First Impressions: ‘The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest’ For Wii

At Comic Con, the folks at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment gave us a walk through of their new family friendly Lord of the Rings title, The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest. Rated E10+, Aragorn’s Quest takes a drastically different tone and gameplay style from the recently revealed The Lord of the Rings: War in the North.

Shown on the Wii, Aragorn’s Quest has players listen to the tales of Samwise Gamgee as he explains to his children the events of The Lord of the Rings, focusing on the tale of the current king Aragorn. Over the course of eight chapters, players are then given the opportunity to take the role of Aragorn on a series of quest that follow the events of the three films. Each quest contains smaller side quests players can embark on.

Having Samwise voiced by Sean Astin and Gimlee voiced by John Rhys-Davies is meant to keep an older audience into the game as they help younger players through it. Unfortunately during our walk through, the noise of the convention prevented us from experiencing the voice acting.

The game has a simple visual style that strays away from the dark overtones of the film and previous game titles. There is no blood or any other effects that would go against the game’s family friendly image. Using the WiiMote, players hack and slash their way through hordes of goblins, orcs, spiders and trolls in an effort to escort Frodo to the peak of Mount Doom to destroy the one ring. Different motions result in different strikes. During combat, directional prompts will appear to perform specific actions and finishing blows. Players will also have a chance to switch between ranged and melee combat as well.

Because it is geared towards a younger audience, expect the game to help guide players throughout. Prompts will appear on the ground to lead players to desired locations and help players through combat situations. This isn’t going to be a must have for fans of The Lord of the Rings but rather a good way to introduce a younger audience to the mythos of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Take a peek below at footage from the Con of The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest in action as well as some of its screen shots. Aragorn’s Quest will be available for the Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and PSP systems. A release date is still to be determined.