The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a video game by EA Games based on the movie of the same name. Released in 2003.
Player paths
Campain
The game has three paths of play with each path involving a different set of characters.
The Path of the Wizard
Characters
Levels
The Path of the King
Characters
- Aragorn
- Legolas
- Gimli
- Gandalf (The Black Gate only)
Levels
The Path of the Hobbits
Characters
- Frodo (Crack of Doom only)
- Sam
- Merry in co-op Xbox/ps2/GameCube
- Pippin in PC co-op
- Aragorn
- Legolas
Levels
Playable Characters
- Samwise Gamgee
- Aragorn
- Legolas
- Gandalf
- Gimli
- Frodo Baggins
- Faramir (Bonus character)
- Merry (Bonus character, playable character in co-op mode)
- Pippin (Bonus character)
Battle Rating System / Experience
The Return of the King video game's battle rating system is based on how many hits the player can get quickly without taking damage. This fills an experience bar. The experience bar, when more full, causes the player to gain additional experience. However, the experience bar drops when you take big breaks without fighting. The ratings are as follows:
- Fair - rusty Uruk-hai helmet
- Good - bronze Uruk-hai helmet
- Excellent - silver Uruk-Hai helmet
- Perfect - gold Uruk-Hai helmet
At the end of a level the player gets a rating, which is based on the amount of times the player gets the four ratings. According to this rating the player gets an experience bonus. Fair: 1000, Good: 2000, Excellent: 3000 and Perfect: 5000. With this gained experience, certain upgrades can be bought, either for 'the fellowship', meaning all members get this upgrade, or for 'the character', meaning only the current character get it, some upgrades however are some characters only.
For a list of all the upgrades see: List of upgrades.
Bonuses
- Palantír of Saruman (Bonus level)
- Palantír of Sauron (Bonus level) (Must also reach level 10 with Sam, Gandalf, and Aragorn or Legolas or Gimli)
- Billy Boyd interview
- Dom Monaghan interview
- Andy Serkis interview
- David Wenham interview
- Faramir (Bonus character)
- Merry (Bonus character) (Not a bonus character in co-op mode)
- Pippin (Bonus character)
- Secret codes
Differences with Book and Film
Here are listed the differences between the video game and the book and film. The bold text shows the characters in co-op mode. Once The Crack of Doom is completed, any character can play in any level, co-op mode or not (except Helm's Deep, which isn't available in co-op mode, and Gandalf is the only available character ever).
| Level | Path | Book | Film | Game |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helm's Deep |
Gandalf |
Non-Conflicting | Non-Conflicting | Non-Conflicting |
| Road to Isengard |
Gandalf Gandalf | Following the battles of Isengard and Helm's Deep, Gandalf, A-L-G, Éomer, and Théoden journey to Isengard on horseback, and pick up Merry and Pippin. | Non-Conflicting | Gandalf comes to Isengard at the end of that battle, alone and on foot. He helps the ents slaughter the rest of the Uruks and Orcs, and helps break the levee to "release the river." |
| Escape from Osgiliath |
Sam Sam | Original to Film | Faramir takes Frodo, Sam, and Gollum to an old sewer that will lead them out of the bombarded city. They escaped Osgiliath 2 days before the orcs arrived. | The hobbits must find their way through the ruins to the sewer, fighting many orcs on the way out. |
| Paths of the Dead |
A-L-G A-L-G | Canon, but not seen | A-L-G are followed by specters into the main hall. | The trio must fight the specters to continue their journey. |
| King of the Dead |
A-L-G A-L-G | Canon, but not seen | Aragorn challenges the King of the Dead, who brings down the caverns, with the trio narrowly escaping. | Aragorn fights the King of the Dead, and must fight his minions to escape the collapse. |
| Minas Tirith: Top of the Wall |
Gandalf Gandalf |
Non-Conflicting | Non-Conflicting | Non-Conflicting |
| Minas Tirith: Courtyard |
Gandalf Gandalf |
Non-Conflicting | Non-Conflicting | Non-Conflicting |
| The Southern Gate |
A-L-G A-L-G | Original to Game | Original to Game | A-L-G must press through the Harlond before they can enter the Pelennor Fields. |
| Pelennor Fields |
A-L-G A-L-G | Aragorn arrives with an army of Gondor. | Aragorn arrives with an army of the dead. | The dead arrive a short time after Aragorn. |
| Shelob's Lair |
Sam Sam | Non-Conflicting | Non-Conflicting | Sam must destroy multiple orcs camped within the tunnel and kill Shelob . |
| Cirith Ungol |
Sam Sam | Non-Conflicting | Non-Conflicting | Sam must fight Gorbag at the top of the tower. |
| The Black Gate |
A-L-G A-L-G | Aragorn's forces fight from atop the Slag Hills, and Eagles attack the Nazgûl. | The Slag Hills are absent. | There is one slag hill with ruins on it, Aragorn duels the Mouth of Sauron, and the Fellowship must fight the Nazgûl. |
| Crack of Doom |
Frodo Frodo | Gollum takes the Ring from Frodo, but then falls into the fires by his own mistake. | Frodo, in anger, attacks Gollum. Both fall off the edge of the Cliff, though Frodo is saved by Sam. | Sam and Frodo must fight Gollum. |
Level Summaries
Path of the Wizard (Gandalf only)
Helm's Deep
The player must defeat the Uruk-hai at Helm's Deep. This is a tutorial level, in which the player gets to experiment with the different moves the game has to offer. The level ends when the player destroys a cart of explosives on the causeway with three ballistas, driving the Uruks away from Helm's Deep.
