As in the film, you must help deliver the One Ring, which the hobbit Frodo bears, deep inside Mordor to Mount Doom and destroy it. This act will annihilate the dark lord Sauron, whose power is tied to the Ring. In the movie, Frodo and his companions split into three groups, and the game follows the same plot construction. You can jump between the three paths until you get to the final mission at the Crack of Doom.
Be Like Gandalf. The White Wizard takes on quite a fearsome foe.
Gandalf’s path opens the game, taking you to the Battle of Helm’s Deep, where he joins with the elf Legolas, the dwarf Gimli, and the ranger Aragorn before leaving them again to gather forces for the final battle against Sauron. The second path allows you to choose between Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn as they try to raise a battalion of undead soldiers who will help defeat Sauron’s orc army. The third path puts you in the furry feet of the hobbits Sam and Frodo as they and the vile creature called Gollum make their way to Mordor. Gollum is their guide, but be careful around him; he really wants the Ring for himself.
Living Through Key Moments
“The job of the game was not to re-tell the entire story,” explains Todd Arnold, senior producer at developer Electronic Arts, “but to provide the player with an opportunity to be the hero and come as close as possible to living through key moments from the film. We constructed our levels around this objective, conveying just enough story to set up the action and provide context for what the player is doing.”
“If you can’t be in the movie, you might as well play the game; it’s the next best thing.”
- Ian McKellen, actor (Gandalf)
Each of the 13 expansive levels in The Return of the King opens with cutscenes that present footage from all 3 films before morphing into a computer-generated environment, where the action begins. You might have to help Frodo and Sam escape from the city Osgiliath, where Sauron’s Black Riders attack while astride monstrous flying beasts, or make sure Gandalf fulfills his pledge to aid the defenders of Helm’s Deep against an army of orc warriors, or even play as Aragorn during the epic battle on Pelennor Fields.
Knock, Knock. The battle outside Mordor’s Black Gate begins; its success will give Frodo time to destroy the enchanted Ring.
The path you choose dictates which character(s) are available for each level. As you play through a scenario, your skill at dispatching enemies earns you experience points that you use afterward to buy enhanced powers for that character. By jumping between characters as you complete your missions, everyone in the Fellowship should be highly skilled by the end of the story.
Completion of certain levels along the way unlocks interviews with McKellen, Christopher Lee (Saruman), Elijah Wood (Frodo), Sean Astin (Sam), and other actors who stopped by the EA studios to perform voice-over work for the game. After you’ve defeated Sauron, you unlock three secret characters, two hidden levels, and a series of cheat codes (see “Cheat If You Must” on page two to see what they are and how to use them).
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The Return of the King Media
You can now also choose any character while replaying any level, which gives you the opportunity to see how Gandalf would fare against the giant spider Shelob, or how Sam might hold up while battling Sauron’s orcs outside Mordor’s Black Gate.
“Peter Jackson is a videogame nut, and he’s passionate about everything that pertains to his films. We were granted access to everything imaginable: early cuts of the film, lighting samples, digital materials direct from their special effects pipeline, motion capture data, sound effects, reams of photos of the sets, and more.”
- Todd Arnold, senior producer
Peter Jackson: Videogame Nut
“The hobbits are very funny guys in real life,” says Arnold. “Elijah and Sean are the most interested in videogames out of the bunch, and it was really a pleasure to see them appreciate our work. I think they were all jazzed to see and hear their ‘digital selves.’”
Help the Hobbitsses. Gollum will lead you away from the battle at Osgiliath, but you don’t know how far you can trust him.
They weren’t the only ones who cared about the EA team’s work. Director Peter Jackson “is a videogame nut,” Arnold explains, “and he’s passionate about everything that pertains to his films. He therefore made it a priority to help us wherever possible. We were granted access to everything imaginable: early cuts of the film, lighting samples, digital materials direct from their special effects pipeline, motion capture data, sound effects, reams of photos of the sets, and more.”
Jackson’s effects team at WETA Digital employed a computer program called Massive to create the epic battles in the film. Arnold says that viewing their work taught his team “how much thought went into choreographing the battles in the films, and our designers made this a focus for the game. Choreography of small skirmishes is just as important as the choreography of divisions made up of thousands of Uruk-Hai.”
Ray of Light. Gandalf has more than fireworks up his voluminous sleeves.
The result was a digital world that Arnold says “makes you feel like you’re immersed in the Middle-earth of the films. You feel like you’re really there.”
If you liked this game, check out:
A Tale To Tell
Learn about how J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy came to be, the characters, and how to cheat in the game.
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