Now don’t get me wrong, The Hobbit by no means controls poorly, but there here a few little issues that can be annoying. The second thing everyone notices about a video game is how well, or poorly, it controls, and it is here that The Hobbit stumbles slightly. Aside from a few blurry textures and roughness in some of the character models, The Hobbit is a pretty good looking game for nine years old, due in large part to its bright color palate and almost cartoonish art style. There are exceptions, however, and the thing that most often saves a game from becoming a headache inducing mess of blurry pixels is strong, stylized art direction.This is a strength that The Hobbit largely possesses. The first thing everyone notices about a game is its graphics, and it’s well known that a great many games don’t hold up well visually almost ten years after their release dates. Replaying it for the first time in years, I was actually a bit surprised at how well I remembered most of it–and how well the game holds up. So it turns out The Hobbit is a fairly decent game. It should be interesting to see how well the game holds up to my memories. Video game spiders don’t bother me so much anymore, but I can still remember the sheer terror I experienced every time one of those awful, giant monsters jumped out at me from somewhere off screen. I even loved the giant spiders in the Murkwood level, though I was and remain strongly arachnaphobic. I loved everything about the game–the music, the art, the combat, and of course, the story. The Hobbit was the first game I installed on our new-old computer, and it was well worth the wait.
#THE HOBBIT PC GAME REVIEW WINDOWS#
A few months later, when my parents bought a new PC, their old windows XP machine was passed down to us.
#THE HOBBIT PC GAME REVIEW MANUAL#
So instead of playing The Hobbit, I read and reread the manual dozens of times. Needless to say, I was disappointed to learn that the ancient Windows 98 PC I shared with my brothers didn’t have the horse power to even boot up the game. I was already a huge fan of the book, and of the Lord of the Rings movies that had come out so far, and so I had to have it. I remember being so excited when I spotted it on the shelf of a Scholastic book sale–a multi-anual sale held regionally in Scholastic warehouses where, in addition to books, they sell a bizarre collection of old and/or obscure video games. I have so many vivid memories of the game that it feels almost like I’d last played it yesterday, though in reality its been several years. When I think about my favorite games, The Hobbit is easily in the top five. Platforms: GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC, and Game Boy Advance. I think that’s all the necessities taken care of, so let’s get to the feature.
(In this case I’ve actually completed the game in question.) no wikis, reviews, manuals, Youtube videos, etc.Ĥ: I must play at least 5 hours of the game. The rules are the same as the first time:Ģ: I can’t already have played the game in question in the past few years.ģ: I must go into the game cold, I.E. It was always worth it to take a break from the main game to see what was just over the horizon, and it made me appreciate Lego Middle-earth even more.Well, it’s been far too long since I wrote the first Nostalgia in Review, but I’ve finally gotten around to replaying another one of my favorite childhood games. And my efforts here were always rewarded with unique items or hidden characters. I had to go find a lost blacksmith in a mountain cave in one, and play a deranged Lego version of whack-a-mole in another - nothing too exciting, but these diversions are useful for breaking up the action. In order to alleviate this repetition, Lego the Hobbit features open world segments that allowed me to run off the beaten path and complete optional quests. The gameplay slips into a comfortable rhythm, but the simplicity grew stale after a few hours. These are worthwhile for the change of pace, but plain. Sometimes, a combat sequence or platforming section would spice things up. In most sequences, I smashed up the surrounding Lego blocks, solved a few basic puzzles and moved on. Lego the Hobbit's touch of levity kept me interested even when the gameplay became formulaic.