Written by: PlayDevil.com Staff

 

 

 

Hey- Lego games! There’s more of them coming! Traveller’s Tales, the seemingly forever in-demand studio is taking on a new franchise- Lord of the Rings.

 

Yet again, the guys are at least trying to make some incremental improvements over previous titles, and carry stuff forwards from more recent titles.

 

You get a hub world in the form of Hobbiton, but like Batman 2, you can reach the missions from it, and it’s pretty massive. The TT guys have recreated most of Middle Earth, and you can walk from one side to the other as you progress through the three books. TT have aimed here to try and add an element of exploration to the game world, whilst also linking the story levels to the hub world. It seemed to mostly work, although at this early stage the hub world wasn’t really populated with either Lego or enemies, and I’d need to see more before being able to pass a real judgement on the aims of the developers.

 

New stuff includes some RPG-lite tropes, such as each player having a backpack- items can collected and used for quests. You can also improve weapons, which have been forged (using Lego) or found. These can also been shared between characters.

 

Between missions, you’ll be able to visit the blacksmith to use Mithril Lego to create new items. Whilst it initially sounded a bit gimmicky, you cangive characters new abilities to effectively double class them. i.e. make Glimli able to use a bow- whilst he’ll still have his axe and small person abilities.

 

When it comes to the storyline, there is voice-work, which has all been taken from the original films (and the score as well), but the usual Lego humour was still there to an extent. It did seem slightly more serious than the other games made to date though.

 

Whilst the game and missions may be based on the films, TT have also added stuff from the books back in, although what exactly has yet to be revealed. I’ve personally tired a little through over-exposure to these games, but it did seem like some of these gameplay additions (over the usual world upgrades) could definitely help bring some of the more fatigued gamers back into the Lego fold.

 

Mark me down as cautiously optimistic at this point.