DIGITAL HANDS

Fredrik Ekman: Ryds Allé 3:106, S-582 51 Linköping, Sweden ([email protected])

©1996 Fredrik Ekman; first published in Other Hands 13.

In Other Hands 12, I mentioned Interplay's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I, which was first released in 1990. The game received quite a bit of attention at the time and had its share of both positive and negative reviews. The game has survived to this day and is still in production, partly because of the release of new versions, most notably a CD-ROM version in 1993. This is a look at how the game looks by today's standards.

The review is based on the MS-DOS disk and CD-ROM versions. There is also a very similar disk version for Amiga (which is out of production) and a completely different version for Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Unfortunately, I have not played the SNES version, but if any reader has played it, send me a review of it and it will be published here in "Digital Hands."

The game presents the player with a view from above. The Fellowship can be moved about Middle-earth by means of mouse or keyboard. Special actions, such as handling objects, fighting, communicating, using magic and so on are controlled from an icon menu that can be called up, or by keystrokes. The interface is generally very intuitive, although some of the icons are not consistent with the fantasy theme.

Fighting and other actions are dealt with by standard role-playing rules. Thus, there are skills, abilities, weapons, armor and so on. I feel that these rules could be more advanced, but they suffice for their purpose.

Character interaction is always a problem in computer role-playing, and will continue to be so until the day when we get truly intelligent computers. The method chosen for this game is, however, one of the better I have seen. The player who chooses to talk to a NPC, will be queried about what he wants to ask the NPC. One or two keywords can then be submitted, such as "news," "black riders" or whatever.

The main plot generally follows the original quite well. There are some differences, but the main challenge for the Tolkien fan lies in a wealth of different quests besides the main one. These, which can involve saving someone in trouble or finding an object, are usually not necessary for completing the game, but give experience and are very involving, too. The quests often also involve other characters which temporarily join the Fellowship. Sometimes it is possible to trick the computer into letting these character stay with the Fellowship even after the subquest is solved.

Technically, the game is acceptable in spite of its age. The MCGA graphics are nice and colorful, albeit a bit chunky. Most popular soundcards are supported and sound is adequate and can be turned off if the player wishes. Between different sections there are additional text and pictures to move the plot forwards. In the CD-ROM versions, these have been replaced with animation from Ralph Bakshi's movie. I think this is unfortunate, partly because I do not like the movie and partly because the quality becomes very poor on the computer, but mostly because the character portraits and the music of the movie are completely different from those of the game.

The manual is fairly thick and contains not only instructions for playing the game, but also a history of Middle-earth, a short bestiary, a presentation of Tolkien, and a map of the Shire. This map is needed, for the geography of the game differs quite a lot from that of the book (mostly because distances between towns are much shorter for obvious reasons). Half the manual is taken up by text paragraphs, which the player is sometimes prompted to read. I suppose this is mainly a sort of copy protection.

What version should be bought, then? Well, the CD-ROM version contains the above-mentioned animation, a very nice tutorial featuring the characters in the books (I smile every time Gandalf says "The key to understanding how to play The Lord of the Rings is understanding the interface" in nearly faultless British English), better music and sound effects and the text paragraphs from the manual. The game-play itself is practically identical. I have not played the latest disk version and so cannot comment on the details but the differences are very minor indeed. I personally do not feel that these extras justify a more than double price. The fact that the thing is on CD-ROM rather than disk is not, in my opinion, an advantage, since all the game files have to be copied to hard disk anyway.

In conclusion, I advise any game-loving Tolkien enthusiast who happens to have access to a PC to buy the game. Considering its age, it is a very good game. The game is extremely rich in detail and it is not likely that anyone will tire of it very quickly, especially not since there are always more subquests to be solved. Be prepared, however, that the game does not in every respect remain perfectly true to Tolkien and his world.