Tweet
The Lord of the Rings, it turns out, is the perfect source material for a Lego game. A story in which small things turn out to hold great power and small people prove to have enormous courage, the core ideas of inverted scale that have made TT Games' series so popular are woven through Tolkien's tale like strands in elven rope.TT has risen to the challenge of adapting such a vast saga with characteristic aplomb. Eclipsing even the sprawling virtual Gotham of Lego Batman 2, this game sees Lego embracing the open-world principle in full. Following an epic prologue that mirrors the battlefield opening of Peter Jackson's movies, you find yourself in the bucolic idyll of Hobbiton, tiny Lego hobbits scurrying around its rabbit-warren lanes, drinking and dancing at Bilbo's birthday party. Beyond its boundaries, a ride on the Bucklebury ferry away, Middle-earth stretches before you in all its dark majesty.
The game eases its young players in, however, with story missions that lead you through the land in a more or less linear fashion. Trails of pale blue studs take you to the next level, but the destination can be changed on the map screen, setting waypoints to whatever point of interest you fancy. Map stones en route act as fast travel points and also mark all nearby collectables and quests when activated.
Read more…
More...