The Hobbit Demo

J.R.R. Tolkien is largely responsible for the majority of the dwarves, orcs and elves appearing in video games and movies, due to the fact that he was the one who perfected their back stories and made them more likeable. His work has been the inspiration for countless other works of art, whether directly or indirectly, especially in the case of the Dungeons & Dragons universe and many others like it.

The Hobbit is based on the book with the same name written by Tolkien himself and it follows the events from it almost step by step, although there are some discrepancies that try to make the game a bit more original. Other than that, the characters are largely the same, the overall story is definitely the same and even the locations are designed as to depict those from the book as closely as possible.

Hence, in case you are not familiar with the plot, it all revolves around Bilbo Baggins and the thirteen dwarves that intend on taking their homeland back deep inside the Lonely Mountain. Naturally, they need Bilbo's and Gandalf's help in order to do so, since the road there is quite tricky and there are plenty of obstacles to hinder their progress along the way. Moreover, a fierce dragon by the name of Smaug is inhabiting their homeland in the meantime, which is yet another inconvenience that makes things more difficult than they should be.

As far as the actual game is concerned, it basically plays like a classic third-person action-adventure title, with Bilbo in the middle of the screen at all times, doing his best to stay alive. Most of your time is spent fighting various creatures, though, but there are a few platforming levels as well, which require you to use coordination and good reflexes in order to pass certain obstacles.

Visually, there are not to many things to complain about, considering the fact that the 3D models are quite nice and the environments themselves are very faithful to the descriptions from the book. However, some levels can be a bit too crowded and claustrophobic, especially when they are also filled with many hostile creatures that do not leave you too much room for exploring.

In the end, The Hobbit is definitely a fun game to go through, especially if you are a fan of the series and you enjoy fantasy settings. Moreover, while the book at hand may not be the most appreciated in the Lord of the Rings saga, it is certainly the one that lays the foundation for everything that happens in the later chapters and it also sheds a bit of light on the life of Bilbo Baggins before he got old and Frodo took his place.