8.9 out of 10
IGN.COM

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Following the formula set forth in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the first two levels of Return of the King are set in the previous movie. To set matters straight (for the fans, of course), players start off playing as the newly whitened wizard Gandalf in last stage of the Battle of Helm's Deep. The invisible tutorial reminds players of the simple move set (Quick and Fierce Attacks, Parry, fire an arrow or flaming pigeon of Umothali (just kidding)), as well as new possibilities, such as climbing ropes, interacting with catapults or hurling spears.

From there, the game changes from last year's linear effort into a three-tined pitch fork of doom. Following the three-part narrative of the book, the game offers players the chance to play through the Path of the Wizard (the newly playable Gandalf), The Path of the King (the old trio, Aragorn, Legolas or Gimli), or The Paths of the Hobbits (as Sam, and later as Frodo). Each set of levels is designed differently, with nooks and crannies designed to take advantage of those particular characters -- and, of course, to tell the story as it's portrayed by the movie. Liberties ARE taken with regards to the storyline and, I can now point out, by the movie. I won't spoil anything for you, but to be fair there, there isn't too much revealed in the way of shocking film footage in this game. It's GOOD footage -- and very well edited this year, mind you -- but I'll get back to that later. The point is, the pitch fork does split and each of the 13 levels must be completed to play the final connecting level, from which each of the branches lead.

[INFO PROVIDED BY IGN.COM]

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Internet Reviews:

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is, indeed, a modern day Golden Axe, but ratcheted up to massive levels of production. With excellent sound, graphics, and theatrical work bolstering it, Return of the King is a hardcore gamers' game with tremendous mass market appeal. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's just what old school gamers have been yammering about for years. ("Man, remember when we used to play BLANKITY BLANK in the arcades? That was awesome.")
Personally, the online play is a great added bonus, and in itself is a huge and impressive feature, but it's not quite as impressive as a competitive mode would be. It's neat (and I'll be playing more of it), but it's not as deep, or perhaps as long-lasting, as something of a more competitive nature, say, such as Tony Hawk's Underground or SOCOM II. The co-op mode adds an enormous amount of replay value and is sure to put this game under millions of Christmas trees this December.

But Return of the King is more than just a good hack and slash. It's one of the best. The feature set is excellent and well worth your money: Six initially playable characters (nine in all), 13 levels, which can be played with all of the characters; good graphics, and an excellent score and superb sound effects. It's got tons of replay value too with secret characters, bonus game concept art, video interviews, and extra games to fiddle around with.

~IGN.COM

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