metacritic.com: Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, The (GameBoy Advance)

Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, The (GameBoy Advance)

The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age roleplaying game is an epic quest in which players take on the roles of new characters choosing their own path through Middle-earth while interacting with the heroes and villains of the trilogy. Based on New Line Cinema and Peter Jackson's acclaimed film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, The Third Age videogame allows players to adventure through Middle-earth, building a party of heroes as they journey. Players battle on the side of the Fellowship, but can unlock additional encounters where they fight on the side of Sauron as they progress. In the game, players interact with the characters of the Fellowship in a unique structure, taking on individual quests while intersecting the major events of the film trilogy that drive the story forward. Parties traverse through both familiar and seldom-glimpsed locations, using an innovative turn-based battle system as they fight, encountering the demonic Balrog in the Mines of Moria, defending the fallen city of Osgiliath, or trying to destroy Helm's Deep. [Electronic Arts]

Electronic Arts
Role-Playing Game
Players: 1
T (Teen)
Developer: Griptonite Games
Released November 2, 2004

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

67 / 100

Critic Reviews

100	GBA Central Comparable in many ways to Fire Emblem, The Third Age betters it in many ways, offering a more in-depth character management system, deeper tactical options and a greater variety in mission objectives.
82	Nintendo Power The story is very engaging. [Jan 2005, p.140]
80	Game Informer A pure strategy game, I loved the combat's flank system, where you receive a semi-random amount of command points to spend on actions per flank. [Feb 2005, p.125]
70	Nintendojo If you are looking for a challenge and do not care that the game isn’t teeming with personality, then it is for you.
60	IGN It at least keeps with the theme and style of the LOTR videogame universe, and offers a different take from the past two LOTR games from Griptonite. But it's just not nearly as fun or polished as the team's "The Two Towers" and "Return of the King."
60	GamePro Merely an interesting take on The Lord of the Rings license instead of the great game it could have been. [Jan 2005, p.103]
50	Cheat Code Central It's challenging and there are strategic elements that rival that of Fire Emblem but it fails miserably to capture the essence of the Rings movies. Basically it's a generic turn-based strategy game using the Rings in the same way that kart racers attach to various franchises.

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