Embarrassingly bad, but fun

* This game has some embarrassingly, hilariously bad writing and voice-acting. All the dialogue is noble and needlessly long-winded. I think it must have been written by some very earnest D&D players. Every voice actor is clearly an American who has no idea how to do a British accent (with the exception of Radagast, who also has the best dialogue).

* This game does not take place in Tolkien’s Middle-earth, but in some other fantasy world where almost anybody can learn to cast spectacular magical spells of healing and destruction. The Gandalf of the books can’t do most of the things that Andriel the elf and many evil “sorcerers” can do in this game, like shoot bolts of energy from their staves, project healing, protective bubbles of energy around themselves, and even teleport. This isn’t necessarily a criticism: it’s quite satisfying, not to mention useful, to blow away enemies with magical shockwaves and blast them from a distance. But it’s not Tolkien—this is D&D or Elder Scrolls or even Harry Potter territory.

* The graphics are okay. Some of the landscapes look quite nice, but the character animation is pretty crude compared to some contemporary games.

* Gameplay also seems a bit crude compared to other games these days. You can’t interact much with the landscape—most of it seems to be just visual decoration. There’s no jumping or ducking behind things, although you can roll during combat. The equipment system is a bit overwhelming at first—there’s a large variety of helmets, shoulder guards, gloves, chest pieces, leggings, boots and greaves, amulets and rings, and of course weapons to choose from, as well as ways of enhancing them with “elf-stones.” I felt like I spent more time figuring out how to equip my character than actually playing, before I found a good set of equipment that I wanted to stick with.

* Also, the game lets you switch characters periodically, but when I did so on my first play-through I found myself dying regularly, I think because I hadn’t earned enough money to equip both characters adequately. I started over from the beginning and stuck with one character and did much better. (The other characters do fine if you leave them alone.)

So, in summary: the story and the acting are embarrassingly bad, but it’s still fun to play.

Why does this nickname have to be unique, anyway? about The Lord of the Rings: War in the North