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The Hobbit Review - Xbox

What bad things can you say about a story that has sold over 100 million books, and been translated into 26 different languages? Not much. When a game is half-heartedly thrown together to represent the prequel to this epic story however, we can pull a thread here and there. The Hobbit is a story about Bilbo Baggins on his journey through Mirkwood, Laketown, the Lonely Mountain, and other familiar areas to any Lord of the Rings fan. Throughout his journey, he meets Galdalf, Thorin, Gollum, Elrond, and many more legendary characters. The game takes you inside the Lonely Mountain where you must confront the dragon Smaug, and also to the Battle of the Five Armies… but is it worth buying?

Gameplay

The Hobbit is a 3rd person Action/Adventure title. As you go around the environment, you can collect rupees for your strength, and mushrooms which give you health. All you have to do is walk near the items for them to magically fly up into you. There are also chests around which often have rocks in them (why?) and health potions, along with the currency of the game - silver coins. Thankfully there are a lot of save points throughout the game, in fact after you finish each little area there is usually a save point. This means you don't have to go all the way back to the start of the level if you die - that would be death in itself anyway. There are different weapons to use, each of them are a little less interesting than the other. You can throw rocks, and you can use your walking stick, and so much more!

At the heart of the game lies a most enthralling combat system (mind the sarcasm). A press release that came out not too long before the game was released told us to behold the deep combat systems combined with the best elements of action, stealth, role-playing and puzzle solving. Are they for real? By stealth, one can assume that they mean tip-toeing past a giant troll whilst it yawns, even though the character model doesn't feature a tip-toe animation. Yes, you are playing the roll of Bilbo, so I guess it's a good role-playing game, but the combat system is nowhere near as advanced at games that are built entirely for the gameplay, not just a way to make more money from a leading story by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The user interface is well laid out, in the top left of the screen you have your health and manner bars, in the bottom left you have your weapon charge bar. The bottom right has how much money you have, and the top right has the amount of rocks and health potions in your inventory. Many people claim that this game is much like a Zelda title, where it is actually far from it. (continued next page)