What's great about this system is that players can progress through the game by leveling up each character one after the other, instead of linearly progressing to the end, and then starting over with each character. The character's health and level are indicated on screen. So, as new character levels are earned, new skills and attacks become available. Characters also progressively increase their character levels, like in an RPG. Some are permanent things, such as increased strength, speed or more powerful arrows, while the bulk of the items are attack moves, such as four-button combos, get-up attacks or rushes. After each level, players can then buy new skills with their points. Perform the same move repeatedly, use single-hit attacks, and take lots of damage, and your result is less encouraging. Use lots of combos and ward off enemies by parrying or dodging, and you earn high points. These grades, or style points, are based on the variety of combos you use and the brevity of hits you incur. Much like Devil May Cry, you earn grades - fair, good, excellent, and perfect - for your performance. What makes this game interesting, far more interesting than, say The Bouncer, is that there is strategy, management and strong reward-incentives behind the action. It means you are fighting all the time, constantly honing your combat skills. ![]() Gameplay The Two Towers is a beat-'em-up to the bone, but that doesn't mean it's dumb, shallow or easy. They leave you hanging, knowing what could or should have been kept it. Although if you have seen the Fellowship of the Ring, the movie scenes corralled for this game are heavily, sometimes bluntly and wincingly cut. Several scenes from the The Two Towers appear as a nice bonus, since the movie isn't even out yet. Still, the game's core frontend accurately reflects the movie's dark tones, grim characters and grave themes throughout its 12-plus levels with excellent scenery, movie stills and actor shots. ![]() Legolas is quicker to take damage, but he's also quicker on the attack. For instance, Elijah Wood is a great interview because he is young enough to know games, while Ian McKellan and Viggo Mortenson clearly know little to nothing about them, and oddly they can barely act their way out of the interviews! It's wealthy with unique assets, even if the interviews range drastically in quality. The whole game is a shrine of movie images, movies, art and interviews, taken from both Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, offering these very assets as rewards for beating various stages of the game. As for the game style, it's clearly distinctive from Universal's title. Instead of changing from FMV to in-game models at the normal juncture, the FMV clips merge into the in-game scenes before the game starts, sustaining the level of disbelief, carefully fooling you into believing you're playing the movie. Before each level gamers see movie footage from LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring and LOTR: The Two Towers, which the developers then perfectly modeled and choreographed into in-game cutscenes. The best example is in the telling of the story. It's risen to the same quality level, set forth by Director Peter Jackson and crew, and in doing so has created a cleanly designed game, a beautifully dark and accurate game steeped in Middle-earth foliage, and one that's heavily invested in the movie's resources, integrating movie and gameplay like few games have done before. Not to take away anything from EA or Stormfront, but in many ways EA has take its production cue from New Line Cinema. As a result, the game extracts the best qualities of Devil May Cry and The Bouncer (believe it not) than Golden Axe, yet it's clearly still a heavy hack-and-slash-a-thon if ever there was one. That one is an action-adventure game, while EA, partnering with Stormfront Studios, has assuredly created a visceral, high-action beat-'em-up that hugs closely to the concept of Golden Axe, yet layers the game with options, rewards, multiple playable characters, and a progressive combat system. ![]() Presentation EA's game Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is based on the movie, which is different than the Universal Interactive game, based on the J.R.R. But EA has skillfully evaded the movie-license trap, side-stepping around the usual problems and tearing into a new formula, which is using a movie license to make an excellent game. Tolkien movie license of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is theoretically the perfect target for this failing formula. ![]() For the largest independent videogame publisher in the world - layered with management levels and executives trying to add in Matrix-like spin scenes - a game based on the J.R.R.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |