Taking queues from the fan feedback surrounding the original game (remember, The Fellowship of the Ring was an awful game made by someone else, based on the books rather than the film), EA have kept the basic gameplay style of The Two Towers and expanded on it, adding in enough extra bits and pieces to keep fans happy and yet keep the game feeling fresh.

The general concept is pretty simple - guide your character around the screen (you typically have more than one option to choose from at the beginning of each level) and bash away at the bad guys, whenever they appear. This is accomplished via a dynamic camera which zips around to preset spots to give you a good look at what is going on and also setup for the best looking shot. The game is entirely third-person and there are typically several members of the fellowship along to help you out, depending on the level and your objectives. Unlike the first game, you can now bring a friend in to help you out - the co-operative multiplayer mode is easily the most requested feature after playing the original and, thanks to an attentive EA, it is now present for your gaming pleasure.

The story picks up at the end of The Two Towers feature film, requiring the gamer to particpate in the various climactic events that featured in that film's ending sequences. Help out at Helms deep, guide the Hobbits as they attempt to escape Osiligath (look out for the nasty Nasgul and their winged beasts!) or battle the orcish hordes as they flee from Helm's deep.

In between each level, you will be treated to various scenes from the trilogy. Most of these high resolution movie sequences (complete with new voiceovers from key characters like Aragorn and Gandalf) are composites of scenes from either Fellowship of the Ring or The Two Towers, but there are definitely new sequences secreted amongst them. It is for this reason that fans of the movies (who isn't?) might want to wait until the film is but a pleasant memory, for fear of ruining that first experience.

The controls are, for the most part, easy to pick up and play with. You control your character with a mix of the mouse and keyboard, attacking primarily with the left and right mouse buttons. Moving the mouse around not only changes the direction your character faces, it also can be used to actually move the character around as well. As this functionality is duplicated by the (far superior) WASD keys, you need to be mindful of that control overlap - it can initially be a little confusing, but once you are used to it you'll find it an effective control scheme.

Once you have mastered the simplistic "move to an enemy, bash the mouse buttons, he's dead" gameplay mechanic, you are ready to start thinking about that curious combo meter... each time you hit an enemy, this gauge goes up. The idea is to fill the gauge, improving the experience and score that you earn for each level. You can't just bash away, however, or you won't ever achieve anything better than a "good" - and even that, only rearly. To get the really good scores (like "Excellent" or "Perfect!"), you need to time your hits well and score uninterupted combos.