==GRAPHICS==
The graphics are pretty good, good characters, some nice effects and some very great looking areas but not as stunning as other games.

==SOUND/MUSIC==
The music is good but gets boring, sound is poor with enemies making non stop noise and sounds plus the characters gets annoying by saying the same stuff over and over in fights. The only points it scores in this areas is the Voiceover from the original actors.

==CONTROLS==
The controls you can't go to wrong with RPG, one thing it has is when running and exploring you have control over the camera where you can zoom in or out plus rotate it too. You probably won't bother using it but you can use it to have a better look at your character and some of the nice views.

==GAMEPLAY==
The gameplay is where it all goes wrong, it just not feel like a RPG at all just a turn based game. There's no towns, shops, taverns or anything that you can walk around and no talking to people apart from cut scenes. There's no gold coins, so you can't buy stuff. All weapons, armor and items are found in chests or won in battles. As there's no selling or discarding, you end up with loads of weapons on screen when looking to find the best one or newest armor. There really no exploring as its mostly following a path all the time. At the end of each chapter you just jump to the next one and end up totally in a different place. The battles are the only good thing there is really, you have a time bar to show who's go it is next and can change people in battle which are both from Final fantasy games. There's lots of cool attacks, magic and effects plus you some times control a main fellowship person too like Gandalf or Aragorn, which you use 4 at a time, when normal you use only 3 characters. You can't choose to who to start with from a menu, you just start with the last 3 from the previous battle. There is a summon type special you use when your perfect bar fills and each and every piece of armor are shown on your from helmet, chest plate, legs or arm plates unlike some RPG's that just shows you in normal clothes or armor.

==REPLAY VALUE==
Replay Value is very poor, which is very unlike RPG's, ones you have completed it you have seen it all as there are no real exploring to do. You can travel back to chapters if you missed a few small less important missions but there not much need too. There is a Evil Mode that lets you play as the other side to win extra weapons and armor that can be then saves. When each chapter is complete in story mode it unlocks that chapter in evil mode. There is a co-op play but with a poor and boring gameplay and replay value there's not much need for it. With most Great RPG's you can have up to about 60 hours of fun by completing the game and all the extras, where as The Third Age should take you to the 23 Hour mark, which makes it very short as you should get at lest 30 hours of gameplay.

==BUY OR NOT TO BUY==
This game is best to forget about, stick with LOTR Return of the King. For those that want RPG go with Final Fantasy.

Graphics, Good detail, good looking areas and good effects.