By Gandalf’s beard! What have we here, another Lord of the Rings adventure?

Lord of the Rings: War in the North could be very interesting if it is set up north, you might think, but I am afraid that is the only interesting thing about this game.

Is it a long lost Tolkien story that has mysteriously resurfaced after all these years? No. In fact I am sure old JRR would be spinning in his grave if he found out about this version.

It is quite a brief to come up with a game based on such a classic story and JRR isn't around to pen one, so what do you?

Judging by what I see here nothing.

It just looks like the creators hoped to wing it with a very vague and mediocre story.

If you are going to make a follow up to what was originally a pretty dull game, at least try and make it better, not worse.

This is a poor show by Snowblind studios and Warner Brothers interactive.

The action, story and game play are consistently boring. I don`t usually yawn whilst playing a game but I really lost interest after a about an hour of play with this one .

The characters aren't even one dimensional and I felt no affinity towards any of them.

Dialogue is laboured and dull. And we have no idea why they are on this quest, there is no interaction between the characters, and even the voice over artists sound bored.

The game is an action RPG with plenty of fighting to be had, but the characters limited movement makes for a rather uninspiring experience.

The creators have increased the blood and gore but it doesn't compensate for the what I would regard as lack of effort put into this game .

In the previous Lord of the Rings games we had a similar thing going on, and it was OK to play.

At least the characters had more depth to them and it was an altogether better experience.

This game has been rated as a 15. But apart from the gore, I doubt even a five-year-old child would find it interesting.

Some parts are interesting and could have made for a great game.

I like the way you can call on a giant eagle to help you out when times get rough.

The characters have different abilities but these are let down by the limited moves.

There are only a certain amount of orc killing you can do before boredom sets in.

There are opportunities to collect items and upgrade your outfits, weapons and abilities but with the likes of Skyrim and Zelda on the market this games only chance is to end up in the bargain bin.

Not to be completely negative, there are some nice ideas within the game.

Summary

I give Lord of the Rings 5 out of 10.

If you are a dedicated LOTR fan then you might be into this game ,then again you could likely feel insulted by it.

Available for Xbox 360, PC and PS3.

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