Having recently reviewed The Lego Movie Videogame, I found it difficult to overlook the sense of familiarity that accompanied my time with TT Games’ latest Lego-ified instalment. In the developer’s defence, they have certainly hit upon a formula that works, and most importantly, sells. If it is made of bricks, you can bash it, break it, manipulate it or use it in some way. There are over 100 characters to obtain, many of which need to be bought with the coins you amass during the game. Each level has numerous collectibles, most of which will not be possible to acquire on your first play through, or even your second. Everything is lifted straight from Peter Jackson’s version of Middle-Earth, from the look of the characters and settings, to the set-pieces you play and the dialogue in the cutscenes. While this may be to the delight of some gamers - particularly younger players whose first introduction to The Hobbit was through the films - for others, it may be where issues arise, particularly when combined with the encroaching thought of ‘been here, done that’.
That the game is so beholden to Jackson’s imagining of Tolkien’s universe is the first problem. If you enjoyed the book, but for whatever reason have not seen the films (and especially if you’ve purposefully avoided them due to a dislike of Jackson’s previous efforts with The Lord of the Rings) then the game does not have much of a chance of winning you over. The opening cutscene, and all those that proceed it, are immediately recognisable from the first film. You follow the exact same path as seen in the films, moving from the set-up of Smaug’s arrival at the Lonely Mountain, to Bilbo’s unexpected guests and right up to the end of the second film, as Smaug takes flight to punish the people of Dale for their ‘transgressions’.* As a fan of both the book and the films, taking control of the dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf and moving them through the universe was at first a delight. The Shire has been lovingly recreated and you can find yourself getting lost, simply enjoying the work that has gone into producing areas we first saw all those years ago with The Fellowship of the Ring. Yet the film’s hold over the game means that there is no room for imagination. This may not be the Shire as everyone imagined it, and it’s not unreasonable to desire a game that is made from someone else’s interpretation of the book. This also holds for the levels, such as the encounter with the trolls, the fight against the spiders in the Forest of Mirkwood and the barrel-escape from the elves.
These moments also suffer from the game’s over-reliance on using collectibles to extend the length of the game. At first you may find yourself breaking every object in sight, only to suddenly remember that there are a number of dwarves being hold prisoner on the other side of the level, and they have been calling out for help for the last ten minutes. It’s easy to see how your immersion in the level can be broken: I never felt anyone was in that much danger when the game was content for me to hoover up coins or make numerous attempts at reaching a hidden area. Combat is also extremely weak and occasionally frustrating; the characters do not react quickly enough at times to your button presses, which can leave you vulnerable, particularly when facing more than one enemy. While death means little more than losing some coins, a little more sophistication would go a long way. Each character does have a power move, but it has to be charged and leaves you open to damage. Platforming is marginally better, and certainly features more heavily, though you it does not take long before you find yourself repeating the same actions in only slightly different circumstances.
The game’s insistence on hand-holding is wearisome, as is the requirement to destroy everything in sight just to find the right item to progress. While breaking objects gives you coins, it is also necessary to break things in order to use to lego pieces to build new items, such as ladders or bridges. There is no skill involved here; when you are temporarily stuck in an area, the solution is nearly always to smash everything until a button prompt appears, letting you know what to do and where to do it. Even well into the game, after you have used the dwarf stacking ability numerous times, whereby certain dwarves can balance on one another and use their staffs for others to climb up, you are still told exactly what to press at every conceivable situation. Even young gamers ought to be given some credit for remembering these actions. The lack of any notable challenge is underwhelming and leaves you with no real sense of achievement, even after besting the likes of Smaug or your orc nemesis, Azog the Defiler.
The main joy can be found in the world itself. In between levels you are free to explore a huge chunk of Middle-Earth; after you finish the game, you will have access to Rivendell, Bree, The Misty Mountains and much more besides. These ‘hubs’ are packed with things to do. Side-missions are plentiful, and while many amount to little more than fetch-quests, there is enough variety and good enough rewards for you to keep at them. There are caves and hidden areas to explore, all offering up more coins with which to buy the bonus characters, or the loot needed to create objects at certain points in levels are in the hub world. And aside from what there is to do, walking around is a joy in itself. The first glimpse of Rivendell is a sight to behold for all Tolkien fans, made even better by having the opportunity to walk through it. The town of Dale is all platforms and walkways, like a fantasy Venice, and you can even commandeer a boat to sail around its perimeter. The sights can only sustain your interest for so long though, and it is somewhat of a disappointment to begin a new mission and find yourself confined to a tiny area. The game at least has TT Games brand of humour to see you through, with cutscenes given the little bit extra by some slapstick comedy or an out of place prop, such as one orc being told to make contact with the boss, only to pull out a telephone.
There are an abundance of characters and collectibles that will entertain for hours; to quantify this, having finished the game, my completion percentage was 29. You will certainly not want for quantity, though you may find yourself wishing there was more going on in the quality department. You could argue that TT Games is getting too comfortable in its approach to these games. If the only difference becomes the world in which each game is set, sales will surely suffer as people are only likely to go for games where they already enjoy and are familiar with the source material. If it’s been a while since you last played a Lego game, and you relish the opportunity to explore Middle-Earth, there’s just about enough here to justify a purchase. The gameplay is long past its sell-by date, but you cannot fault the developer on the world it has created. It may be overlong for children, though young and old alike will delight at a Middle-Earth brought to life and teeming with things to do and see.
*The keen-eyed amongst you will note that this game brings you up to the end of the second film, meaning there is only one film’s worth of gaming left. Expect to see it in the form of DLC, as opposed to a boxed release.
