The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
- December 24, 2002 00:00 AM PST
It�s really just a super-pretty bludgeon-fest�but you have Aragorn�s sword�and Legolas�s bow�and Gimli�s axe!
The only thing that really makes The Two Towers more than just a fun, too-short tryst in the realm of basic bludgeoning is the fact that it�s Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn (son of Arathorn) doing all the bludgeoning. So can brilliant presentation and a movie license handed down from the heavens turn a mediocre game into something special? You bet your sweet bippy it can.The Two Towers strives to be more than just Golden Axe: The Tolkien Edition with a Devil May Cry �cool combo� meter and experience system, but it�s ultimately thwarted by the game�s most primal gameplay mechanics. You�ll find yourself relying on the same combo over and over again; and once you become surrounded, merciless button-pounding is often the only way to survive. There�s also no real sense of gravity to your blows�it�s almost as if you�re beating against a horde of orc holograms.
Still, you can�t beat the game�s presentation�the glorious visuals, real cast voice-overs, and Howard Shore score are so faithful to the film it�s frightening, and the Xbox graphics are even cleaner than the PS2 version's. In a way, that�s sort of a drag�the PS2 grit layer served to make the game even more cinematic�but not enough of a drag that you should be turned away. Few movie-licensed games have been
