The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is being developed by Hypnos Entertainment (who were responsible for the excellent port of the previous EA Lord of the Rings title) for Electronic Arts, and is already looking likely to improve on its successful predecessor in almost every way. Based once again on the forthcoming movie of the same name, Return of the King wraps up the legendary story and charts the final journeys of Frodo, Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli et al in their fight against the evil Sauron.

The game currently boasts a selection of eight playable characters including Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Sam, and Frodo, and takes in a total of twelve levels of third-person action. Reproduced from the films are, among others, the Paths of the Dead, Minas Tirith, Pelennor Fields, and the Crack of Doom, where Frodo and Sam must deliver the ring to the fiery depths of Mount Doom. These areas are of course traveled by different characters in the films, so multiple character paths (Gandalf and Pippin, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas, and Frodo and Sam) give each member of the fellowship a certain branch of the story to complete. Rounding out the cast are the bosses, which include Shelob the giant spider, the Ringwraith King, and…well, we wouldn’t want to spoil the story too much.

The biggest change to the established formula is also the one which almost every player yearned for in the last game: multiplayer co-op. Taking the single-screen route with a camera which does its best to zoom into and out of the action on the fly, you can now cut your way gloriously through the game with a pal in tow. Interestingly, the co-op aspect also extends to health management, as players can ‘share health’ between them if one character is running low. Of course, if you’ve just sliced your way through the hordes with nothing but a scratch, and your partner then wants you to supplement his health after taking a careless beating, you may not always want to co-operate.

Graphically, the game appears to up the ante significantly from The Two Towers, and EA claim to be pushing 2x the number of polygons with 2x the texture density. Of course, this claim can’t be accurately measured, but suffice it to say that the character models, textures, and levels all look even closer to their movie counterparts this time around. In addition, the levels themselves have undergone some significant improvements and are much more interactive than before. Players can jump, fire catapults, swing from ropes, kick boulders, etc. The new freedom of movement should add a welcome layer of strategy to the already enjoyable hack and slash action. Further deepening the gameplay, EA have also implemented a new C-stick control element, enabling multi-directional attacks and combos to be performed.

The Return of the King seems to have every box checked: more characters, bigger levels, better graphics, more exclusive movie footage, and the all-important co-op mode. The battle for Middle-Earth is shaping up to be an enjoyable one.