I’m not a hardcore gamer, but I’ve got my franchises: “Resident
Evil” (except I’m ready to bail on “Evil” after the lackluster “RE 5” and the
dreadful “RE 6”), the Batman “Arkham” series, and the
“Lego” games by Traveller’s Tales.
The “Lego” games are endlessly inventive — I’ve played all
of them — and I often find myself wide-eyed with admiration for the designers. The
worlds are richly imagined, the interplay between the characters is often
amusing, and there is a ton of replay value.
“Lego ‘Lord of the Rings'” is clearly influenced by its
progenitors: the “ghost studs” that appeared in the first Lego Harry Potter are
here, for example. The map is thankfully more intuitive and easier to use than
the map in “Lego Batman 2” — though you still have to go through a few steps to
get there. (Can’t we have the map somewhere on the screen for constant access,
with a blow-up option?)
There are no prisoners to rescue, though you are asked to
complete a number of quests for random villagers, Orcs, and ginger lumberjack
types. (Seriously, let me stop saving the world for a few hours so I can go
look for your soup pot.)
I have not read the Tolkien books, and have seen only
fleeting glimpses of the movies, so I worried that ignorance of the source
material would hinder my enjoyment of, and ability to complete, the game. Those
fears were unfounded, however. I’m making do just fine. Having
played previous Lego games helps.
I love “Lego LOTR,” but the game has some killer glitches —
frankly, the most and the worst I’ve ever encountered in a Lego game — and what
I assume to be design flaws. I’m playing on a PS3 and the game has frozen
several times. Other times, the game gets “stuck” and you can’t proceed.
Example: in the “Taming Gollum” level, you’re supposed to use Sam to tie Gollum
up, after you’ve lured him down with a fish. The prompt to use the rope
appeared, then disappeared and never came back. As a result, Gollum sat there
tearing at his fish until I restarted the game.
Without a doubt, though, the most frustrating component is
the character switching. If a task requires me to be a certain character, but
my partner is already that character, the action simply switches to my partner.
And in the half-second it takes to switch back, my original character has reversed
all the progress I’ve made. Sometimes the action switches to my partner even
when I’m trying to be a different character.
Maybe the game tries to do too much. Buttons have several
uses and the game doesn’t always correctly intuit which action I’m trying to
accomplish. And Legolas’ aim sucks.
Bottom line: Great game, but the glitches are maddening.
Anyone know the next TT title?
This article appears in Nov 21-27, 2012.
