Game Modes - Story Mode. Errrr.... hello? How many games these days only have one mode of play? Can't you unlock new ones... oh wait there's a multiplayer option though right? Length is not this games high point, so you're going to have to deal with the bare bones. The only saving grace is that you can play it through with 3 different characters, and no not separate story lines. The main idea behind the game is to take either Aragorn, Legolas or Gimli from the start of the first movie through to the end of the second, and this is by no means an easy feat. And this is where the game gets weird. The first 3/4 of the game is relatively. You will find yourself getting "Good" and "Perfect" ratings straight off the bat, and then out of the blue you get to a level like Fanghorn Forest where toe difficulty level jumps up about 10 notches. It will take you maybe 3 - 4 attempts, and then you may spend hours on the next level, and that means having to put up with the real-time cutscenes over and over again, until you finally get through the level.

The good thing is that there is motivation to complete the levels in the form of unlockable interviews with cast of the Lord of the Rings, behind the scenes footage, unlockable (character specific) levels and even an unlockable character. The interviews are rather amusing, even if it only because Ian McKellen obviously has no idea what a vide game is.

Controls start of relatively basic with A and Y being your attack buttons, B to Parry an oncoming attack/arrow, X to knock an enemy back/over, L to whip out your bow and arrow/throwing axes and R to finish off a downed enemy. As you progress through the levels you slowly power up your character by beating down enemies without gaining a scratch and quickly knocking them off. With the points you gain you can purchase new combo moves which help you finish the game as quickly and effortlessly as possible.

Graphics are a mixed bag, the texturing used is amazing and it even gives you the false pretense that EA have used an amazing amount of polygons, which is a good thing, because they haven't and this aids the frame-rate in staying -- for the most part -- consistant. You can tell from the screenshots that this is not an ugly game. Character models are mainly done well. Aragorn looks like Aragorn and Gandalf looks like Gandalf but the other remaining playable characters look like they're trying to be who they're supposed to be. Animation is spot-on, the fighting moves EA have used in the game have been pulled straight from the movie and the characters look natural pulling them off. The big question about graphics is how did the FMV withstand on the porting to GameCube. Not well. It starts off perfectly, hardly a glitch to be seen and you may even be overwhelmed that the GC is doing so well, but the more you view and the more you unlock the more EA have had to compress the footage to fit it all on.

Sound is also great, and would be PERFECT if EA had used Doly Pro Logic II, otherwise there are no complaints. EA hired the actors to get all the necessary vocals/grunts/groans needed to make this feel like its part of the movie experience.