Lord of the Rings: The Third Age Reviews

Three new reviews for Electronic Arts' Lord of the Rings: The Third Age have made their way to the internet. The first is over at GamePro with an overall score of 3.5/5:
It's hard to find fault with the concept behind Third Age; from a marketing perspective, Final Fantasy and LOTR probably seemed like a perfect match. But you can't crudely shoehorn two disconnected franchises together without bringing something unique and worthwhile to the table. Truly voracious fans of both LOTR and Final Fantasy will likely enjoy Third Age, but discriminating role-players should probably grab for a different ring.

The second is at Yahoo Games Domain with an overall score of 8/10:
Despite its pacing issues and overabundance of cutscenes, Lord of the Rings: The Third Age is highly entertaining and rewarding . With a long quest, cooperative play, and an "evil" mode that allows players to battle from the other side, there's certainly plenty to do. The game lacks the complicated character advancement common in the genre, but it's fast-paced, looks and sounds great, and will keep casual RPG and Lord of the Rings fans happy.

And the third is at EuroGamer with an overall score of 7/10:
But we're picking holes, and they're holes that were always going to be easy to pick. The Third Age is a highly enjoyable, if throwaway foray into the world of the Lord of the Rings films, and has much to recommend it for a casual purchase, especially for Tolkien completists. But RPG mentalists will be bitter from the outset and will care little for the unparalleled presentation; there's little to truly root anyone looking for a serious challenge. You can't really blame EA for that. This is a good game, it's just too shallow; an entry-level RPG at heart. But it's so nearly an 8 it hurts. And God knows what EA would have come up with if it really had gone for the absolute hardcore. If The Third Age shows anything, it shows that EA is capable of anything. What could have been, it doesn't bear thinking about...