We’ve seen a Lord of the Rings strategy games, action games and adventure games. Now Electronic Arts is bringing us the first Lord of the Rings RPG for the consoles. The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age is one of EA’s most highly anticipated games, and although they’re not generally known for RPGs, this looks like a title that gamers will want to keep an eye on.

You will play the game as an all-new Fellowship whose destiny will periodically intersect with the beloved Fellowship from the films. Supposedly each of these characters can be noticed at times in the actual movies, so they aren't made up just for the game. At times you will also be able to control some of your favorite characters. For example, I was able to play a bit of the game where your Fellowship joins up with Gandalf to fight the Balrog at Moria. You’ll encounter other familiar characters too, such as Eowyn, Legolas and Aragorn. This new fellowship will include characters that fit the archetype of the characters in the original fellowship. For example, a new dwarf takes Gimli’ place and a new elf will replace Legolas. During your adventure you’ll travel through familiar Lord of the Rings locations, like Minas Tirith and Helm’s Deep, but also get the chance to see environments that the movies didn’t pay as much attention to. The Third Age will cover all three of the movies, so you’ll get the entire Lord of the Rings experience in a single game!

The game’s turn-based gameplay will look similar to anyone familiar with the Final Fantasy series, but it has plenty of originality to offer. One interesting twist The Third Age offers is the ability to play as the villains. You can unlock missions that allow you to fight on the side of Sauron in an attempt to cover all the lands of Middle Earth in shadow! Each of your heroes/villains is completely upgradeable, allowing you to enhance their weapons, fighting styles and attributes. The deep skill tree allows you to acquire unique skills for each character, including melee combat, ranged attack, defense and magic skills.

The game promises to be full of side quests, including hidden characters, powerful items all based on Lord of the Rings mythology and secret weapons. The game is free roaming, so you’ll have plenty of time to explore Middle Earth. A very interesting twist on combat is that you will be able to ride horses or Wargs into battle so you can charge through your enemies. You’ll have 6 characters and will manage a party of up to 4 at a time in battle.

This beautifully detailed world will pull gamers into the Middle Earth. The Third Age uses an enhanced version of the same engine that was used in EA’s Return of the King, so the games style is noticeably similar. Expect The Third Age to offer the same kind of graphic beauty as The Return of the King. Much like Return of the King, The Third Age will also be fully voice acted using voices straight from the movies. There will also be voice-overs by actors from the trilogy.

The expected release date is currently fall of 2004. RPG fans and Lord of the Rings fans alike should mark their calendars in anticipation for what may very well be one of the years best RPGs.