Game of the Month #48 (January 2019): LEGO The Lord of the Rings: The Video Game

LEGO The Lord of the Rings is based on The Lord of the Rings motion picture trilogy and follows the original storylines of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Now the entire family can team up in pairs as adorable LEGO The Lord the Rings minifigures to experience countless dangers, solve riddles and battle formidable foes on their journey to Mount Doom.

Copy/Paste from the Book Club thread:

It wasn't in my plans for 2019, and I didn't vote for it because it wasn't my first choice. But it looks fun so I might just try it !

EDIT: Keys given! By the way, I would usually post this in the Official Key/Code Giveaway thread, but I happen to have an extra Steam key for both LEGO The Lord of the Rings and LEGO The Hobbit. Good timing if you want to play the GotM! As a New Year gift, I'll be offering both keys to the first person who sends me a PM about this since I feel like the two games belong together. The redemption deadline on Steam is on January 3rd! PM me if you'd like the key and have been a member of the forums for at least 3 months (or an active member for less, at my discretion).

Took me quite some time to make this work when I was with Windows7, but when I installed Windows10 last spring, it was easy. Also, I got some cheap Bluetooth USB adapters for like 5$ on eBay and they work fine. So I've been using my PS3 controller wirelessly for me PC games, including emulators and stuff. It's great ! :)

Nevertheless I've just ordered a Steam Controller.

I've had mine for ~3 years now, and (other than lacking a good d-pad) I think it's a phenomenal piece of hardware. Hope you enjoy using yours as much as I have enjoyed using mine!

Got this game and LEGO Hobbit for free last month from a giveaway, I think I should start playing both.

It's my first time playing a LEGO videogame. I completed the first level so far and it's simple but fun. We'll see where this

Edit: Reached Bree and already a lot of side quests are available. I will definitely not do a 100% run. I usually never do in games anyway. But I might do a few here and there for fun.

Right just went through my first play session of the game. Plays like any other Lego game. Simple but I think that's the intention. I'm ignoring most of the collectables as I know I will need all the character types before I can collect everything and have free play mode unlocked.

I'm not expecting much from this game. I guess it's a simple and easy way to start the year but I currently have two grievances with the game.

First I think this is the first game where they introduced voice overs in the lego series and they used the movie voices. I don't think this gels very well with the silly nature of the lego franchise and there is this weird clash between the series movie style and the slapstick style of the Lego franchise.

The other is that the game crashed on me at the end of my session. I'm looking up for fixes but I may have to retire if this persists.

Similar to above with my comments, although having this running alongside already playing lego star wars to 100% might be a little too much lego if that is possible.
Either way, I am looking forward to playing the game through the story as I am reading the books at the moment as well. Will probably not 100% this one though.

That's probably the reason why the Humble store gave so many keys away, and also the reason why the 2nd time they game the key, the redeem date was so close (Jan 3rd).

Also, just beat the Moria level. The game is fun. I'm just following the main story so far. There are too many extras and sidequests and I don't want to spend too much time on the game. I'm now back to work which means I'll be back to be able to play 3-4 hours per week. At this rate I'll probably spend all month on this game if I do too many side stuff.

This is my first time playing a LEGO game actually. I've just completed the "first movie" part of the game and got the rolling credits. I realise how much content the game has when I was told I was only at 11.1% completion !

More info about the fact that the game is no longer available to buy online: https://www.polygon.com/2019/1/6/18170661/lego-lord-of-the-rings-lego-the-hobbit-removed-steam-ps4-xbox-live

Edit: Also completed the "Two Towers" part of the game and at 20.3% completion. The levels are fun so far and I like the fact that it's like re-watching the movies all over again in a way.

Right Eow Update:

I'm up to the siege of mordor and mount doom

I've mellowed a bit with the voice over but I'd prefer it wasn't there and instead worked like the older lego games where it plays like a silent movie. Still I'm enjoying the game it's simple enough but the puzzles are there even if it's very heavily sign posted but that really is cause the game is made for a different demographic then me.

I'm still thinking about whether I should 100% the game or not. I usually try and collect everything in a open world area especially if it's marked but i don't really like replaying linear levels. Still i know the levels up a bit more when you have all the characters but i also think I'll be annoyed by the fact that I'll have to repeat the level if i miss anything

Double post

Almost done with the main story. I got a major glitch (that is already known and documented) that prevents the completion of a level and have to restart that level again. In the Cirith Ungol level where you have to find two armors and two helmets as desgise for Sam and Frodo, it's important that each caracter picks up his own helmet and armor. If there is nothing preventing of them to pick up two armors or two helmets and you can't trade or drop them. This causes you to have to quit the level and start it again. I was so mad that I had to redo it again since the last piece of armor is picked up at the very end of the level. I had to restard again when I had like 10 seconds left to complete the level.

