The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age

By Hardcore

Before I strip bare The Lord of the Rings™: The Third Age™ and lay before you the tips you'll need to turn this Middle Earth roleplaying game (RPG) into the glorious hardcore game that it can be, I must first commend the folks at EA for having the balls to step away from their tried-and-true real-time combat. I dig their The Lord of the Rings™: The Two Towers™ and The Lord of the Rings™: The Return of the King™ games (and the orc smiting carnage they produce), but just adding more RPG elements to that gameplay would have been an easy out.

Cleaning up the Fellowship's dirty work.

Instead, we've been given a throwback RPG that embraces turn-based combat and old-school leveling up with contemporary twists. What hardcore gaming enthusiast can resist a retro RPG with all the bells and whistles of a current generation game? If you said "I could," you're either stupid or you haven't played the game yet, so just stop reading and see if your mom is ready to take you to soccer practice yet.

Enough hyperbole, though. Let's get down to the matter at hand, and that's how to wring out every bit of challenge we can from the game. With an RPG this large, you want to be satisfied with your efforts the first time through. You need to avoid exploits … and not avoid battles. You need to impose limitations and self-made challenges, and you need to play in the spirit of the game. Luckily, the framework given to us offers little exploits and plenty of opportunity for self-induced challenges.

Floggings for Power Leveling
Power leveling, or grinding as some would call it, is an old trick, and one that has made a substantial resurgence with the advent of massively multiplayer online RPGs (MMORPGs). Within the confines of a single-player RPG, grinding out levels is flat-out cheating, nothing more. If you don't have the ability to win battles without spending hours leveling up by fighting the same group of monsters over and over again, then just pack up your Xbox and give it to a friend. You don't deserve it.

Ready to die?

Stalling Effects
Throughout your quest, you'll uncover abilities that will allow you to stall your enemies in combat. The Dunedain Ranger Elegost, in particular, has several, including a blinding shot, a sleeping shot, and a paralyzing shot. Using these abilities is just admitting to the enemy that you don't have the might or strategy to beat them head on. Use stalling tactics only in cases of extreme emergency (e.g. you haven't saved in four hours and have less than 100 hit points).

Resist Retreat
During non-boss or story-specific encounters, you're often given the ability to retreat from battle. My advice? Just pretend that option is not there. Although, if you want to retreat just one or two players and do battle shorthanded, you have my blessing.

No Substitutions
During battles, you can substitute a character with no penalty. For example, if Berethor is on death's door, I can call in another character (if they're not already fighting) to have them take his place. Resist this urge! A battle won with reinforcements is a moral defeat.

Matching Up
You'll fight all manner of creatures during your quest through Middle Earth, and usually, when you see what your enemy is throwing at you, you can counter with characters that are specifically effective against them. That's the easy road. Instead, I suggest matching up your skills and characters directly to the enemy. If they use no magic, you use no magic. If they have no ranged weapons, you use no ranged weapons.

Against the Grain
Here's a brutal one: Level up your characters along their opposite path. For example, Idrial is clearly intended for magical means. However, if you never use any of her magical abilities, she will not obtain any more. Instead, use her as your primary melee force. Conversely, Berethor is the definitive meat shield of the group, so (to really throw a challenge at yourself) make him focus primarily on non-aggressive magic and skills whenever possible.

All RPGs are about options. With combat strategy, equipment choices, or ability learning, you always have a choice, which makes it the perfect game for the hardcore player. Mold your experience to provide a brutal challenge. That's what hardcore gaming is all about.