LEGO LOTR Hands-On


We recently got some one-on-one time with Warner Brothers and TT Games' latest title, LEGO The Lord of the Rings, and what we've seen looks promising.

The game follows the three Peter Jackson films, and the scene we were able to play through was the Mines of Moria where the fellowship is cornered in a room surrounded by goblins and, of course, a cave troll.

The level starts off with Pippin knocking a bucket down the well and your first task is to put the well mechanism back together so that you can pull one of the fool hobbits back up.

As those that will remember the movie know, this makes their presence known and the enemy forces start barraging their way in. First you must barricade the doors, but when that fails, there is an endless flow of goblins and a massive cave troll. Unfortunately, you can't just take on the big guy outright. There is a puzzle you will need to solve in order to get rid of this threat.

As always in these games, different characters have different abilities. In order to get to this scene, you would already have had to use Legolas' bow to shoot some targets and free some LEGO blocks, and you would have had to use a taller character, well taller than Gimli, to throw the dwarf at a crack in a wall. With the cave troll rampaging around, you have to use Legolas' double jump to get to a higher platform and taunt the troll into getting his wrecking ball and chain stuck. From there, you tightrope your way across the chain and fire an arrow into the troll. Do this a few times and you will find yourself controlling a hobbit sitting atop the troll. Now you can use the troll to take out the rest of the goblins and get away.

Of course, what follows is the Balrog. We didn't get to see how this scene plays out in the game, but any fan should know what happens next.

LEGO The Lord of the Rings uses the original audio track from the films, so you will be treated to actors like Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Sean Bean and Ian McKellen as they go through the movie plots. But that doesn't mean TT Games hasn't found ways to inject their brand of LEGO humor. For instance, the movie doesn't actually have one of the hobbits falling down the well, but TT Games added this aspect to not only add humor, but also lighten the mood of the dark scene.

LEGO The Lord of the Rings will come out this October for all platforms.