The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

The Good
The game is amusing, if you are a fan of the film it will have you glued to the screen until you finish it.

The epicity of some moments is cool, fighting in the Helm Abyss as Aragorn side by side with Gimli and Legolas was very nice, you could feel the tension of the battle.

There are also some interesting extras and interviews getting unlocked when reaching 'X' level with 'X' character.

The Bad
Something feels odd about this game, it's not very detailed as if they just wanted to make something based on the film to sell copies, in terms of gameplay it could have been very improved, giving more unique abilities to the three characters, because there isn't any great difference between them.

The game lacks more characters and levels, you can finish the game in one or two days if you don't bother to level up the three characters.

Also the first levels are extremely easy, in a laughable way, there are some harder bits in the middle, but nothing to be very worried about.

The Bottom Line
Only for fans of the film (or the book), other people just might find on that game a mediocre beat'em up.

The Good
Graphics were superb -- Stormfront did an excellent job here. From lighting and environments to animations, everything looked and felt faithful to the film(s). Gameplay is solid -- for beat-em-up fans, there's always plenty of enemies to fight, and plenty of combat moves to use.
Production value is high -- Clever blending of film clips and in-game cinematics really emphasized the feeling of re-living the film(s). Most of the film actors were recorded for voice-over work...no silly "sound-alike" actors here.

The Bad
Parts of the game felt rushed. Example: The level with the orcs on wolves is very short compared to the other levels, and these enemies never come back in any other level. Example 2: While most of the film-related unlockables are neat, the unlockable extra character and extra level were slightly disappointing (you'll have to see for yourself what I mean by this). Example 3: The difficulty level of the game is unbalanced -- the last couple levels are significantly harder than the earlier levels (which, IMHO, are too easy). Minor nitpick -- you can't skip/cancel the in-game cinematics.

The Bottom Line
For fans of the film: A great beat-em-up video game staring your favorite characters in settings that will feel like they're straight out of the film. Plus some great unlockable "making-of" videos and actor interviews will be a real treat.
For those who didn't really like the films: A somewhat rushed-to-the-shelf beat-em-up with nice graphics.

The Good
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers actually starts at the beginning of the LOTR film trilogy. Faithfully reproducing the opening battle scenes of The Fellowship of the Ring (aided by actual footage pilfered from the movie), you briefly take on the role of Ilsidur in a sort of "prologue" chapter where players are familiarized with the controls and game mechanics.

After this quick introduction you'll commit to play out the remainder of the game as Gimli the dwarf, Legolas the elf or Aragorn the regular guy. Having arbitrarily choosen an avatar (it makes no difference as far as gameplay is concerned), you're set out into Middle Earth. This particular version of Middle Earth is visually astonishing. The game looks nothing short of spectacular, putting the graphics of any other PS2 title (and most of what's on XBox, for that matter) to shame. With Two Towers, EA's conducted a clinic in the field of video game art design. The sound is of similar quality, including voices that may or may not have also been lifted from the film tracks. If you like the movie score, you won't have any complaints about the music, either. Of note is the way footage from both films blends almost seamlessly into the in-game engine during cutscenes, before suddenly reverting to your control. The overall atmosphere creates a real sense of being "in the movie"--or at least the action segments.

Once you've taken over, emphasis is planted firmly on close-quarters combat. The faster you deal damage to enemies, the stronger your character becomes, a device that rewards only one style of play. Luckily, maintaining a constant barrage of blows is easy enough. Our heros can knock opponents into one another, smash through shields, unleash many simple combo strings, strike fallen enemies on the ground and set them aflame.

Sometimes the screen is so clogged up with enemies one can simply swing away at will and be guaranteed to hit something without bothering with any directional controls. It becomes a perpetual state in the game's final acts, beneath a rain of flaming arrows. These chaotic battle royales are the game's main attraction, and are executed without a skip in the framerate.

This havoc is all promiscously strung together by what exists of the game's "plot", loosely following the first two films of the trilogy, with the cinematic scenes spliced in between. EA (and New Line Cinema) clearly milked the license for everything it was worth with all these minutes of then-unpublicized movie sequences (the game preceded the big screen release by a couple months), targetting the game squarely at the countless legions of LOTR fans. The disc even includes some interviews with selected movie cast and crew members.

The Bad
Beneath its gilded exterior, Two Towers is pretty thin, being a generic hack-and-slash experience that (ab)uses its franchise name almost exclusively in name alone. It just is what it is, completely discarding all of the rich story and character elements that made LOTR so popular to begin with. Every character beside the three playable ones is largely ignored or simply AWOL, a certain few such as Gandalf and various hobbits making brief cameos now and again.

The levels are a linear series of missions that must be completed in order, one at a time. Gameplay features include bows and blocking and assorted powerups, but Two Towers is all about mêlée combat. This boils down to furious button mashing. The differences between the playable characters are strictly cosmetic, providing little incentive to play through the game with each. (There's some bonus material only available after completing the game with all the characters, but what precious little of it there is ends up being only more of what you drudged through to access it, and doesn't bring any extra longevity to the game.)

Between levels you can purchase "upgrades" in the form of new attack combos, more powerful weapons (that all look alike) and other miscellany. These upgrades are essentially the same for each character except in name, and don't do much to keep combat from quickly becoming mind-numbingly rote. And although you'll rarely face the infinite onrushing hordes of foes as in, say, Dynasty Warriors, those times when you do are scattered among many less frantic periods that involve a lot of hustling along each level's usually inflexible route, encountering a sporadic stream of enemies individually or in small groups. Either way, it's just a matter of hammering buttons until everything's dead, "everything" meaning lots of the same: There can't be more than a half-dozen variants of goblins/orcs/trolls, not including the occasional unique "boss" creature (invariably Super Mario-ish pattern-attacking affairs).

Then there's the cutscenes, which are sometimes quite long and can never be skipped. They're fine the first time, but not the ninth or twelfth or twentieth. After dying for the umpteenth time on one of the more challenging scenerios you don't get another crack at it until the preceding cutscene has run its course again. Eventually you may find yourself changing the channel between mission attempts.

The Bottom Line
Two Towers is a one-trick pony, sort of like a Faberge egg with a plastic kazoo inside: it's nice to look at, but the novelty wears off right quick once you get into it. Die-hard fans lured by the bonus interviews are better off waiting until they eventually appear on a DVD.

It's limited replayability might not make it worth the investment, but it lasts long enough to warrant a rental.