"It began with the forging of the Great Rings. Three were given to the Elves... Seven to the Dwarf Lords... and nine... nine rings were gifted to the race of Men. But they were all of them deceived... For another Ring was made.
--Galadriel, Lego Lord of the Rings
After the many entries in the Lego Star Wars subseries, the greatest fantasy offerings in cinema, the three Lord of the Rings films, finally received their own Lego treatment in 2012. Yes, the Vita version is abbreviated to some extent by comparison to the standard console editions--an example as early as the very first level is the total exclusion of a fight with Sauron as a boss before the Ring is cut from him--and yet it still is a major improvement over previous Vita Lego games like Lego Batman 2. Lego Lord of the Rings benefits from vastly improved cutscene quality and a semi-open world, which Lego Batman 2 lacked despite debuting slightly earlier that same year. It towers above the Lego The Hobbit on the same platform. Comparing the two on the Vita reveals an enormous level of inconsistency in how the system's Lego games of the time were designed.
Production Values
For a more than decade old handheld version of a Lego game, Lego Lord of the Rings looks great on the Vita and would not have had a low graphical quality even when it first came out for the system by comparison to the standards of the time. Some of the major problems with Lego Batman 2's Vita production values, like its extremely blurry story cutscenes, have departed for this game, despite the periodic presence of glitches like studs sometimes disappearing into the ground after death. Voice acting also returns, with the lines getting included directly from the movies. Since the full dialogue of most scenes the game adapts is not present, you are just only hearing part of the context for the lines in Peter Jackson's trilogy, with the most significant or famous ones for a scene getting used.
Gameplay
The series of levels are scattered at various points in a web of connected hub worlds, which together form an "open world" with individual parts ranging from small to expansive areas. In the small "open world" segments between story levels, the minimally controllable camera can be extremely close behind the player's character, making it difficult to see the environment, but the fixed camera of the levels themselves both simplifies looking around and matches up with the more conventional Lego approach. Levels are introduced and concluded with cutscenes that show a much quicker version of the major events of the films before letting you control the characters. In story mode, the core characters like Frodo, Legolas, and Aragorn gradually obtain new passive or active abilities that their previous selves did not have, like an extended number of hearts or the use of Elvish rope to pull things down.
Occasional quick-time events like the one necessary to pummel the Balrog as Gandalf while falling into the depths beneath the Mines of Moria help vary the gameplay, which at least does have the progressive ability element to also help distinguish it from the mechanics of other Lego games. Just do not expect the world in which all of this occurs to be a precise copy of the console version: the general environments are the same (not just the settings of the Shire or Moria or Helm's Deep), just without the exact item placement or even items, among other things, as the PS3 version. Instead of the traditional 10 minikits or similar items, there are less than five character icons to find in each level (which unlock characters for purchase) and less than five treasures, objects that can eventually be traded to NPCs in the world hubs for things like red bricks. Speaking to and finding the right item(s) for each applicable NPC is one of the requirements to get 100% and receive the platinum trophy.
Story
Some spoilers are below.
This game follows the overall story of all three Lord of the Rings movies closely, starting with the defeat of Sauron's physical form in the War of the Last Alliance, moving on to the formation of the Fellowship of the Ring and its journey through places like Moria, the taming of Gollum, and the Battle of Helm's Deep, ending shortly after the destruction of the Ring in Mount Doom. No one who has seen and memorized the plot of the films will find narratively anything different here besides Lego humor, albeit a version of the comedy that has been significantly toned down.
Intellectual Content
The exploration of power, the varying impact of an object like the Ring on different individuals, and the Christianity-inspired backstory of how Middle-earth came to be, with its own demonic rebellion against the uncaused cause, are unsurprisingly left to the side of this game in order to streamline the Lego style of storytelling. In this case, there is nothing problematic about this given what the series is going for though a more serious kind of game does have the potential to reach a higher and simultaneously more foundational depth all at once when dealing with a story like this. For a Lord of the Rings game that better dives into lore and deeper themes, anyone who can still play it should try something more like the turn-based RPG Lord of the Rings: The Third Age.
Conclusion
Lego Lord of the Rings probably is a distinctly better game on the PS3 or Xbox 360, though the Vita version is much better than it could have been and, indeed, far better than it likely would have been had it come out even slightly earlier in the Vita's life cycle (as with Lego Batman 2). Despite the omissions, this portable version is still largely successful at what it does attempt. Even now it stands as a strong effort in this kind of gaming style and an easy way to earn a platinum trophy for any PS Vita owners who would be willing to spend some time with it. In addition to this, even its worst flaws do not rival the bizarre limitations and changes made to the Vita version of Lego The Hobbit.
Content:
1. Violence: Lego minifigures hit an disassemble each other in what is extremely non-graphic combat.
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