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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, November 28, 2002

MIXED MEDIA
'Two Towers' plays like movie

By John Breeden II
Washington Post

"The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 2. $50.
"The Two Towers" follows the saga of the one ring from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth trilogy, but as portrayed in the movie adaptations of the first two books. (Vivendi Universal's upcoming "Fellowship of the Ring" title is based on the original novel.)

Perhaps in keeping with this film-centric approach, the graphics on "Two Towers" excel beyond expectation. Locations from the film are beautifully and accurately rendered, and DVD scenes seamlessly fade into real game screens — it quickly feels as if you are "playing the movie" instead of a game based on it. (The developers even got the movie's leading actors to do voice-over work, a rarity in tie-in games.)

The action unfolds from a third-person perspective as you play Aragorn the ranger, Legolas the elf or Gimli the dwarf. Battles are intense and often unremitting: In the Mines of Moria, for instance, a steady stream of orcs pours into a dimly lighted tomb, with only Gimli's ax, Aragorn's sword and Legolas' bow to stop them. Controls, however, are easy to learn in a helpful tutorial.

As your character advances, he learns new moves, but the game also lets you replay completed stages with different characters; you can gain experience for them and see whether they could have done the job better. The game includes footage from the Two Towers movie and director and actor commentaries, but even gamers with no love for Tolkien will have a hard time finding a better action game for the PS2.

Bottom line: This is one game to bind them all.