The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (video game)

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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring Coverart.png
Developer(s) The Whole Experience Surreal Software
Publisher(s) Universal Interactive
Platform(s) PlayStation 2, Xbox, GBA, PC
Release date(s) Game Boy Advance [1]
USA September 24, 2002
PAL November 8, 2002
Xbox [2]
USA September 26, 2002
PAL November 8, 2002
PlayStation 2 [3]
USA October 16, 2002
PAL December 6, 2002
Windows [4]
USA October 22, 2002
PAL November 8, 2002
Genre(s) Third-person action
Mode(s) Single player
Rating(s) ESRB: Teen (T)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is the name of three different video game adaptations of J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Fellowship of the Ring, an Xbox version developed by WXP, a PC and PS2 version developed by Surreal, and a GBA version developed by Pocket Studios. All versions of the game are published by Black Label Games, an imprint of Vivendi Universal Interactive.

The games are adaptations of the novel rather than the 2001 film of the same name. The video game includes sections of the novel that were not included in the movie, such as Frodo Baggins' encounter with Tom Bombadil. Thus the games are not in the same series as The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by Electronic Arts, which are based upon the two films of the same names from The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers also contained some levels set in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

This is also one of the games not owned by Electronic Arts, which later received licensing rights of Lord of the Rings Video games.

Contents

[edit] Characters

The three playable characters in the game are Aragorn, Gandalf and Frodo Baggins. Each with their own weapons (which vary throughout the game). Frodo uses 3 melee weapons at different stages in the game: a walking stick at the start of the game, a dagger (from the Barrow Downs) after defeating a ghost like creature and a short sword, Sting, which is given to him by Bilbo. Frodo can also pick up stones and throw them in a ranged attack, as well as utilizing the Ring to give him invisibility. Aragorn uses a long sword, Andúril, and a bow. Gandalf uses his sword Glamdring and his array of magical spells: Fiery Blast, Staff Strike, Chain Lightning, Heal, and Attract.

[edit] Meters

There are meters in the game found on the top right and left corners of the screen. For Frodo, at the top left is health and the top right is purity. When Frodo wears the One Ring his purity goes down. Wear it for too long, and a Black Rider finds you. Aragorn only has a health meter. While Gandalf has a health meter and a spirit meter in the same place of a purity meter, which reduces when casting spells. It goes up when he drinks Miruvor.

[edit] Enemies

The enemies in the game are: Barrow-wights, Black riders, Ruffians, cave-trolls, stone trolls, Orcs, Goblins, Uruk-hai, giant spiders, wolves and wargs. The bosses in the game are the Balrog, the Old Barrow-wight, the Fell beast, Bill Ferny, Harry Goatleaf, Old Man Willow, Nazgûl and the Watcher in the Water.

[edit] Items

There are many items in the game. One of them is mushrooms, commonly found in The Shire. Another is Cram, a bread made by the men of Dale. It can be found in Bree, Weathertop, The Troll Shaws, Orc Dam, Moria, Hollin, and Amon Hen. Lembas is a waybread made by the elves of Lothlórien. It can be found in the same places as Cram. Another item is Miruvor, a drink to replenish Gandalf's spirit meter. Lembas, Cram, and Mushrooms all replenish health.

[edit] Synopsis

The narrative of the game can be roughly divided into four acts, each played out by one of the three main characters, with some variation. The first act deals with Frodo's journey to Bree. It begins peacefully in the Shire as Frodo has to make the final arrangements for his departure. Although there are many optional quests involving the inhabitants of Bywater and Hobbiton, the main story focuses on the selling of Bag End. Once this is complete and the Ring is retrieved Frodo must escape the Shire undetected by Black Riders to meet with his companions at Maggot's Farm.

The Old Forest

Frodo must find Merry, Sam and Pippin who have lost themselves in a forest labyrinth. However giant spiders lurk behind the trees, and the forest has a mind of its own. Once he finds all of his companions he ventures to the Withywindle and must free Merry and Pippin from the clutches of Old Man Willow, the first boss. Finally Tom Bombadil intervenes, rescuing the Hobbits and setting them off in search of 12 water lilies whilst defending themselves from the giant spiders. Once recovered Tom takes them to his house to recuperate.

The Barrow-downs After a brief time with Tom Bombadil and his wife, Goldberry, Frodo and his companions journey to the Barrow-Downs. Frodo's companions are again lost (probably taken while he slept) and Frodo must find them in the fog of the wight-haunted downs. Along the way Frodo encounters Barrow-Wights, ghost-like creatures that claw at him.In the final Barrow-Down Frodo finds his friends and the Westernesse Dagger, which he uses to fight the Old Barrow-Wight. The Old Barrow-Wight is much stronger than the others and spews mist at Frodo. Eventually, Tom Bombadil finds them again. He kills the Old Barrow-Wight with a spell, and guides the hobbits to Bree.