How to fail: The player is killed by orcs and dies
Allies- Gimli, Legolas, Aragorn and the Rohirrim
The Road to Isengard
The player chases the orcs and Uruk-hai through Fangorn forest. At one point, the player must help the Ents by killing 75 enemies in order to proceed. After following the path, the player will end up at the Dam of Isengard. The player must then protect the Ent trying to break the dam from the orc archers by killing them and letting the Ent break the dam. The level ends when the dam is destroyed.
How to fail: The player is killed by orcs and dies.
Allies-Ents
Minas Tirith - Top of the Wall
The player must move up and down the walls of Minas Tirith, knocking down siege ladders and killing any enemies at the top of the wall. All the time, he must make sure that the overrun meter is as low as possible, because the player will fail if too many enemies make it on the wall. Occasionally, siege towers will appear, which the player must either fire a catapult at (left-side towers only) or shoot directly. When the player destroys the fourth siege tower (which will land on the wall no matter what), a cut-scene will show trolls using Grond . The level ends when the player makes it down the stairs to the courtyard.
How to fail: The player dies or the wall is overrun.
Allies-Gondorian swordsmen and archers
Minas Tirith - Courtyard
The gates have been breached, and the player must now defeat the waves of enemies coming through the broken gate, with only a few Gondor soldiers to help him. His main objective is to defend the courtyard allowing civilians to escape to safety. When 150 civilians are saved, huge trolls will join the ranks. The level ends when 200 civilians have been saved.
How to fail: The player dies.
Allies-Gondorian archers
Path of the King (Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli)
Paths of the Dead
The player, as either Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli, must make their way to the very heart of the Dwimorberg mountain through the Paths of the Dead, in order to call the Dead Men of Dunharrow to fight for Gondor. Throughout the paths, they must fight specters that will seek to kill them. There is also a point where the Three Hunters are trapped and must defeat 35 specters before they are able to move on. The level ends when the player makes it to the end of the Paths of the Dead.
How to fail: The player dies.
Allies-Legolas,Aragorn and/or Gimli
King of the Dead
The player must now fight the King of the Dead alone. The King attacks either by a three-strike attack or by calling dead soldiers. After about half of his health has been depleted, he starts to blow powerful wind at the player and his three-strike attack becomes five-strikes. After the King is defeated, the player must escape the collapsing mountain to return to his and defeat any specters in his path.
How to fail: The player dies
Allies-Legolas and / or Aragorn and / or Gimli
The Southern Gate
The player must get past the Southern gate in order to help the Rohirrim at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Unfortunately, however, he must fight off hundreds of Uruks and orcs that lay in ambush. If you enjoy fighting many enemies, this level is for you. Two trolls also lay in wait. The player must fire three catapults, two at a tower and one at a troll, to get to the top of the gate. After he defeats the troll at the top, he must slay a Mumakil by shooting at four points in its armor and blowing it up. He must then open the gate. The level ends when the player gets through the gate alive.
How to fail: The player dies.
Allies- Legolas, Aragorn and/or Gimli
Pelennor Fields
The player is immediately launched into the full-scale battle fighting several Easterlings and Uruks alongside the Rohirrim. They must battle until 60 enemies have been killed. Then, Merry and Éowyn will join the fight. Mumakil will also enter the battlefield. The player must destroy the Mumakil coming for Éowyn and Merry (the Mumakil will automatically kill them if it gets there, and the mission will fail) by destroying its armor and blowing it up before it is too late. Periodically, the Witch-king will ride down on his Fell Beast to attack Merry and Eowyn. The player must shoot the Witch-king until it flies off. This process will repeat until the Witch-king's Fell Beast is slain. Éowyn will kill him, and the dead will arrive.
How to fail: The player dies or the Witch-king kills Éowyn and Merry or a Mumakil crushes them.
