LEGO The Lord of the Rings PlayStation 3
User Score
8.5 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 45 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 40 out of 45
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 45
  3. Negative: 5 out of 45

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  1. Xatio87
    Jan 28, 2013
    3
    Being an avid fan of all the past Lego games, I was surprised when I picked this one up and found that the standard Lego game recipe got old really quickly. I've heard other people make this remark about previous games, but I could run through Lego Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Batman, and Pirates over and over without losing interest. The biggest difference in this case is humour. it just doesn't have it. There are a few spots where I'll chuckle to myself about what a character has done, but most of the opportunities to make a funny joke or poke at the scene go unnoticed. Some of the great lines in the movies are cut out of the video game, of course to allow you to play through the three movies in less than 9 hours (near 11 or 12 for extended I believe).

    On the positive side, there are still some core mechanics that are there from previous Lego games where you bust bricks, take control of other characters, lots of unlocking of characters and extras, and amazing animation. Every game that TT comes out with keeps getting more amazing to look at. Even the textures and lighting are amazing allowing me to believe I'm playing the movies.

    As great as the game may look and as amazing as the animation is they don't live up to the fact that the core Lego game experience feels off. The game does feel like Middle Earth, but unfortunately, in the end, it makes me want to actually watch Lord of the Rings instead of playing this game.    … Expand
  2. duncanaus
    Dec 7, 2012
    3
    The PS3 version is riddled with glitches and requires constant backtracking. This makes story mode an annoying slog, as your progress is constantly lost. The graphics are pretty, but the levels are on the small side, and skip a lot of the cool stuff from the movies. Lego LOTR is okay, but definitely not up with the best.
  3. MusicxxAddicted
    Feb 11, 2013
    3
    Alot of people seem to forget that we're reviewing a game and not the movies, resulting in some dumbfounded euphoria and fanboyism for the series. Now let's talk (seriously) about the game: first thing I noticed and bothered me was the actual use of voices (haven't played a LEGO game since Batman, which was amazing!). It didn't bother me they used the original voices instead of a lego-translated simspeak, but the fact that there was no clear basic animation on the character's faces (characters being scared but having a big grin on their face) made me feel the designers didn't know what they were doing. Also when Frodo and Sam are running of Mount Doom, they're just smiling their faces (maybe they're on shrooms thinking they're in this warm spring full of butterflies and Sam thnks he's running towards Daisy? I dunno).
    The game takes endless amounts of loading while the graphics are still the same as in previous games. I know, it's all polished in HD but I don't care. These games aren't about graphics and could've easily run alot faster with a 720p resolution (no one would notice the difference unless they saw it with their own eyes on the box), this takes away alot of the immersion and makes me regret skipping cinematics because it takes longer to load the level when I do instead of just watching it (so it has to load AGAIN?!).
    The game isn't clear about the jobs system and doesn't even really help you with the hints it gives while loading (or when having tips on in-game). Some people may find this good and the game makes you wanna try things out, but just simply stating "strong characters can pull orange levers" and not succeeding until I find out on the internet you need to use an orc-type character or Saruman makes me feel dumb. Another argument is that for all other things you need specific characters, the game just blurts it out (you get near arrows, an obvious target for Legolas, "hey, maybe you should use Legolas to fire arrows at those targets?"... NO SHERLOCK!) so why couldn't they do the same with the orange handles? Or the mithril objects? Why does the game suddenly try to be difficult when it's overly easy for the rest of the time? This is -again- NOT the object of LEGO games. Why can't the game just say "use an orc-type character to pull orange levers"? I'm just saying.
    There are many other frustrations that this game gave me while playing (glitching graphics, glitching gameplay, another loading screen) that made me feel this game was very rushed and just a cheap cash-in for Tt on LoTR fans.

    Now let's talk about some good aspects of the game: the game dares to not always follow the story blindly (Sam fighting the Uruk hai before Shelob) resulting in better gameplay (you can kill the uruk to replenish your health when fighting Shelob). The only part I missed was the escape of Merry and Pippin from the orc tribe and finding Treebeard, which I thought would've been alot more fun to play than actually digging up three objects with Aragorn and then getting a cutscene. I understand they did this to introduce Aragorn's special ability of tracing objects into the gameplay, but this could've been easily scratched. This brings me to my next point: the game is very varied in its gameplay and it's an open world, this fits Middle Earth perfectly. However sometimes it feels too big, having me changing characters and actually performing the task become a 50/50 chore (and the characters need to load too,... wut?). There are so many objects it feels more like an rpg than a lego game, a good innovation in itself that fits lord of the rings in itself. BUT after a while you'll start to feel like an errand boy going from A to B, back to A, and suddenly you have to go to point Z (thank God for fast travel, where loading is kinda fast).
    The ending cuts at Aragorn being the king he's supposed to be and never tells us about Frodo leaving Middle Earth. Although this is a minor detail for a kid oriented game, it makes me feel what the entire game did: nothing. There's no immersion into the story and the game makes you end up feeling very bland. The game's bland. The game balances because of these things between "hey, this game's cool" and "I wanna rip my eyeballs out! this If you haven't played this game yet, save the money and watch the films again. That's what the game makes you feel like doing anyway.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
82 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. Toronto Sun
    Mar 6, 2013
    80
    In addition to the excellent musical score from Jackson’s trilogy playing while you smash stone as Gimli or conjure blocks as Gandalf, LEGO LOTR is the first of the LEGO games to use the voices and acting from the films.
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  2. DarkStation
    Feb 4, 2013
    80
    LEGO Lord of the Rings is easily one of my favorite LEGO games. I’m not sure if it’s just the source material or the fact that the game is actually really fun and evolves the LEGO franchise in significant ways, but this is definitely worth playing for any fan of the previous LEGO games or Lord of the Rings films.
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  3. Playstation Official Magazine Australia
    Jan 28, 2013
    80
    Though the formula hasn't exactly been built from the green ground piece up, Telltale has gone above and beyond our expectations. Take, for example, the fact that Middle-earth is one gigantic, seamless hub world that can be be trodden across (or fast traveled through) from one end to the other. [January 2013, p64]
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