Act Two starts in Bree when it is apparent that Merry is missing and gameplay switches to Aragorn. As Aragorn begins playing he will have to fight a boss, Bill Ferny. Bill Ferny carries a large pike. Once he is dead, he sets out to find Merry again. Having found Merry he then hunts for objects to construct Hobbit decoys to fool the Ringwraiths and wild men. Harry Goatleaf releases wolves that Aragorn has to fight in Bree. After fighting a few wolves, Aragorn will have to confront Harry Goatleaf. After Aragorn kills him, he gets some of the objects he needs to construct decoys. After finding almost all the objects, Aragorn meets 2 wild men attacking Bob, a stable-cleaning hobbit. Aragorn kills them and enters The Prancing Pony.

Weathertop

Aragorn escorts Frodo and Sam to the summit of Weathertop. On the way Wargs and Orcs are first introduced into the game, they are extremely fast at attacking 'beware'. Aragorn must battle a troll on the summit before returning to the campsite to protect Frodo from the attacks of the Ringwraiths armed with a burning brand.

The Troll Shaws

Aragorn must clear the area of enemies including orcs, wargs and about 5 Trolls. Once all enemies are defeated Glorfindel takes the company to Rivendell. In other versions the enemies are mainly goblins(including the Xbox version).

Act 3 begins with Gandalf as the playable character as he searches for the doors of Moria. As he attempts to open them, play switches to Aragorn as he fends off the Watcher in the Water before returning to Gandalf on entering Moria. in the other system versions you must defeat the watcher in the water with Gandalf. With Gimli the dwarf as a companion, Gandalf must navigate the dark maze of the Dwarrowdelf fighting off the orcs and trolls that stalk its shadows. In other versions you do not fight all enemies like trolls and so not have Gimli as a companion at all. The game becomes more objective based when the Fellowship reaches Balin's Tomb from which Gandalf must find an escape route as the other characters fend off the trolls, using slabs of stone which redirect the light onto the huge keyhole, and the only thing to open the humungous door is the light, this is a real puzzerler. Play then switches to Frodo in the 2nd hall, retaining Gimli (no Gimli in other versions) as a companion, who must find a way through the various ladders, walkways and bridges to reach and open the gates on the other side. Act 3 reaches its conclusion on the bridge of Khazad-dûm where Gandalf duels with the Moria boss, a Balrog.

Act 4 sees Aragorn resume the role of playable character after a brief interlude in Lothlórien. First there is a short level in which he spies out an orc-dam on the river Anduin in which the game introduces its final minor enemy, the Uruk-hai. Play then moves onto the final level of the game at Amon Hen in which Aragorn battles his way through most of the previously-encountered enemies to the Seeing Seat. The very summit has to be reached twice, first as Frodo who must get to the top of a stone hill while other members of the fellowship are dueling orcs. Aragorn battles the Games final boss, the Fell Beast (Nazgûl) using his sword and bow and arrow at the top of the hill. The game end in a cut-scene where Legolas shoots the winged Nazgûl with an arrow. You see lady Galadriel looking into her fountain (as she did in the first cut-scene) and the game ends. You unlock infinite health and ammo for the next time you play.

[edit] Voice Cast

[edit] Game Boy Advance port

A Game Boy Advance version was later released in September 2002 to North American audiences, and to Europe two months later. It greatly differed from its counterparts on other consoles, most notably for its RPG-style battle system. However, the game was poorly received by critics. Most of the complaints came from the extremely slow gameplay. It was also notorious for its poor quality; the game contained many glitches which greatly hindered the player's progress and sometimes even forced them to restart the entire game.

[edit] Sequel

A sequel was planned for this game, and was to be titled The Lord of the Rings: The Treason of Isengard, which was a discarded title for the book The Two Towers. The game was in development, but was cancelled before its release.

[edit] References

  1. ^ GBA Release dates. GameFAQs. Retrieved on February 9, 2008.
  2. ^ Xbox Release dates. GameFAQs. Retrieved on February 9, 2008.
  3. ^ PS2 Release dates. GameFAQs. Retrieved on February 9, 2008.
  4. ^ PC Release dates. GameFAQs. Retrieved on February 9, 2008.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_The_Fellowship_of_the_Ring_(video_game)"