The Two Towers does nearly everything that it sets out to do very well, and unlike many film adaptations that have gone before, it succeeds in bridging the considerable gap between a feature film and a good gamer’s game. Let’s ask a question, just for arguments sake, about the mentality of buying a license and making a game from that license. Is it a deliberate thing to not include music from the original motion picture? Is it an oversight? Is it a sub-license-within-a-license that hasn’t been purchased; i.e., a money thing? Regardless, The Two Towers is the only video game that comes to mind that faithfully utilizes the original film score throughout the - dare I say it? - work of art that is this fine title. Where the film succeeds in making the characters even more endearing than Tolkien can manage, this adaptation by Stormfront Studios equally succeeds in making you, the faithful player, believe that there is a sense of urgency and you need to do something about whatever the current situation calls for.

Perhaps this title is misnamed, The Two Towers actually encompasses scenes from both The Fellowship of the Ring and the film for which it is named. You’ll slog through several memorable scenes from the first film, including the beast at the door of the Mines of Moria and the memorable confrontation between Aragorn and the Ring Wraiths (Nazgul) wherein Frodo is smitten with a poisonous blade. I believe that EA and Stormfront have become one of the first, if not the first, to ever release a video game title with footage from a film that has yet to be released. This might be an issue to certain film purists who would rather see the title in its entirety than see it here, but those are a certain minority and anyone who has read the books knows what’s coming anyway. The Two Towers does show a considerable amount of the film, but that’s hardly a detraction from purchasing it or playing through it. You know you’ll watch the movie anyway.

If you haven’t heard, the game is a classic beat-‘em-up/brawler in the same vein as Devil May Cry, The Bouncer, and Onimusha. You can choose to play each of the many scenarios as Aragorn, Gimli, or Legolas, and each have strengths and weaknesses when compared with one another

The game uses a scoring system to determine how glorious your kills were (based on special moves and combos), and rewards higher scores with more points to purchase power-ups in between missions. For example, you have ratings such as Excellent, Perfect, Good, and Fair tallied at the end of each successful mission. Your overall scenario success is based on the cumulative scores of all the foes that you’ve vanquished, and you are awarded points based on this system. These points are used to “purchase” additional moves for whatever character you’re using.

The new moves can include raising your life force meter, upgrading your bow, learning devastating button combinations for maximum attacks against particular foes, and more. The only caveat that comes with this system is that once you’ve finished a particular mission with a certain score, you can’t replay that mission without starting the game over or finishing the game. I don’t think this detracts too much from the title all that much, and actually adds to its replay value.

What sets this game apart from its contemporaries is that mission objectives can change during a mission and beating your opponents doesn’t necessarily guarantee success. For example, when you’re defending the siege of Helm’s Deep, you have to guard the castle walls against the ascending Orcs. At one stage of this, you have to fight, kick, punch, and evade to reach different sections of the wall you’re defending to kick the ladders off and slow down the invasion. Merely blindly pummeling your opponents won’t get the job done here, and it will, in fact, hamper you if you spend too much time doing it.

My only complaint with the entire battle system is that you get stuck in a pattern sometimes wherein you can’t seem to get up without getting knocked back down. This gets rectified later with a special move that you can purchase which allows you to assault “on the way up”. Still, it’s a bit frustrating in a few points but not often enough to affect the overall score.

Graphically, The Two Towers is a feast. Between the integration of video that morphs into in-game graphics and the characters, bosses, and beasts that you battle and behold, it’s amazing the game doesn’t encounter any slowdown. Everything is gloriously detailed and it’s obvious that a great amount of time was spent constructing this game from the ground up. The characters and their environments are equally detailed, a point that is missed by many developers these days.

The integration of the original score from The Fellowship of the Rings is such a simple addition to the title that it’s a minor miracle that it can be looked upon as such a coup. Most importantly, a sense of urgency is conveyed throughout the game because of Howard Shore’s meticulously crafted pieces. The atmosphere will most certainly absorb you. The game also boasts Dolby Surround for the audio enthusiasts in audience.

For those concerned with this being the typical short beat-‘em-up, please cast away thy doubts and join this fellowship. There are multiple missions that are only accessible if you achieve a certain level. There are scene-specific missions that change depending on which character you happen to be using. There are missions that are only available to those who have completed specific objectives with each character. So, if you have a favorite and only like to use that particular favorite, you won’t see all of the game. Furthermore, you can always try to improve those puny scores and kills that you achieved on your first go around. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

I’ll go out on a limb here and put in this in the category of “Best Video Game Ever Made Derived from a Film(s)”. It is. Smoke that, too.

. . . Haohmaru