Revisiting the Weird Legacy of Lord of the Rings: The Third Age – Gizmodo

This actually happens in the game and it is both awesome and dumb as hell.Image: EA Games

The Lord of the Rings movies came out at arguably the height of video game movie tie-ins. The series got everything from traditional hack-and-slash action games to strategy titles, but one of the weirdest and most interesting of them all was 2004's The Third Age. Part Final Fantasy knock-off, part movie retelling, it asked a weird question: How do you tell the story of the Fellowship of the Ring, without the Fellowship actually being there?

The answer: you make your own Fellowship with the serial numbers filed off.

Although there are no Hobbits to be found in The Third Ages retinue, its motley party essentially follows in the shadow of the Fellowship in Lord of the Rings from the get-go with an almost comical closeness. There are two Gondorians, a Knight named Berethor and a Ranger named Elegost, two Rohirrim, a member of Theodens guard (oaden) and a villager (Morwen), an Elf (Idrial), and a Dwarf (Hadhod). Opening with Berethor being ambushed on the way to Rivendell to accompany Bormirs party to the council of Elrond in Fellowship of the Ring. From there its a 30-hour re-imagining of the Lord of the Rings movies with RPG mechanics that can only be diplomatically described as stolen out of the back of a truck labeled The Kids Like That Final Fantasy X, Right?

Its comical how close behind the regular Fellowshipa thing you can apparently just become by gathering a few random people about, instead of it being some kind of formal title like the one Elrond grants Frodo and his retinueis to the actual one throughout the events of The Third Age. Guided by psychic communication from Gandalfin the form of unlockable clip reels from the films and new Sir Ian McKellen narration (why didnt he think of doing that with Frodo after the Fellowship got separated? His death and rebirth doesnt stop him chatting to Berethor!)Berethor and his friends race from the forests around Rivendell to Moria. Then from there to the villages of Rohan and Helms Deep, and eventually Osgiliath, Minas Tirith, and even literally the top of Barad-dr to go take turns poking at Saurons giant eyeball to end the game.

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Aside from rare moments the party is actually alongside main LotR charactershelping Gandalf fight the Balrog in Moria and the Witch King at Minas Tirith, or helping Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli hold Helms Deeptheyre explicitly in the primary Fellowships shadow, just off-screen or mere moments behind them. At one point in Moria its your party that gets to watch the Dwarven skeleton Pippin knocks loose plummet through the ceiling to land right in front of you. At another, as you ascend Minas Tiriths levels during the siege to aid Gandalf, you literally reach the top as Denethor runs screaming past you in flames, turning his death into something that definitely needs the Benny Hill theme playing in the background:

But for all the completely uncommented-upon absurdity of having a LotR game play so close to the characters and events of the films (but with original protagonists), its the moments the story of The Third Age steps distinctly away from the premise of the films that its perhaps the strangest. Early on in Gandalfs film-reel communique with Berethor, you learn that the wizard has tapped you for some kind of greatness that Berethor cannot remember in the slightest (presumably its well let you go poke Saurons eye with a stick in 40 hours while Frodo does the actual work). In fact, Berethor cant really remember much of anything at the start of the game, other than that a) he deserted the prior battle for Osgiliath between the Gondorian forces under Boromir and Faramirs command and Saurons orcs, and b) hes meant to catch up with Boromirs party at the Council of Elrond. And yet, throughout early parts of The Third Age, Berethor is plagued with these visionsboth the warnings of his import from Gandalf and eventually darker threats from Saruman (a returning Christopher Lee).

Its eventually revealed that Berethor is apparently the most put upon human in Middle-Earth. Prior to the events of the game, he was sinisterly ensorcelled by Saruman who believed Boromir would succumb to the Rings power and claim it for Gondor at the Council of Elrond (or wrest it from Frodo). With Berethor as Sarumans unknowing accomplice at the meeting, he would awaken as The Gondorian Candidate and take the ring for Saruman. But he didnt! And Berethor was fine, because...reasons. Because he stood next to Aragorn for a bit at Helms Deep? Its left unclear. But thats not all! He pulls what can only be described as a Reverse Aragor. First, theres a completely lifeless romance subplot where first Berethor falls for Idrial after she rescues him at the start of the game, only for her to go wait, were introducing a Rohan woman for you to actually end up with instead. In addition, during the second battle for Osgiliath its revealed the reason Berethor fled the first time around was due to the fact that, like Frodo, he was stabbed with the Witch Kings Morgul blade. Unlike Frodo however, this did not slowly poison Berethor and turn him into a Wraith, it just...did nothing until he had to pry the Morgul blades tip out of his chest mid-fight so that he could do harm to the Ringwraith.

Its... bananas. Made all the more bananas that this absurdist Middle-Earth fanfic is wrapped around a perfunctory knockoff of the combat mechanics of Final Fantasy X which, at the time, was one of the most beloved console RPGs around. It makes revisiting The Third Age like playing a weird mix of pretty fine turn-based Fantasy RPG in between moments of Ian McKellen lore-dumping Lord of the Rings to you. And yet theres a charm in its unintended zaniness that few other LotR games have captured since. There have been better playing gamesthe Shadow of Mordor/Shadow of War duology, for examplebut none have quite so captured the themes at the heart of the movies and J.R.R. Tolkiens novels. Its all there, in its own weird way: the idea of perseverance in the face of darkness, that the most unlikely among us can rise to the occasion and become heroes, that destiny can be challenged and taken into your own hands. It just happens to throw one hell of a Middle-Earth-shaped kitchen sink at you in the process.

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