The Third Age Details Emerge

Nintendo Power recently conducted an interview with The Third Age's Executive Producer Steve Gray, who divulged all kinds of information about the title. Below is an excerpt of some of the interview's highlights. Be sure to check out Nintendo's official site for the full transcript.

Q: If players already know how the trilogy turns out, how do you keep things interesting? Can events you saw in the film go differently in the game timeline?

A: You are playing as Player-created characters who need to find their way through Middle-earth and participate in the story in interesting and deeply meaningful ways. The Player will build and experience a story wrapped around the thrilling events of Peter Jackson's films. Like any game, you can influence the events -- it wouldn't be very much fun if you always win!

Q: What scenes will "intersect" the game's plot from the movie? What kind of areas can we expect that weren't in the film? Can you give a rough percentage breakdown of "non-movie areas" vs. "movie areas"?

A: You will definitely experience the pivotal moments from the films -- two good examples are the fight with the Balrog in Khazad Dum, and the encounter between Eowyn, Merry, and the Witch King on the Pelennor Fields.

Q: We understand you play as one principal character that you generate -- is this correct? What kind of character creation options (both visual and "stat sheet"-style) will you have? Are there any "classes" to choose?

A: You will be able to configure, manage, develop skills, and equip items on your entire party. You will acquire more party members during the course of the game. There will be both good and evil parties.

Q: Is Peter Jackson or any of the film cast or crew directly involved with The Third Age? Is anyone recording new voice-over?

We're using voiceover from the film actors as well as motion capture data from the stunt doubles used in the films for our fighting animations. As with our previous The Lord of the Rings games, there's a strong partnership with New Line so that we start with the same 'blueprint' of Middle-earth from an asset standpoint.