The storyline adheres pretty strictly to that of the books (which should keep the hardcore fraternity happy); starting with Frodo, Sam and Pippin encountering a Ringwraith looking for the Ring and meeting up with Gildor. Journeying on you meet up with Farmer Maggot, who gives you disturbing news of Ringwraiths, and lets you have a large basket of mushrooms. Travelling onwards you meet up with foes such as Old Man Willow, The Barrow Wights and Nazgul, but also befriending Strider and being rescued by Tom Bombadil. Frodo gets poisoned by a Morgul Knife, and desperately across the River Bruinen you watch the floodwaters rise up to engulf the Nazgul. You will get to talk with the council of Elrond deciding the fate of the one Ring; then The Fellowship of the Ring is formed. Gandalf will struggle with the password to the door of Moria, and The Watcher in the Water will attack Frodo… you get the idea, I think, It’s rather authentic! Of course, this would have been quite easy to predict; given that the fantasy community would probably not have relished a game blaspheming the plottings of the original fantasy creator, or indeed the novels which mark something of a tour de force for the genre. The adventure leanings in the game are obvious, what isn’t clear is the exact balance of traditional and adventure values.

Not to be left out of the continually growing amount of games available for the GBA, The Part 1 should also be available for the fledgling hand-held, also in October 2002. This too will be an RPG that follows the story of Frodo through situations and characters from the first two books.

Back to the title which, to me at least, seems to promise good graphics and, most importantly, interesting and refined gameplay. But will it all be too much? As much as I enjoyed the books, and Peter Jackson’s excellent film, I am not particularly biting at the bit for this game to be released (though there will be those that are). That’s not to say that I wont give it a go, I will, but unlike that appeals to the kid in us all (well me anyway), will this game have enough actual ‘gameplay’, instead of relying on the story (and of course the brand-name, natch), to keep us all interested? I hope so, for if any novel deserves a decent game, it must surely be this.

We await more detail on this (and the other ‘Rings’ games), and will, as ever, be sure to keep you in the know.

By Louise Cookson