Lego Lord of the Rings (PS3)
Mar. 22nd, 2019 08:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroLego pieces can make up anything, including Middle-Earth. If you’ve played a Lego game before, you know what to expect.
For the most part, this tracks similarly to the other Lego games—level-based, lots of puzzle-solving, goofy reenactments of movie scenes, general inability to get a game over, etc. This has much more “world map” than some of the other games, with a multitude of quests to do and mithril blocks to find. Their willingness to let the two players split-screen to different parts of the world, or do unrelated tasks in a level is impressive. (And a good way to get around solo areas, like Gandalf's fight with the balrog.) The fact that unlocking a character doesn't necessarily let you use them on the world map is annoying—I appreciated that I could get tools that replaced various characters' special abilities, but that doesn't solve the frustration of “Gah, that's a Gimli block, and I'm stuck with the hobbits right now!” (For that matter, several of the most important tools, such as the Mithril Fireworks, aren’t a substitute for anyone’s abilities and aren’t realistically available until the postgame.)
The troublesome playtesting of these games reared its ugly head when we found a spot in the swamps that trapped Sam in an inescapable place and we had to restart the level. For that matter, the bonus stage had a similar spot I got frozen in, but also had a cave Jethrien could enter to reset my position. Fighting glitches with annoying features!
Of the many, many items to collect, I’m pretty sure our favorite was the Disco Phial, a substitute for Frodo’s Phial of Galadrial for exploring dark places. Because in addition to lighting the darkness with swirling colors, it plays music and your characters dance. “RELEASE THE RIVER!”
Overall: We spent a bit more time on this than some of the other games, exploring the overworld and collecting blocks and tools, but I found it frustrating that you didn’t automatically get everything you needed to solve each level in free play. I think the Pirates Lego game remains our favorite.
For the most part, this tracks similarly to the other Lego games—level-based, lots of puzzle-solving, goofy reenactments of movie scenes, general inability to get a game over, etc. This has much more “world map” than some of the other games, with a multitude of quests to do and mithril blocks to find. Their willingness to let the two players split-screen to different parts of the world, or do unrelated tasks in a level is impressive. (And a good way to get around solo areas, like Gandalf's fight with the balrog.) The fact that unlocking a character doesn't necessarily let you use them on the world map is annoying—I appreciated that I could get tools that replaced various characters' special abilities, but that doesn't solve the frustration of “Gah, that's a Gimli block, and I'm stuck with the hobbits right now!” (For that matter, several of the most important tools, such as the Mithril Fireworks, aren’t a substitute for anyone’s abilities and aren’t realistically available until the postgame.)
The troublesome playtesting of these games reared its ugly head when we found a spot in the swamps that trapped Sam in an inescapable place and we had to restart the level. For that matter, the bonus stage had a similar spot I got frozen in, but also had a cave Jethrien could enter to reset my position. Fighting glitches with annoying features!
Of the many, many items to collect, I’m pretty sure our favorite was the Disco Phial, a substitute for Frodo’s Phial of Galadrial for exploring dark places. Because in addition to lighting the darkness with swirling colors, it plays music and your characters dance. “RELEASE THE RIVER!”
Overall: We spent a bit more time on this than some of the other games, exploring the overworld and collecting blocks and tools, but I found it frustrating that you didn’t automatically get everything you needed to solve each level in free play. I think the Pirates Lego game remains our favorite.
