Electronic Arts is the master of mass appeal. Give the developers a license, tell them to go nuts, and nine times out of ten, the final product is going to be something that is easy to play and in large part enjoyable, and such is the case with The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. Once again, EA has done the LOTR license justice, as this beautiful RPG perfectly captures the essence from the films while delivering a solid gameplay experience that even the most non-RPG fan will enjoy.

The primary reason why this game's so amazing is because of the license associated with it. EA has done a masterful job transferring the Middle Earth that we love from films to videogame, and the end result is both a visual and audio treat. Graphically, the game's superb lighting effects (some of the best game fire that I've ever seen), rich textures, and expert level design have all come together to make The Third Age a feast for the eyes. Playing as six new warriors in the LOTR's universe, you'll visit numerous locales from the films including Moria, Helm's Deep, Rivendell, and a host of other famous locations, and each of them are absolutely gorgeous and bursting with detail. They're also populated with all sorts of menacing creatures including orcs, goblins, the dreaded Uruk-hai, ring wraiths, trolls, and of course, the Balrog! All of them are spectacularly animated and sound exactly like they do in the movies, which makes killing them that much more enjoyable.

In addition to the environments and enemies, the game's playable characters also look spectacular. They're all from different places in Middle Earth, and serve some greater purpose in the course of your adventure. There's Berethor, Citadel Guard of Gondor, Idrial, the elf from Lothlorien, Hadhod, the dwarf of Fundin, and a few others, and all of them look fantastic, barring some stiff animation. Also, when you equip them with items (and there are a ton of them), they're displayed on them in real time, so it can be fun altering their appearance (though it's also necessary to make them more powerful). Also, you'll run into famous characters from the films, as your path and the path of the Fellowship will intersect. The best example of this is when you meet up with Gandalf while he's battling the Balrog. Not only will you be able to help him fight the beast, but you'll be able to play as him!

There's another thing you need to know about The Third Age's graphics: everything explodes. All of the characters have special attacks that, when selected, have their own sort of signature over-the-top animation that dazzles the senses. Swords burn with fire, bows become surrounded by green light, symbols appear in back of the characters, Ents stomp onto the screen and toss rocks, flurries of arrows soar overhead. Everything is done to excess and it rocks. It's hard to think of another RPG that's special attacks are even half as cool-looking as The Third Age's.

The graphics are simply phenomenal (the Balrog must be seen to be believed), but equally impressive is the game's music. The Third Age has the best videogame soundtrack ever, but of course that's because all of the music was pulled from Howard Shore's award-winning scores. EA really dug deep into the sound vault and shoved as much content into the game as it could and it shows, as there is always a different piece of music playing when you reach new areas. Other sounds, such as creature grunts and snarls, arrows being drawn and fired, and the voice acting are superb.

While on the subject of voice acting, Ian McKellen reprised his role of the famous wizard Gandalf and provided well over a hundred voiceovers for the game, including narration of 109 clips of reedited movie footage that you'll unlock as your progress. Of course, his acting is amazing, and for fans, the game serves as a nice companion disc to the films.

So let's talk gameplay. The Third Age is an RPG that features turn-based combat similar to SquareEnix's Final Fantasy games. While exploring the game world and collecting items (swords, bows, shields, Shelob slime, and other cool stuff), you'll encounter random battles with Sauron's minions. Often times, you'll know that you're about to fight because an icon will start to glow at the top left of the screen, and when it's at its brightest a familiar picture from the movies will explode onto your TV screen (the eye of Sauron, the white hand mark of Saruman), and when it fades you'll be confronted with the challenge. While you explore Middle Earth with one on-screen character (you can switch them on the fly), you'll only see them all together during battle (and the cut scenes), and the game will arrange them in a certain way depending on the situation. For example, if it's just you and three companions against two orcs, the orcs will be lined up at the top of the screen and your party at the bottom. If you're surrounded, you'll be arranged in a different formation.

Since the battles are turn-based, everything is dependant on whose turn it is to engage. Unlike your standard action game, you can't just run up to the enemy and button mash until he or she (or it) is dead. Rather, you have to wait your turn to fight, so an enemy may start off by firing an arrow at Hadhod (the arrows will stick in them and stay there), and then it'll be the dwarf's turn to land a strike. You can select attacks from a drop down menu at the bottom left portion of your screen, and each attack does a specific amount of damage, and knowing which ones to use are key to being victorious. For example, an attack that does more damage to orcs shouldn't be used on the Balrog. Similarly, the Balrog is immune to fire attacks, so it's these kinds of things you need to be aware of.

All characters in the game have Hit Points (HP) and Action Points (AP), and your success will be dependant on monitoring both. Your HP is your health, so once that zeroes out, your character is finished for the battle (if all of your characters lose their HP, the game's over). Your AP is needed to perform certain attacks, and while you don't need to watch it as much as your HP, it's still an important number to keep your eye on.

There's so much more to the battle system than just HP and AP. After almost every battle someone in your party will be able to level up, which, if you do that (and you should do it often), raises his or her AP and HP. You can also teach them to learn new skills, and outfit them with all sorts of clothes, rings of power, weapons, and other stuff that'll make them more efficient and powerful in battle.

In addition to the single player game (it'll take you well over 20 hours to complete), the game features two-player co-op (you each control three different characters, though only one player can control the out-of-battle character), and an Evil Mode that allows you to play as Sauron's forces and unlock specific evil items. It's a devilishly fun option that allows you to check out all of those nasty attacks that were tearing your team apart in the main game. Also, as you progress throughout the main adventure, you can travel back to previously completed chapters.

While The Third Age is a lot of fun to play, it's not a perfect game, nor is it deserving of a perfect score, the reason being its lack of challenge. Bottom line; the game's too easy. The boss battles may surprise you once and a while, but you're going to breeze through the adventure and you may die a handful of times because you were a little too anxious and underestimated the enemy, but for the most part, because your party constantly levels up, most of the game's enemies won't be much of a challenge at all. They'll attack you with something that drains about 220 HP from one of your characters, then that character will retaliate with an attack that does 2340 worth of HP damage! This makes The Third Age more of a relaxing ride through Middle Earth than an intense experience.

Another thing that may turn you off about this game is how linear it is. Unlike other RPGs, there are no towns to explore, lots of people to talk to, or items to buy. Even though you technically "explore" the environments, you're always on a path. For example, if you come to a fork in the road, it's very likely that one way leads to where you need to go, while the other will be a dead end with a treasure chest at the far corner (and a battle as well). It's a very restrictive system, so if you love to complete your RPGs your own way and go on a zillion side quests that have nothing to do with the overall story, you won't find that here. However, this is all a matter of preference. I, for example, like to somewhat stay on a main path, so for me, The Third Age is golden.

While the game provides you with a map, it doesn't really show you paths that go underground or above you very well, so at times you may get lost, a pain because that means you're going to run into battles while back tracking, though they also work to your benefit because you may be able to level up your characters in the process.

Lastly, there are some frame rate hick ups when too much is going on. It's not a huge deal at all, but it's definitely noticeable if you're standing on top of something and looking down.

To be perfectly honest, I would've purchased The Third Age just for the Balrog battle alone, but thankfully, it's only one of numerous bright spots is this phenomenal RPG from Electronic Arts. It's slightly flawed, but what it does wrong is small potatoes when you take into account the big picture. Simply spectacular in every respect, The Third Age is quite possibly the best RPG of 2004, and it's a must buy for LOTR's fans as well as those looking to play a game that marches to the beat of its own drum.