Following the unprecedented success of Electronic Arts cross-platform Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers game in 2002, a breakneck decision had to be made due to the global phenomenon of the film trilogy, and with the oncoming release of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King in the holiday season of 2003, there was little time to go gold and ship. To begin developing the essential follow-up would add complexity to the bones of The Two Towers’ arcade action mechanics and embellished in every facet to serve as an alternative story-accurate experience in the gaming medium. While The Two Towers allowed gameplay through three characters in Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, The Return of the King expanded the field so that players could choose from just about any character who wielded a sword.
The game begins with a tutorial from the perspective of Gandalf the White upon the conclusion of The Two Towers, where players can acclimate to the sword brawling and magic power of the great white wizard among a hoard of Uruk-Hai in a power fantasy for Middle Earth’s forces of good. The game proper ushers in with the remaining squalls at Helm’s Deep which move into Fangorn Forest, in which you will traverse as Gandalf and have multiple skirmishes with the fleeing Uruk-Hai as you come to the defense of the Ents at Isengard.
Shall I describe it to you? Or would you like me to find you an Xbox?
The sequence is entirely absent from the film and yet makes for a welcome side-chapter which bridges the The Two Towers and The Return of the King films. With dynamic animation detailing each character’s physicality, weaponry, and elaborate moveset combinations that delivers satisfying in-game melee, you want to not only play as your favorite character but equally experience the other members of the fellowship just to feel how they move and what combos they can have.
With simultaneous story threads that you can alternate between at any given time, should you desire a change in character or scenery, the opened paths make for an engaging approach to variety and never hinders the momentum of Return of the King’s core seriousness. When players eventually circle back to whomever you first played as, you’ll only want to advance up the narrative tree to interact and witness the gorgeous and high-fidelity and animated renders of Minas Tirith and Pelennor Fields.
While you have the option to haul flaming arrows at Mumakil with Legolas and laugh hysterically while bearing witness to their fiery end it may leave you to ask “why didn’t they explode in the movie that would have been way cooler”, there is always the road less tread (more challenging) should you choose. Once you beat the game, you can play as Frodo, who’s extremely weak and terrible — but if you can 100% the game as him, it’s a real achievement.
Certainty of death. Small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
The essential set-pieces of The Return of the King game are near perfect graphical extrapolations of the film thanks to reference art and screenplays provided by Peter Jackson and the teams at ILM and Weta Workshop throughout production. There is an authenticity to The Return of The King’s visuals despite being 20 years old that sells the entire game as an extension of the theatrical experience. Graphically and texturally it’s a perfect representation of Weta Workshop, Alan Lee, and John Howe’s combined art direction, in which all the geography, such as Gondor and Minas Morguls architecture feel lived in and suitably immersive where you can fall in love with the world of Middle Earth in a new light.
The blade that was broken shall return to Minas Tirith.
Because of these starting points in visual design, it somehow feels like both a bombastic Michael Bay film, yet still intrinsically Tolkien. The environments, renderings, and light direction make for exceptional mirrors of the film and convey the atmospheres of each respective territory.
By the nature of the gaming medium, you can interact and respect each environment’s respective detail and tone. It also features things that never made it into the theatrical release that eventually would become iconic pieces of the Extended Editions of the trilogy, hence tweens and teens alike having their mind blown by a penultimate boss fight against the horrid Mouth of Sauron as he threatens Aragorn and the legions of Gondor, Rohan at the Black Gates of Mordor.
Even after 20 years, The Return of the King remains a rare, satisfying brawler with infectious momentum. It combines that propulsion innovative simultaneous narrative tree and tonal visual fidelity. With the exception of Spider-Man 2 (2004), there has yet to be a movie-to-game experience eclipse Return of the King. It’s no wonder after such a success that the developers would go on to create classics like the Dead Space trilogy. We have this bombastic endeavor by the little team at EA Redwood Shores to thank for genre defying talent in video game development through the 2000s and beyond.
Image Credit: Electronic Arts, New Line Cinema || via LongplayArchives
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