Electronic Arts set the cinema-to-console bar high with its The Lord of the Rings games. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King contained unprecedented amounts of movie footage, celebrity voice work and director participation. With The Lord of the Rings, The Third Age it turns the volume down on the cross-over appeal and aims squarely at RPG fans eager to roll the dice in Peter Jackson's version of Middle-earth.

The adventure is divided into three distinct parts, hence the old, working title The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Each act shares its climax with that of its respective film, only here players will be seeing the story from another angle. That's because The Lord of the Rings, The Third Age's characters aren't members of the Fellowship, but rather little-known folks, based on actual onscreen performers (though you'd actually be hard-pressed to spot them on your DVDs) whose adventures parallel those of Frodo and the gang.

Like most citizens of Middle-earth, your party knows nothing of the Fellowship's mission to destroy the One Ring. In fact, the first playable character, Berethor, is a Gondorian charged with following Boromir to make sure that the son of Gondor successfully returns the rediscovered magical weapon to its "rightful owners." As is common in RPGs, consequences eventually steer Berethor in a direction much different from that of his original quest. And, as usual, he eventually meets other adventurers who join his side. A Dwarf named Hadhad, Elegost the Ranger and the Elven Idrial round off the party on display at E3.


Fans of Gandalf and company need not despair, though. Your party crosses paths with characters from then films just in time for many of the trilogy's high-impact moments. You'll be able to fight along side Aragorn and Gimli at Helm's Deep and help Gandalf the Grey take a chunk out of the Balrog in Moria. No matter how hard you try, though, you won't be able to change the course of the movies. Though your party gets its fair share of blows in on the fiery beast, you will eventually part ways with the legendary opponents. Gandalf and the Balrog have a date on the mountainside and you're not invited.

Berethor and his crew still have plenty of opportunities to do smiting of their own. The second battle sequence shown at E3 pitted the good guys against a pair of Cave Trolls, one of which is outfitted with a drum. The turn-based battle system plays much like your average RPG, like Final Fantasy VII for example. One at a time you select attacks (or actions) for your characters, let the enemies have their turn, then rinse, lather and repeat. Like the aforementioned Square Enix game, The Lord of the Rings, The Third Age has melee attacks, magic (called "craft") and over-the-top creature summons. Idrial can cast "Battle Steed" which summons a watery horse (like the flood that overcomes the Nazgul in The Fellowship of the Ring) to slap enemies with a blast of H2O.

The characters move through dungeons, like the Mines of Moria, in much the same way they moved in EA's movie tie-in games. In fact, many of the locations and people bear a striking resemblance to those in their two games. I wouldn't be surprised if many of the same character models and textures from the games were carried over to this title.

The Lord of the Rings, The Third Age has its own version of overworlds, such as The Plain of Rohan, which you navigate as one character on horseback. This is where the game opens up and allows players to explore and visit towns. There you'll be able to uncover quests, sub-quests and side stories, only about half of which will be mandatory. When above ground or moving through dungeons monster attacks will come in three ways. Random encounters will spring baddies on you. Scripted encounters will occur when you cross certain lines. There will also be roaming enemies which you can chose to attack by simply approaching them.

All of the key traits of contemporary RPGs will be present in this title. Elemental attributes play a role in items and attacks. Equipment, such as armor and weapons, will have varying rarities. Arcane objects from the Second Age will be more powerful, effective and rare than everyday Third Age stuff. Equipping said armor and weapons will change the look of your characters.

The most interesting wrinkle in the RPG blueprint that The Lord of the Rings, The Third Age offers is the ability to play both sides -- Dark and Light. Make no mistake, we're not talking moment-to-moment alignment tweaking as in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. This game promises to allow players to play through the game as the bad, guys. That's right. You'll get to pick the Balrog's attacks and get some payback on that bearded fool. Or will you? The Dark Side's storyline won't be as narratively deep or character driven as the primary Light Side narrative. There's even a chance that you won't be allowed to detrimentally effect the course of Tolkien and Jackson's intended storyline. Sorry, Charlie.

Still, EA's efforts to deliver a high-quality RPG to The Lord of the Rings fans seem admirable. Sure, there doesn't seem to be much innovation here. It's sticking to mostly tried and true genre conventions. At least EA's signature production values will remain present in the game. Ian McKellen is being tapped to record new narration to accompany the movie scenes that will make it into the game, in an effort to freshen and recontextualize the scenes to the RPGs perspective.

This game is really bad.............