The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
- December 09, 2002 15:29 PM PST
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Bilbo Hobbit and his Fellowship travel to Hogwort Towers and battle the evil Saurumomon?s Chamber of Secrets. Flipendo!
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Forged in the Fires of Mount Blizzard
The Two Towers for the GBA is, for all intents and purposes, Diablo Lite with a J.R.R. Tolkien skin set. Whack away at orc hordes from a top-down almost-isometric perspective with swords, arrows, and magic, then move on to the next map and the next set of orcish hordes. The interface is stupidly simple?the L button selects a skill or spell, the A button casts it, R picks things up, and B attacks. It?s the kind of game that would get horribly repetitive except for the fact that you gain experience (as in Diablo); find new armor, weapons, and miscellaneous gear (as in Diablo); and have a skill tree that opens up new attacks and techniques (?as in Diablo!). The enormous variety of power-ups isn?t there?but the game definitely has enough to keep things interesting.
Where the Shadows Lie
The Two Towers? has two significant problems: first is the lack of a map?it?s very easy to lose track of where you?ve been and where you?re going. Second, your inventory has only eight slots, too, meaning you can?t really collect a lot of stuff to sell at the ?upgrade shrines? scattered across the landscape; nor can you hang on to health and magic restoration items?they must be consumed immediately.
The graphics are a little schizo?the characters look good, but the cyclic backgrounds seem pulled together from the Generic Fantasy Construction Set. The music is outstanding (for the GBA, anyway), featuring several very recognizable pieces from Howard Shore?s indelible score, and battles boast some good battle clangs and grunts.
The Two Towers is a huge, fun monster-whacker that would hold up pretty well even without its Tolkien license?it is mini-Diablo, after all. The fact that it?s Frodo doin? the monster-whackin? just makes it all the better.
