The Two Towers (PS2)

[ARCHIVE: This is an old post I wrote up about LotR: The Two Towers PS2 game. It was right in the middle of the trilogy's release, so demand as well as supply was high. I think it's the first "article" I wrote up about a video game.]

So to kind of retouch on the issue of epic video games from a few posts back, I bought The Two Towers video game over break. My video game library had been stagnant for a while, so I picked it up on a whim.

NOT an epic game.

Imagine Dynasty Warriors. Now imagine Dynasty Warriors set in Middle Earth. That's the basic jist of Two Towers, in nearly every aspect. With a few minor exceptions, you play as Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli starting in the last half of Fellowship up through the battle at Helm's Deep. It's very much an action game through and through. There's a rudimentary level system, in which you receive experience in accordance with how much finesse you dispatch enemies with. You can then trade in experience points to buy new combos and moves.

Graphics wise, the game is pretty good during gameplay. The problem is that the cutscenes (at least, those that are not supplied by movie footage) are also done in engine, and while the results may have been acceptable in years past, they don't stand up to the standards set today in lifelike body language and facial detail. This is compounded by how heavily the game relies on movie visuals to move the story forward. All the character and set designs are taken almost directly from the movie, and a majority of the cutscenes are just clips of the films yoinked out. This makes the in-engine scenes look even less unpleasant. The camera stays a fair distance away during play though, so the visuals are passable enough to the eye.

Unfortunately, the all too-familiar problem of camera placement rears its head here, although it's more aggrivating than usual. The POV is a mixture of predetermined angles and player tracking, which works surprisingly well most of the time. But sometimes the camera will continue tracking you, even when the view is completely blocked. But the biggest gripe is the angle switching. At one point in the game, the camera flips complete 180 degrees when you pass a certain threshold. This caused me to switch back and forth between two angles many times, because down was forward in one screen but back in the other. Most of the time, the camera does a fairly good job. But when it's bad, it's really bad.

The controls are fairly straightforward. You have quick and fierce attacks, as well as ranged weapons, finishing moves, and parries. A noteworthy innovation is the use of the right analog stick for attacking purposes. Horizontal movement will result in quick attacks, while vertical moves are interpreted as fierce attacks. I'm fairly certain this was an attempt to employ a method similar to the sword control used in MGS2, although far less developed. In my opinion, they should have cribbed it directly so that you could actually control the direction of your blade.

A nice addition would have been some sort of targeting system. Many times I tried to stab a downed opponent, only to smite the dirt next to him. It would have been nice to have some sort of guarantee that my attacks were directed towards an opponent at all times. Since this is a melee style game, I can understand why it's important to be able to pivot and engage multiple enemies at one time. And while I agree that having a totally tunneled field of damage would be detrimental, some sort of either soft or optional lock-on system would make the game a little less frustrating. Past games like Kingdom Hearts and to a lesser extent Eternal Darkness have executed such a system with great success.

The strength of the game is in gameplay, and the strength of the gameplay comes in the level designs. There are no jumping puzzles to be found here. The level challenges (so far) have been fairly well thought out. In the first stage, the only way to damage the Naz-Gul is with a lit torch. The first battle at Helm's Deep requires you to not only to dispatch the attacking orcs, but to kick down their scaling ladders. Playing through the levels is pretty fun.

The game is also rather fair about keeping the player well equipped. Your heath is running low? An orc will drop a health vial. Need arrows to get past the next few enemies? You'll find an extra quiver in the next treasure box. So only by playing very poorly will you ever die during the levels. But interspersed every now and then are boss battles, which suck the fun out of the game and cause the momentum to come to a screeching halt. The bosses all have a certain particular pattern to be exploited or they will be impossible to beat. So the battles are not challenging in a rewarding sense but in a meticulous, boring, wearing down sense.

All in all, the game is fun to play, if not particularly groundbreaking. If I had to rate it, I'd give it a three out of five.

[Looking back, I think I'd rather change my rating to two out of five.]