Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $29.99
Sale Price: $9.10
Today's Bonus: 70% Off

The game itself is kind of fun and even Zelda-like to some extent. Some great voice acting and iconic LOTR locations are sure to please most LOTR fans.

Now, the bad stuff. This game started as a Wii game and it was ported to PS3. The game is low-poly (blocky graphics), there is some screen tearing and the worst part is the way it implements PS Move. Unlike other Move games, you don't calibrate your Move controller when you start playing.. why? Because it doesn't use Move's tracking capabilities, instead it just uses the accelerometers the same way the Wii controller does. When you swing your Move controller, after a brief and noticeable delay, the character onscreen does a pre-canned sword swing. There is no 1:1 tracking and that is the biggest let-down. I'd almost say, if you really want this game, get the Wii version as it is $10 cheaper.

Click Here to Read More Reviews >>

Being a huge LOTR fan I played this over the weekend for the PS3 and have been totally addicted to it. Is it perfect? Not even close! For starters it makes a pretty bad first impression, the opening prologue/prelude battle really sucks, all you do is run around and swing your sword, you don't have all of the other abillities or weapons that you will pick up over the course of the game or at least if you do have them you don't know how to use them yet, the hit detection also seems off during this battle. The whole time I was thinking to myself I am really glad I only rented this. I'm playing the game with the dual shock not move and the controll set up is a little overly complicated and not ideal so it took me a little time to get use to them, there are also some sound issues at times with your footsteps sounding weird and I have noticed some screen tearing however despite all of this I pushed through the opening battle and I am glad I did because I have been having a blast with it ever since.

So what am I loving so much about it? For starters it is the kind of LOTR game i've always wanted, the 2 LOTR games back on the PS2 were cool but they pretty much just dropped you right into the midst of one of the huge battles, you hacked and slashed your way through it and then you were done but that is not the case with Aragorns Quest, several of the satges I have played through so far have been very large open areas that you can explore and not only do the main quest but also take on tons of side quests if you like. There are tons of artifacts and tokens scattered around the world to find that make you stronger as well as lore items that tell you more about the history of middle earth, these have been really cool as I have actually learned some things that I didn't know.

A lot has been made about this being a kids game, well if it is such a kids game why did it get a T for teen rating? You are still hacking tons of orcs/goblins and Uruks to death, however there is no blood or dismemberment, the game is quite easy and some of the more traumatic events like Boromir's death are no where to be found, one moment Boromir is traveling with you and the next he is gone but I think things like the Nazgul could still frighten younger children. Some people have complained about the cartoonish look of the graphics but I really like them, they kind of remind me of Fable or Overlords graphics. The hit detection problems that I mention in the opening battle are no where to be found during the rest of the game, you gain several other weapons and lots of upgrades and new moves over the course of the game so you don't have to simply button mash your way through the entire game if you don't want to.

Lastly I am really liking the story, its been 15 years since Sauron was defeated and so the whole game is Sam telling his children Aragorn's story because Aragorn is coming to the Shire for a visit and they are planning a huge party for him. In between Aragorn's story you can run around the Shire playing as Sam's son Frodo and do many side quests as well. The game features the wonderful music score from the film and Sean Astin voices Sam which is great. So despite a few technical issues and some controls that take some getting use to this is the Lord of the Rings game that I have always wanted.

Buy Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest Now

I'm writing this review about the game using Playstation Move. (it can also be played with a standard controller)

The game is actually pretty fun so far. I'm only about 3 hours into it and it seems like one of those games that you get more into as you go. I'm liking it alot so far. For the first 15 mins I was thinking, "omg...this is stupid". But that was just because I thought it was a little kids version of the game because you start off as a little kid running around with a wooden sword and do some tutorials like block flying heads of cabbage with your shield and stuff like that and I was thinking. "this is ridiculous". BUT...I kept playing anyways and it turned into a real game after you start playing as Aragorn (which happens within the first hour).

As for the motion controls, you use the nav stick in one hand, and the move controller in the other. You use the Move as your sword, and walk around with the nav stick. You also use L2 on the nav stick to raise your shield as well as evade attacks. You evade by hold your shield up with L2 while holding the stick in the direction you want to evade and then press the Move button and you'll roll/evade in that direction. There are some co-op quests to that a 2nd player can join in on by just turning on another controller when he/she is prompted to do so. I've only come across one of them so far, but there are bound to be more throughout the game though, but not mandatory to complete.

There are different types of sword attacks. Not just side to side swinging. You can swing up for a launching attack, down to knock enemies down, and side to side to hit multiple targets if you're surrounded. There are also some on screen prompts sometimes that point into a direction for you to swing that enables an extra powerfull attack if executed at the right time. Also you can use the nav stick to shield bash enemies and knock them down by clicking the nav stick button inwards. (just like you would on a normal controller). There are other types of fighting and weapons that I haven't used yet, so I can't give any input on those. I know there's at least a bow and arrow...and probably others. You can also swing your sword while exploring to destroy pottery, or barrels scattered throughout the game to find food for health and coins for spending. There are also mini-challenges that are repeatable that can earn you prizes. I haven't done any of those yet because I just wanted to get going.

The graphics are pretty good. Not the best though. I'd give them a 7.5 out of 10 rating.

The story seems awesome so far. It's pretty much the story that you've seen on the LotR movies except you're playing it through the eyes of Aragorn (aka Strider).

Another thing that I like is, it doesn't make you play standing up and it doesn't feel uncomfortable to do so, (like it probably would with some other motion games like table tennis for example). Even though you could stand up if you wanted to. I just pointed the camera downwards towards myself sitting on the couch and it works fine.

I give the controls a 9 out of ten, just because I noticed that there is about a 1/2 second delay inbetween the time you swing your arm and when the character does the motion on the screen. Maybe even a little less than 1/2 a second...but there is definately a very small delay. It doesn't really affect the gameplay though when it comes to a life or death situation. It just takes away from the realism by a very slight amount. Nothing really game hindering though.

All, in all it's seems great so far and the story is easy to fall into which is great. I hate when you have no idea what's going on in a game. That is not the case with this one.

Read Best Reviews of Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest Here

Graphics: Childish, charming, goofy and cartoon-like in a good way! I other words, great graphics. The visuals are truly stunning. Spectacular colours here. I haven't seen such colours since the Nintendo 64-days (that is one of the reasons I always liked N64 better than PS1: The colours. PS1-graphics were always a bit more grey). The Shire looks so beautiful you won't believe it. Reminds me of the "The Fellowship of the Ring"-video game from 2002 (the one that wasn't published by Electronic Arts, and that was not directly based on the movie, but the book instead)

Gameplay: Zelda-style 3D action-adventure game with a great deal of hack and slash.

Audio: Licensed to use the same music as in the movie (luckily), and I don't know if the original movie-cast has done the voice-acting here, but it sure sounds like them. Lots of funny details like Pippin screaming about breakfast all the time and probably also second breakfast.

I'd say this is kind of a better version of the 2003 video game "The Hobbit" with a different story. The game starts off right before the third Lord of the Rings-movie/book ends with Aragorn & co. standing in front of the black gate. The rest of the game is Samwise telling the story to his kids and revisiting the entire trilogy, with the player mostly playing the part of Aragorn. This is definitely one of my favourite Lord of the Rings-games, and thats saying a lot because all of the others have been superb in my opinion.

Now, all we have to do is wait for what could be the best Lord of the Rings-game yet: "The war in the North" coming in 2011.

Want Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest Discount?

Una buena compra a un bajo precio. Me gusto mucho hacer esta compra. Muchas gracias por recibir rapidamente mi compra.