Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Mac) review:2 stars (Beware: GamePad "not supported." Aspyr support disappoints) - I have really enjoyed this game on my brother's X-box. The Aspyr version promised similar game play but with improved graphics (the graphics are great)--and I didn't need to buy an X-box to enjoy it. I bought the iShockII GamePads to facilitate cooperative (2-person) play. The program automatically identifies the controllers and the manual tells you how to set them up. However they don't work. The characters always walk and never run when the controllers do not emulate the keyboard. This makes it impossible to sucessfully complete many levels.

I wrote tech support and got this completely apathetic and misleading answer "I can tell you that The Lord of the RingsÂ#; The Return of the KingÂ# doesn't support gamepad or joystick play." I think Ratburt is the tech support manager there.4 stars (Frustratingly Fun) - I remember when the Two Towers came out for almost every platform EXCEPT for the Mac, needless to say I was a little miffed. But although you still can't get the Two Towers, you can, as you'll obviously have figured out by now, get the Return of the King thanks to EA and Aspyr.
Probably the first thing you'll notice about the game once you begin to play is the very high production quality, footage from the actual films was lifted and grafted perfectly into the game allowing the same footage to blend seemlessly with the action you're thrown into, its a beautifly exicuted idea that words perfectly. With one exception, you can't skip these cimematics the first time through (for each character you play as, even if you've already seen that cinematic switch your character watch it over). But thats not that bad because why wouldn't you watch it the first time anyway? On the other hand there are many cut scenes (the ones using the game's engine) that can NEVER be skipped, this can work to pushing you off the deep end after you fail and restart an exceptionally difficult mission for the eight time, but just the same its no huge deal.
As for the look and feel of the game you should be very empressed. The graphics are top notch, and I wouldn't doubt you if you told me the same team that created the special effects for the movies worked on the game as well. The game is simply brimming with eye candy, the enviroments look a great deal like the movies location thus adding to the great feel of the game. The character detail is excellent, especially with Gandalf, Sam, and those big, black, cleaver wielding orcs. Not to mention the hundreds of animations that you'll see are extreamly smooth and polished, and since each of the playable characters have a wide variety of moves this becomes even more empressive.

But what would great visuals be with no sound to complement them, don't worry this games audio matches the movie itself, you almost wonder if they pulled the sound right out of the films it's that good. Everything is executed flawlessly, the clink of steel on steel (or mithril), the crash of a firey boulder exploding inches before your feet, and don't forget that juicy noise you hear as you plunge a blade into some poor orcs stomach cavity, its all top notch.

Now for the games most prominent flaws: You've all heard that you can only save between levels so I'll only give a nod at those that have said the same because it truely is frustrating when your almost through what you hope is the hardest level when you kick the bucket and have to start over from some inconveniently placed checkpoint. On the flip side though sometimes the save-whenever system can mess things up alot, for instance you save at what you think is a good spot only to find out your chances of completing a mission a extreamly slim, say two champions just entered and one of your allies is dying, worst case senerio, you just overwrited a previous saved game, see what I mean? Another, and in my opinion the largest flaw, thing is the difficultly of the game, some levels can be done on the first one or two attemps, while others can take a dozen or more until you know exactly how to approach every confrontation, depending on your skill level of course. The first few levels shouldn't give you too much trouble, but once you start to move up in the ranks things get dramatically more difficult, especially if you don't know what to do (fortunently due to the games linear structure this isn't too often). For example my hardest level Pellenore Fields (with all the Mumakil and that darn Ring Wraith) caused me so much grief (which had built up from prior levels) that I set the game down for about a week to nurse my emotional wounds, and only completed it because I had a good friend do it for me. Mind you alot of this is player specific stuff, some people approach a games in very different and effictive styles and/or are just really good gamers, and then there's the other, larger faction that find some games to be a snap but can't understand why this one is so hard, I probably fit in the latter of the two. Next is the unstability issue, don't be surprised if your game crashes twice or more times a week, which can be the most annoying thing of all when your seconds away from the mother of all levels and you get kicked out loosing all you checkpoints and sanity. Last and probably least is the fact that enemies can be very moody, they never hesitate to mess of your string of awesome combos you slaved over, clobbering you to pieces, yet when you want to perform a special move which requires an ememy to attack you and you to parry their attack they just hop around in circles adding too the frustration. But this is very minor most of the time as it just makes for a deeper gaming expirence, sort of.

Even with these flaws this is still an excellent game to play and can be insanely fun at times to make you want to keep playing. Plus the extras you can unlock as you complete missions and the game itself make it a very good value, once you complete the game you can use cheats and all the characters on any level adding to the replayability and fun factor so stick through it to the end you'll thank your self.
One last note: I definently DON'T recomend purchasing this game if you only meet the system requirements and still want great sound and visuals. I have a dual 1 GHz G4 tower, 1 gigibyte of ram, a GeForce 4 MX video card, and OS 10.3.2, and the game still skips a beat now and then. in the worst conditions, the frame rate takes a nosedive down to about 5 fps, but that only in the most complex enviroments and when there are a ton of baddies around (I play the game at 800 by 600 resolution, the character detail on high, and the shadows on low). Just the same if you really want the game still go for it, I'm glad I did. *Sorry about the LONG review*.5 stars (Take you back to the middle earth!) - Frankly I never play any other LOTR video games before, and this one really take me back to the middle earth! Footage from the movie perfectly combine with the games. (In one shot you are still enjoying the footage from the movie, the other shot game is start!) Great character detail, great atmosphere - sometimes you are in a situation that you wanna say "OH my god, how can I get through this?!" (I especially like the path of ARgole finding the dead king...) But when I said that I didn't mean to be a tough game, but just VERY exiciting and get you high... often it is so high that after the section is finish, i feel really satisfy and really wanna play again!Bad side. Checkpoint are far far away and you can't really stop in the middle and play it next time... You had better change the keyboard control and like me, get a mouse more than one button... And I hate the way the camera working in this game... it doeen't like other FPS that the view point is control by the mouse, the game decide, so often when you walk around, the view point constantly change and your hand have to adopt it quick... and too bad it ask for 2.2GB for installation. I think the movie can be load from DVD?And so sorry for anyone who find it constatly crash... I never crash.I am running it on a Powebook 15" 867Mhz 1GB ram... It's okay to be run in 1024x768 but i am afarid it will slow to death during scene that contain a lot people... so I run it in 800x600; but still it look nice and I beleive it should run excellent on modern macintosh :)At last, if you love LOTR you got to buy this game!
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Mac) Features:
Computer Games
Macintosh (Machintosh)
Mac
Apple
Adventure
Computer Role Playing Games (Game, crpg, crpgs, rpg, rpgs)
CD
Team up with a companion in all-new Multiplayer mode -- fight side-by-side to defeat Sauron and ensure the destruction of The One Ring
Traverse the haunted Paths of the Dead, defending Minas Tirith from thousands of Sauron's minions as one of 8 characters
Play as Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Sam, and Frodo with voiceovers provided by the films? actors
Twelve interactive levels players will challenge you to swing from ropes, fire catapults, kick boulders, as you face Sauron's hordes
Fight vicious foes including Shelob, the Witch King, the Dark Lord Sauron, and many more

Lord of the Rings- Return of the King (Mac) is the CD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 19.99USD.