to be a problem when it comes to the balancing between the maturity of the subject and the humor of Lego. With the addition of the original soundtrack as well, this is no longer a balancing act but a struggle. To try and minimize this, the cutscenes in the game are short and cut a lot of important parts out of the film, which dampens the story. It would have been nice if they had taken parts from the books to have given us a different experience to the film but because they didn’t we can only compare it to the status of the films. When watching the cutscenes and you hear the astounding score from Howard Shore and the serious tonal quality to the voices, you can’t help but smile, but when the humour happens that only Lego can do, you remember you’re playing a Lego game.
If you’re a fan of the Lego games then there is no doubt that you will enjoy this game and if you’re a fan of Lord of the Rings then you might just want to stick to the films. The next game really needs to show more innovation and tackle a series that would be ore appropriate, something like….. Back to the Future.