It's easy to be leery of console-to-PC ports, particularly in the case of full-on action games. All too often, the port is a one-off without any consideration taken for the particular needs of PC gamers. Still, when I was offered the chance to review the PC version of Return of the King, I jumped at it. Not only was it the sequel to the fun-though-flawed Two Towers game I enjoyed on the PS2, but the early versions of the game I played at E3 and Camp EA seemed like marked improvements over the original. Fortunately, my gamble paid off. Return of the King is a highly polished and very enjoyable action title that, while not the equal of its console counterparts, is still a terrific action game on the PC.

The basic story of Lord of the Rings is well known to most, and RotK follows the last part of the tale, starting with the battle at Helm's Deep and eventually ending up in an all out brawl at the Cracks of Doom. The game has 14 missions, each of which is played through the first time using specific characters. Once the game's been beaten, the missions can then be replayed using new characters from the film -- including three unlockable ones.

Burn, Baby, Burn!
If I had to choose just one reason to play this game, it would have to be the game's presentation. The original game, The Two Towers, pioneered an interesting technique where actual footage from the Peter Jackson movies would magically transition into in-game models as missions began. RotK also uses this technique, but the developers have clearly mastered it. Transitions between film and game models are smoother, the choice of edited film footage is better, and the pre-mission cinematics are constructed to be much more exciting. While the pre-mission films are a bit too long to watch every time you play, the first time through they do a great job hyping you up for the action to come.

Once you get down into the action, the presentation continues to impress. While the phrase "Play the Movie!" has been beaten to death over the years by marketing types, RotK does an incredible job at making you feel like you've really entered one of Peter Jackson's insanely complicated battle sequences. This is partially because of the game's well-implemented camera system. The angles selected are almost always well chosen and let you get a good sense of the action and let players see and control their characters in combat. It's not perfect, of course. Once in a while the camera will fail to follow as your character moves off screen or behind scenery, and there's one entire mission ("The Battle of Pelennor Fields") that has some really poor camera positions.

Never mock the size of a wizard's wand.
The big reason for that sense of immersion, though, is how well the mission playfields and the missions themselves are constructed. The game absolutely leads the player by the nose from one point to the next, but the layout of the levels gives the player much more freedom than normal for this type of game. Mission construction has also progressed from the "move from point A to B and kill everything in between" style of previous games in this genre. Missions in RotK are being constantly interrupted by quick in-engine cutscenes and character voiceovers that present varied new challenges.

In just one example, the defense of Helm's Deep mission has the player playing as Gandalf. The first few minutes are taken up just beating up orcs, but that quickly changes when the orcs storm over the bridge to a small gate. You'll need to fight your way over a wall to three ballistas and use the "interact" control to fire them at the orcs and save the tower. A later mission has the player as Sam sneaking his way through the Tower of Cirith Ungol trying to avoid two tribes of fighting orcs in order to rescue Frodo.