Perhaps the coolest aspect outside of the combat system however, is the Story Card system in the game’s menus. Story Cards are individual snippets of the LotR movies that have been re-mastered and voiced over by Ian McKellen, that provide a piece of the backstory in to the game. There are 100 cards in all, and in our quest, we came across an appropriate card for the Mines, which had McKellen discussing how we were far luckier than the Fellowship in traversing the mines. While this really isn’t critical to the core gameplay, it’s good to see EA doing more than just slapping a LotR name on a RPG, and calling it a day.

With that said, the version of The Third Age that we saw is looking very good at this point, and it’s obvious that EA is close to getting it out of the door. If you’re looking for a good old-fashioned LotR RPG adventure, Lord of the Rings: The Third Age is probably for you.