The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Demo

Orcs, elves and dwarves may appear to be quite common in today's literature, especially when it comes to video games revolving around a fantasy setting. However, it is thanks to J.R.R. Tolkien that they have acquired the characteristics they usually exhibit today, such as the tree-loving nature of the elves, or the gem mining obsession of the dwarves. Most importantly, all of these details became widely known with the release of his famous book series called The Lord of the Rings, which basically tied in all of these races and legends, together with a fascinating story about good versus evil, love and bravery.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is a third-person action-adventure game that, as the name clearly implies, tackles on the first episode of the series, borrowing elements from both the books and the movie directed by Peter Jackson. Hence, beside the fact that you get to stroll around Middle-earth and witness its beauty from a more personal point of view, you also get to be a part of the group that drives the story of the trilogy, namely the fellowship created to take the ring to Mount Doom and destroy it.

In case you are not familiar with the plot, it basically follows the adventures of a group of characters throughout a land filled with danger and evil creatures, ranging from goblins, to orcs and nazguls. Your role in the game is to play as Frodo, who happens to be the hobbit carrying the ring of power in this journey and hence being the main character, although the rest of his friends are instrumental in assuring the success of the mission as well.

Along the way, many traps and hidden dangers await you, as well as many riddles that must be solved in order to unlock the path further. Whenever wits and brains are not enough to pass, however, you must employ brute force and the cold steel of your blade to make way, which is usually easier said than done. Fortunately, your friends are there to support you most of the time, which means that Aragorn, Legolas and the rest of the crew is constantly helping you defeat the monsters that cross your path.

Visually, the game is not exactly worthy of praise, but it certainly doesn't look bad either, especially when it comes to the indoors level design and the amount of detail that went into the environments. However, things are not so well defined when you step outside, since the lands are rather barren and there isn't too much to look at, other than a few trees. It all depends on the area you find yourself in, though, so the landscapes are not always boring.

In the end, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring does a good job at relaying the atmosphere from the books and the movie, although a lot more work could have went into the level design itself. Other than that, the graphics are good and the sound is in tune with what you may have heard in cinemas, especially when it comes to music.