LEGO Lord Of The Rings

One does not simply play in co-op. This game is based on the film trilogy of the early 2000’s, made in the Traveller’s Tales LEGO style. Like other Traveller’s Tales LEGO adaptations, the game has a heavy emphasis on co-op as you play through each of the stories of the trilogy, as well as witnessing the LEGO charm you would expect here. Though the added humor of a death scene with an “x” on the eyes might’ve been out of place for the scene to be taken seriously. The game also has the addition of using various items (like fishing poles, trowels, and tinderboxes (mostly for Sam)) to interact with the environment. While going for 100%, I’ve noticed a few weird issues with the game. Every time I would want to select a specific character, I would always have to bring up a menu and select. Although in the free play area, the game does start you off with the characters needed to obtain everything in the level (like other LEGO games by Traveller’s Tales), though it still does give you the option to choose from the huge list of characters. However, this was more of a problem when selecting the items in the collective inventory. Plus there are at least two instances where you need to use something from your collective inventory in free play because the game restricts you to that character. There was also a weird piece of programming when in the open world mode of the game. Another thing was that if I was playing as a hobbit, and I wanted to become a different tall character while my companion was Legolas (for example), Legolas would become the other tall character instead of the hobbit. This was particularly egregious when solving certain puzzles in the open world mode. There were also moments when it’s possible to not receive important info about certain optional mechanics, such as explosives (from the Berserker and fireworks) being able to destroy mithril objects. The game only explains this in a loading screen, but it is very possible to miss it. Another issue I find is that whenever Sam is in a level with your party, the game relies on the guy quite a bit, from his trowel, tinderbox, and even Elven rope he gets. In contrast, you might end up forgetting about Merry and Pippin, both of whom have one unique (in terms of items that always stick with them) item on them that has sparing uses. Again, the game’s not bad, but just that some of the flaws of the game are more noticeable when one is playing in single player instead of with someone.