Just started this today - only other LEGO games I've played have been Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

So far the voices are really putting me off - much prefer the pantomimes of the other two games. However, it's still fun even though I doubt I'll go back and replay for missing collectibles etc... it's pretty mindless gameplay and the platforming is a bit too floaty for my liking. Still enjoyable either way though.

Ho dang, I just realized I have this one. The previous lego games I've played have been pretty meh for me, but I have most of em and want really badly to like em, so fingers crossed! I'll have to start it sfter work. :D

Completed the main story just now with 29,7% completion. I might spend a few more hours to get some extras but I won't 100% complete the game for sure. Maybe up to 50% for fun. Too much stuff to unlock otherwise. It was a fun run. I like to play easy games like this from time to time. This was my first time playing a LEGO game and I enjoyed it enough I might play more of them in the future. Unlike some people mentionned here on the forum, the voiceovers did not bother me.

Edit: Also got 23/48 achievements on Steam.

I played with the French voices. There are places in the game I was actually wondering if they had use actual dialogue from the movie. If not, the actors they hired were spot on. Some caracters sounded very very close. Sam was one. Galadriel also. Frodo was different, but close. I'm pretty sure they took the same guy for Gollum.

Just finished the first of the movies.



I agree with the opinions so far, the game is great for a relaxed time. Not much of a challenge (or no challenge at all, to be more exact), the hardest part are some of the bad camera angles.

But by far the best part of any LEGO game is the amount of content and how it is distributed. For people not wanting to spend to much time in it, the main story is reasonably short. But there are a million more extras available, so the games are as short or as long as you want them to be. And just doing the story doesn't leave you feeling like you are missing stuff, the same way that going the extra mile always rewards you with extra goodies.

I liked no voice acting better, but I'm not finding the voices too bad. For what I've seen on the internet, some of the audio is from the movies, but not all.

Okay I've just decided to retire this game. Still i was able to complete the main story game but the game crashed on me when I played the bonus level and I couldn't be bothered trying again after two crashes on the same level.

I'll have a full review at some point but I thought the game was some harmless fun nothing spectacular but nothing terrible either. You can tell which voice overs are from the movie or not as there quality is just not as good as the rest of the game.

Lego The Lord of the rings is a fun little distraction which doesn’t offer much but is a simple way to pass the time.

If you’ve played any other Lego game then you’ve played this. The game uses simple combat and easy AI as well as a set of puzzles which can only be completed by certain characters in the game which in the original playthrough you locked to specific characters until you complete the story mode where all the characters are opened to play in any level. This is necessary for 100% as certain things won’t completed until a second play through. There ultimately are 18 levels (+ 1 bonus level). While this defiantly encourages second playthroughs I did not feel the need to repeat the levels as I had already completed them.

This game also makes use of the voice overs from the movie itself especially form the more expensive actors (Orlando bloom) and you can tell where there voices have been added into the game. It can be disjointing at times as you can tell the different qualities of voice compared to the rest of the game.

Ultimately this game is well made but nothing new. It can be easy ride through the game but you probably forget about once your done.

5/10

Question: I've played lego harry potter before and I know for that it was basically manditory to use a controller. Is lord of the rings the same way, or is keyboard a viable option?

Question: I've played lego harry potter before and I know for that it was basically manditory to use a controller. Is lord of the rings the same way, or is keyboard a viable option?

Depending on what you mean by "basically mandatory". I got prompts to have the second player use the keyboard constantly, so at least there is basic support for it. As in " is it optimal?", I believe anyone could beat the game even using a driving wheel. And the controls are kinda funky even with gamepad.

just got to the second movie's credits and so far the best bit has been stomping around as ents and throwing things at all the tiny orcs =)

finished the campaign and bonus level! 30.5% overall completion - kind of bee-lined it in the last half of the game and stopped exploring much.

Ended up getting used to the voiced characters by the end, but it's still a little off-putting when they use lines from the movies, only cut up so it sounds weird when you know the source material. It's fine though, just not really to my taste, which is neither here nor there.

While playing I like to remind myself that this game would be awesome if I was a lot younger and all the things that I don't like about it these days wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately though these games tend to end up feeling like a big grind, because the only challenge is to find all the collectibles and wrestle with the controls. Most of the mistakes I made were simply down to being bad at the 3D platforming because of the floaty controls (and my own lack of skill no doubt).

Still, I enjoyed playing it (especially considering it was free), even though I now have no desire to go back and complete the rest of it. I always like seeing how the source material is interpreted into a LEGO format, so I'm pretty pleased with seeing what's on offer and not a lot else. =)