The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

I like this game despite its many flaws and annoyances, its often outdated technologies, graphics, laughable character models and voice acting...a truly mixed bag.

This game will only suit hardcore fans of the J.R.R. Tolkien series.

Hardcore RPG fans may find it a bit on the easy side and it's not a particularly long game, but there's definitely more to it than EA's effort despite not having movie clips throughout.

The game suffers from some repetitive missions with a lot of "fetch this and find that," plus many of the camera angles are finicky.

While the game may not fully reach its heroic potential, it does competently adapt the greatest sword-and-sorcery epic of all time. [Dec 2002, p.162]

It doesn't hold a candle to the Xbox version in terms of visual appeal. [Dec 2002, p.82]

The general lack of interesting and fun gameplay makes this a hard sell.

But why Surreal Software decided to make the playing the game such hard work is anyone's guess. [GamesMaster]

Captures the beauty and magic of Tolkien’s world...visually. Once you pick up the controller, you’ll find your enthusiasm slipping quickly away.

Even though series fans may be pleased with the inclusion of missing scenes from the movie and faithfulness to the overall plot, I smell a rush job to the market here.

The focus should have been on making the experience as exciting as possible, not just accurate. [Holiday 2002, p.50]

Merely an average adventure game with a high-profile license attached.

True fans of the books will look past the problems and enjoy the game. [Dec 2002, p.210]

One boring, predictable and by-the-numbers attempt to cash-in on the popularity of Peter Jackson’s movies.

Couple the control and camera issues with the bland and slapped-together feel of the graphics, the glitchy control scheme, and a protagonist who does nothing for long stretches of time and then runs from danger, and it's hard to come up with a single reason (other than the big Lord of the Rings logo on the box) why anyone would want to purchase this game.

The lackluster presentation combined with the clunky and often frustrating gameplay makes Fellowship of the Ring more of a chore to play than anything else.

The story is delivered witih all the emotion of a grade school play. This woldn't be such a bad thing, if the gameplay weren't absolutely abysmal. [Dec 2002, p.122]