Developer
Inevitable Entertainment

Released: November 11, 2003
Genre: Action
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone

7
8
9
6
8.4

Supported Features:

The Hobbit is a third-person action/adventure prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy set in the world of Middle-earth. In this adventure, you play as Bilbo Baggins, an unassuming Hobbit who has been unwittingly thrust into an epic adventure. Explore the mystical world of Middle-earth where you’ll need to jump gaping chasms, climb treacherous mountains, solve mind bending puzzles and battle hordes of enemies just to survive. Meet enchanting Elves, battle-ready Dwarves, a powerful Wizard, massive Trolls, bloodthirsty goblins, and more as you traverse from the peaceful lands of the Shire to the harrowing forests of Mirkwood.

The Hobbit features:

• Authentic licensed story and characters based upon J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, the prelude to The Lord of the Rings
• Jump, ledge grab, shimmy, climb ropes and ladders in traditional platform gameplay as you journey through the legendary world of Middle-earth with expansive 3-D action-packed environments.
• Play in such recognizable areas as Mirkwood, Laketown, and the Lonely Mountain
• Meet legendary characters like Gandalf, Thorin, and Gollum along your journey
• Confront the dragon Smaug in the depths of Lonely Mountain and take on teams of enemies in the epic Battle of the Five Armies
• Master the deep combat systems combined with the best elements of action, stealth, role-playing and puzzle solving.
• Battle hordes of orcs, goblins, wargs and more in your epic quest to retake Lonely Mountain.

You can tell when the masters of adventure are at work and Sierra has fleshed out the gameplay with some stunning cutscenes that tell the story as it was presented in the original novel with a few “liberties”. The first obvious tangent from the novel is Bilbo’s eager acceptance of the quest, something he was quite opposed to in the book. But this is a game and we can’t be dwelling on Bilbo’s internal qualms without delaying the gameplay so I can understand the rewrite.

The game starts off in the Shire and those of you that played the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring will note some very nice consistencies with the overall layout of the Shire between the two titles. As Bilbo you get to explore the Shire that consists of several homes, the mill, and plenty of characters to interact with.

The Shire is your tutorial and you will be given several quests and have to collect plenty of items scattered about the area. A quest log lists your pending quests and you can have multiple tasks going on at the same time. One of the earlier quests, a game of hide and seek with several children, cannot be completed until you solve another quest that allows the bridge to be repaired so you can reach the far side of the river.

When all of your quests have been completed you will trigger the movie that leads into the next level and move on. It’s a linear progression that has you advancing through the story with little or no backtracking. This aspect definitely tips the scale toward the adventure style of gameplay, since platform games usually feature a central hub that allows you to return to previous levels.

Bilbo will get to travel to all sorts of exciting locations throughout Middle-earth and meet all of the rich and colorful characters from the book including Gandalf, Gollum, the Dwarves, and the climactic encounter with Smaug, the dragon. All of these elements remain surprisingly true to the book but there are several side-quests that deviate from the printed story in order to make the game more playable and longer.

These diversions still maintain the style and charm of the original story simply by taking place in authentic Middle-earth locations. Most of these quests include collecting lots of treasure, weapons, special items, potions, keys, health, money, and more. It’s action gaming, pure and simple.

The GameCube controller is perfectly suited to moving Bilbo around these wonderful locations and allowing him to run, climb, jump, swing on ropes, and use a variety of weapons including his staff, sword, and he can even toss the occasional rock at distant enemies. You have free control over the camera with the C-stick and there is a nice auto-lock system in place to assist with combat.

There are some interesting environmental puzzles, one of which includes riding the waterwheel to reach a loft area. Quests and puzzles are generally simple and including plenty of item retrieval and delivery to specific persons in the area. It’s nothing terribly advanced or difficult but it all works and works well within the genre and the target age group.

Character models are simple with smooth flowing lines, rich details, and colorful textures. Just looking at the Bilbo character you can see multiple levels of clothing, inventory items hanging off his belt, and a charming facial design that really expresses some emotion in the close-up views. Animation is really good for the most part with a few instances where things get jerky or appear slightly unnatural.

The camera works about 90% of the time and you can adjust it about 8% of the time when it doesn’t leaving you getting screwed by the camera on a few occasions. There were times when the camera would hang on objects and I couldn’t pivot to the right angle to save my Hobbit hide. Admittedly, these incidents were few and far between but they do exist and will take some clever positioning of your character before the camera starts to work for you again.

Framerate is fluid at 30fps for most of the game but it does dip noticeably in large areas or during intense combat. It never really detracted from the gameplay, and considering the massive scale of some levels, the draw distance out to the horizon, all of the special effects, 3D grass, reflective water, and ambient animation going on, I was impressed with the end results.

I was really surprised at how good this game sounded considering there is only standard surround support. I can only imagine how much better it would have been in Dolby Pro Logic II. Sounds are crystal clear and perfectly matched to the visuals totally enhancing the game experience. Every creature has a unique sound and even the environments come to life in wonderful and often spooky aural detail with multiple layers of sound.

The voice acting is also of the utmost quality with wonderful performances, nice but not overwhelming accents, and quality scripted dialogue. Everyone talks and everything is captioned. The movies and in-game dialogue all come together to create a wonderful multimedia experience.

There is a perfect mix of action, adventure, and platform gameplay that makes The Hobbit one of those rare hybrid games that will appeal to several types of gamers of all age groups. You might want to hold off on a purchase until the price drops, but anyone who loves the works of Tolkien or just looking for a family-friendly game will definitely want to play The Hobbit.