Allies-The Legolas,Aragorn and/or Gimli,Rohirrim
The Black Gate
There are three parts to this level, separated by checkpoints.
The level begins with the player facing the Mouth of Sauron who was brandishing Frodo's Mithril shirt. The player then battles to defeat him. After the player slays the Mouth, the progress is saved and the next part begins.
Hordes of orcs will erupt from the Black Gate of Mordor. The player must kill every enemy that makes it onto the slag ruins while protecting the rest of the Fellowship (the other members regain health when you are next to them). The objective is to kill six champions, but the enemies will come from the sides as well as the front after three champions have been killed. Once all six champions are defeated, there is a checkpoint and three Ringwriaths appear.
The Ringwraiths will attempt to kill the player and the members of the Fellowship. The level ends when the three Ringwraiths are slain.
How to fail: The player dies or any other member of the Fellowship dies.
Allies-Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas or Gimli Gondorians, Rohirrim
The Path of the Hobbits (Sam, Frodo)
Escape from Osgiliath
The player must make their way through the besieged city of Osgiliath and escape through the sewers. Orcs are everywhere, and the Nazgûl are searching ceaselessly for the Ring. The player must fight their way through Osgiliath, and either take cover or get off the roofs as quickly as possible when the Ringwraiths are searching. The level ends when the player defeats the orc champion stationed near the exit of the sewers, and escapes the city.
How to fail: The player dies or the Nazgûl catch Frodo.
Allies-Frodo, Gollum/Smeagol, Gondor rangers, Gondor swordsmen, Gondor archers
Shelob's Lair
This level is separated into three levels, each separated by a checkpoint.
The first part: The first part is a gigantic maze, with few paths actually leading to the correct location. Though some paths will lead to EXP bonus stones, they also contain spider ambushes. A couple of Orcs also dwell in the lair. The player's basic objective, in this stage, is to make it to a huge arched bridge, where a checkpoint will signal the end.
The second part: The second part is more straightforward, but harder; there is only one path from this point on, but there are more enemies and more baby spider blockades that need to be separated by a torch. The objective, which is even simpler than the last, is to get out of the lair into a huge rock arena.
The third part: The player must now fight Shelob. She begins with parry-able thrusts, but will occasionally charge into a corner and summon spiders to attack the player. The only way is to hack at Shelob until she is defeated. Frodo will be taken by two orcs, which ends the level.
How to fail: The player dies.
Allies-None
Cirith Ungol
The player must fight through many hordes of orcs, who are at war with each other though will focus attention on the player when they spot him (Note: The enemies seem to not actually kill each other, so it is up to the player to do so if they wish to.) The first part of the mission involves killing at least 80 enemies, which can be accomplished through a variety of paths and action sequences. Once this is done, the player must navigate the level until a short scene showing the remaining orcs fleeing to a bridge is shown. After firing a ballista and destroying part of the level, the player must rush across the bridge, beginning the second part of the level (if the player is too slow in getting across the bridge, the player dies.)
The second part is a short boss battle against Gorbag. Initially, the player cannot damage him, but by using the spears in the room, the player can toss one to break his shield, and another to stun him, during which time his life meter will appear. Note that it is possible to knock him down and use a finishing move, but it will not be an instant kill (it will just deal damage). Once Gorbag is defeated, the level ends.
How to fail: The player dies or the player falls at the bridge leading to the second part of the level.
Allies-None
The Crack of Doom
This level is basically a boss battle: it's Sam and Frodo against Gollum. Gollum only has melee attacks, but his swipes and jump attack can be quite deadly if unparried. To damage Gollum, the player must lure him to the very edge of the platform, slash him, knock him over with an attack, and finish the combo with a killing move. (Note: This is similar to the Final Judgment move.) The player must use this process a total of six times; each time, additional obstacles like falling rocks and lava oozing on the platform. Once the sixth killing combo has been completed, Gollum falls into the lava and the Ring is destroyed.
How to fail: The player dies.
Allies-Sam
Palantir Bonus Levels
Palantír of Saruman
There are 20 rounds in this level, with every 5 rounds depicting a random deserted place in Middle-earth. In this level, the player must slay every enemy in each round in order to progress. The enemies are easy at first but get steadily harder, eventually resulting in enemies like Trolls and Champions. The enemies involved are the Dead, Uruks, Spiders, and Trolls of all varieties (Normal, Shielded, Archer and champion.).
Allies-None
Palantír of Sauron
This level requires lvl 10 for Gandalf, Sam, and either Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli. There are 20 rounds similar to the Palantír of Saruman, but with different Middle-earth locations and harder and more numerous enemies. The difficulty progresses similar to the Palantír of Saruman. The enemies involved are Orcs, Easterlings, Uruks (Isengard), and Trolls of all varieties.
Allies-None