Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

The year is 2002. A new movie based on a bestselling book is going to be released soon, the second in a proposed trilogy of movies. There is an air of excitement around this game. Upon its release, it sells thousands of copies and gains the esteemed title of platinum hit. It also gathers quite a sum of money in revenue, as well as pretty good reviews from video game critics. Yes, this old but good game is The Lord of The Rings the Fellowship of the Ring for the ORIGINAL XBOX GAMING CONSOLE, NOT the XBOX 360. Note: this is going to be a long review. If you want to know a lot about this video game, than read on. Thank you in advance for reading this, by the way.This review covers of course the XBOX version of the video game, and not the other versions which include the ps2, the Gameboy advance, and the pc. All other versions are COMPLETELY different from this version, the XBOX version. Okay, let me now actually start talking about the gameplay.You play through this the lord of the rings video game based on the bestselling book as three distinct characters. You begin on level one as Frodo Baggins, in the famous literary location known as the Shire. He is not your warrior type of character. Frodo is a thin, short hobbit being and really is more for exploring and puzzle solving. Although, he does wield a good number of weapons throughout the game, and can really cause damage when you need to control him to do so. His weapons include a simple walking stick, an unlimited amount of throwing stones, fireworks, (a good idea for the game that works out pretty well in the end) dwarf shots, a dagger called a Westernesse dagger, the classic dagger called Sting, eleven shots, and apples. Yes, Frodo can throw apples in this game, not actually eat them. To quote the hit comedy show that stars actress/ comedienne Tina Fey and actor Alec Baldwin: What the what? (That was a line that is said by Tina Fey's character Liz Lemon, just in case you may have forgotten) Anyway, moving on. On the Bree level, which is level three, gameplay switches to Aragorn the Ranger. Let me say this: this character is your definite beat the living daylights out of you type of character! And I type this on my computer with a smile on my lips. Aragorn is an excellent warrior on the battlefield. His main weapon is a sword, but he can also switch between a bow and different types of arrows. These include wooden, steel, fire, and later on in the game he finds eleven arrows. Yes, contrary to the ps2 version, Aragorn can run out of arrows in this version. Therefore, he must collect them during the playing of each level that he is playable within. Note: You also collect a lot of health restoring items as this character. You play as Aragorn for two levels, Bree and Weathertop, levels three and four, until level six where you switch the respective gameplay character to Gandalf the Grey, the master wizard. This is my favorite the Lord of the Rings character by far. I simply find this enigmatic fantasy character that Gandalf truly is, quite fascinating, and how his wisdom and leadership shine brightly throughout the books and movies is well done In this video game depiction of the master Grey wizard, my opinion is not different about him. Sadly, you can only play as Gandalf for one stinking level! The level, called Moria that you play as him in, is truly an amazing and outstanding piece of video game design, but I mean just one level? Well, that's how it goes I guess. Gandalf truly shines in this game with his mastery of magic. Aragorn is a master of the sword and the bow, and Frodo is a master of stealth and ranged weapons. (Frodo's dagger work is good as well, but I wouldn't call him a master at it.) The wizard's power is simply amazing, and rightly so with a spell arsenal as long as his is. His spells are as follow: fiery blast, (a small blast of fire is shot from Gandalf's hand) staff strike (a wave of magical energy and force is released from the end of Gandalf's staff after he slams it into the ground) chain lighting, (a burst of lightning shoot out of the tip of Gandalf's staff and hit several enemies in a chain reaction, hence the name.) beam of light, (his most powerful spell, Gandalf shoots a huge beam of light out of his left hand and strikes a single enemy through the chest) confusion, (this spell makes enemies that are nearby fight one another for a brief period of time) heal, (one of my favorite spells, Gandalf will use his magic staff to release a small shower of healing energy that will restore a small portion of lost health points. An extremely helpful spell, in my opinion. His last spell, which can only be unlocked by finding and giving Gandalf a special book of runes, is the spell sleep. Another one of my favorite spells, Gandalf will shoot green globes of light out of the top of his wooden staff. The globes explode in small poofs of green sleeping smoke and will put a group of enemies to sleep. Very handy for anytime that you may be surrounded by enemies. This spell, and staff strike are good for that situation. Just so that I can answer this question now in this review, YES you do fight the Balrog of Morgoth at the end of the Moria level. Now, for a list of levels.Level One: The ShireCharacter: FrodoLevel Two: The Old ForestCharacter: FrodoLevel Three: BreeCharacters: Frodo/ Aragorn Later on in the level you get to play as Aragorn the Ranger.)Level Four: Rivendell (Super short level, very easy to beat)Character: FrodoLevel Five: MoriaCharacter: Gandalf the Grey, master wizardLevel Six: LothlorienCharacter: FrodoLevel Seven: River AnduinCharacters: Frodo/ Aragorn (You get to play as Aragorn later on in the level.) That's it for levels. A bit of a short game, but the levels are a bit long, which gives this game a longer feel, at least to me. Note: no, sadly, there is not a level menu that will let you select what level to play next, or what level to go back to later on and play through again. Here is my suggestion: Since this game allows you to save your game whenever you want to, simply save your game at the very beginning of each level, or just your own choice levels, and keep the saved games saved. This worked out really well for me, personally. Now, onto graphics. Graphics: Okay, yes, this game was released for the first time in the year 2002 to multiple platforms. By today's standards, the graphics that are seen in this game are not the best. COMPARED TO TODAY, once again. Back then, in 2002, the graphics were actually really good. I remember loving the whole look of this game when I first got it. Graphics: 10/10. Excellent graphical performance. Bear in mind, I am grading the graphics from 2002, not 2011.Music/Sound: I love the game's music. Truly, the musical and sound bring this game to life. My favorite piece of music from the game would have to be Gandalf's theme, which plays during the 21st hall section of Moria as Gandalf completes the light puzzle by moving blocks of stone to direct light and open up doors. Music/Sound: 9/10. The music is awesome, but I would have liked slightly better sound effects. They are not bad, they are really superb. But if they just very slightly better, I would have given this section a ten out of ten.Level design: I think that the game designers should have won some sort of award for the design of this game. I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan, and seeing so much accuracy and attention to detail in a game based on the first book is truly incredible. EVERYTHING looks and sounds like it should. Even Moria, which is not described in a whole lot of detail in the book, is designed beautifully and remains my favorite level. The enemies are good too, and include orcs, goblins, archers, the Ring Wraiths, and many more. Level design: 10/10Replay value: I know that this is important to a lot of video gamers, so I will state my opinion here. I think that it has tremendous replay value. Just as a guess, I have replayed this game thirty times. I love the other Lord of the Rings games tremendously, but I like this one the best. I suggest that anyone replays this game, unless they hate this game, that is.And that does it for my review of The Lord of The Rings the Fellowship of the Ring for the original XBOX gaming console. Thank you again for reading this.

I have been a LOTR fan ever since the movies came out and I still play my old Xbox so, when I saw this game for such a great price I said why not.I was suprised after 2 hours or so of gameplay because I did not expect very much but this is actually an ok game. I am currently more than half way through the game and it follows the story pretty close but some of the gameplay is pretty challenging. Overall it's an ok game and I would give it a 7 out of 10 and I would only reccomend this game to big LOTR fans for others I would reccomend the second or third ones in the series.

a very enjoyable game to have and play with in the Xbox

My mistake, thought item was xbox 360 and was new. To return this item was a ridiculous expence. Instead, we donated it even though the case was in poor shape.

Awesome nostalgic game. Some people don't like it because it's based on the book and not the movie but it's IMO one of the best LOTR games out there and it's a pretty cool RPG. I personally prefer this game to the other ones that EA ruined, man I hate EA.

Gave this as a gift and the kids still play them all the time. Im not a huge console game fan (I'm more of a PC FPS player) but my nephews love these and said to rate them four stars! I gave them the whole LOTR set along with the Hobbit.

This is a good game and was in excellent condition no scratches with book and card still in it. Thanks for the game

Good game, arrived quickly and in great shape

Ordered this over a year ago and made the mistake of not playing it until now. The game completely glitches when you get to the first loading point, after a few small tasks are complete. The game froze the first three times at that point after loading for a bit. After we tried a couple of things, we got through that loading point, but then we couldn't use basic controls/check the quest log. Waste of money.

Tried to play game on 2 different Xbox systems. Disk wouldn’t read 4 out of 5 tries.

Bien

Item arrived early and in good condition