Customer Reviews
LOTR The Third Age 
2008-09-11
If you bought the LOTR The Return of the King strategy guide from Prima, the The Third Age strategy guide is nothing like the Return of the King guide. It was still useful and informative.
Very inaccurate guide 
2007-03-10
This guide has many errors as far as what certain character (enemy) classes are immune to. The game itself is not that hard and you really don't need the maps in this guide for anything. So this guide basically fails at the one thing it could have been useful for. Really, for the money that Prima makes selling these guides, there is no excuse for putting out a shoddy product filled with mistakes. As another reviewer said, you can find better, more accurate guides online. This is definitely one guide that you should pass on and just save your money. Even if you loved this game like I did, this guide is not worth the investment (even for a few dollars used - I got mine cheap and ended up just giving it away since it's pretty useless).
You can find a better walkthrough online 
2005-08-10
This walkthrough was horrible. Yes, it tells you where to go, but I rely on all the fine points. The information is, in total, WRONG. I spent almost half the game building up this one "skill", because the "Witch-king" is vulnerable to it. Turns out he ISN'T vulnerable to it, the book had wrong information, and while in a fight with the King of the Nazgul, it isn't good to not have any attacks. (*.-) So right now as the Witch-King is waving his mace around on the PS2, I am writing this to let you all know that it's a better idea to just find one online, or just stop cheating. (*.*) By the way, He is NOT Vulnerable to "Bind Spirit".
it covered what needed to be covered 
2005-04-08
Prima's Strategy Guide for the Playstation 2 game "Lord of the Rings: The Third Age" is a mixed bag in regards to how helpful it is. For my needs, I found the guide to be quite helpful. To start with, there is quite a bit of information on each character and which of the stats should be improved for each character, and which skills are the most valuable for that character to learn. There are sections of the guide focusing on all of the weapons, armor, and items in the game. There is a bestiary at the end of the guide giving stats on all of the enemies. All of this is nice, but the real reason most people purchase a strategy guide is the full game walkthrough.
The walkthrough itself is the part of the guide which may give the most help and cause the most confusion/frustration. What will help the most is that the guide gives a very good run down on what it is that you are supposed to, in what order you should do it (in those instances you have a choice), and what some of the best tactics are to help you succeed. The guide, in text form, gives description of the goals, enemies, and what items are won or found in the area. There are some boss strategies included. This isn't a very complex game so the general strategies the guide gives are really good enough (use crippling attacks or Arrows of Sleep when they work, use powerful attacks) for what the game requires. In this manner the guide was quite helpful and I was able to complete the game with 100% of the tasks/quests completed.
The downside of the walkthrough is a lack of clarity and a little bit of inaccuracy. There are maps at the beginning of each chapter with numbers relating to which event is happening at which location. Maps are usually excellent tools for working through a game. The trouble here is that the maps are very vague. Imagine a map of the United States. It's a fairly small map and you know that Minnesota is somewhere to the north and in the center of the country. Suppose there are only a few main roads that you can possibly take to get to Minnesota from Georgia. If the map doesn't identify which road you are on or where exactly you are starting from on the map, you may end up getting to Minnesota but you won't know where exactly you are until you get there. That is pretty much what the maps in the guide are like. Some levels are better, others are worse. I do feel that the text description overcomes the flaws with the maps, but there is no quick glancing at the map to get a grasp of where you are.
The other downside is a question of accuracy. The guide will list times where Crippling Attacks (an attack which will delay the turn of an enemy, it is incredibly valuable) are to be used but it turns out that the enemy is really immune to it (and vice versa). This happens more often towards the end of the guide and since the strategies are typically fairly simple this inaccuracy is easily overcome, but it is a little irritating when you waste a crippling attack over a more powerful attack in a difficult battle.
I think I would have preferred a few more enemy charts and better maps within the walkthrough section, but overall I didn't have a problem with this guide. It helped me clear the game 100% (I'm sure I would have missed something) and to get all the best armor and weapons until I got too lazy to follow directions on the last chapter. By no means is this the best guide ever, but it helped me finish the game and it covered all of the information that was actually needed for me to make it through the game.
-Joe Sherry
For a strategy guide, it was not very good 2005-01-16
Everyone usually looks at a strategy guide at once in their life, whether it be for a Role Playing game, a Teen game, a Mature game, or a Everyone game. I've looked at bunches of strategy guides in my life, and, to be truthful, I've seen guides in magazines that are better. It tells you about the characters, the guests, the items, and so on. But the guide itself....
I've seen guides with mistakes before, after all, you can't catch every mistake. But this book abounded with them. The book got confused with what item was here, and what item was there. It'll say an item is in one place, but its a different piece of equipment. Where that equipment is supposed to be, is the piece that was supposed to be in the other spot.
There is enough typos and grammatical errors that it isn't even funny. One is funny. Maybe even two. But any more than that, and its utterly ridiculous.
And the enemy strategies. Wow. They really botched that up. The strategies in themselves were good, until they contradicted themselves. For example, the giant elephants (I forget what they're called) have little cards with stats, and a little spot in the back of the book with stats. If you look, it'll say things like Slow: Immune. However, if you go into the middle where the strategy is, it says to use a Crippling attack, which works really good against them (which also means they are effected). However, Crippling attacks are slow attacks, and the elephants are immune to them.
Another case, the Witch King of Angmar, 3rd battle. It says Eowyn is a good asset. Hello! My people do 20,000-40,000 damage per attack, and she does a measly 2500 damage! How is that an asset? Also, it says he is vulnerable to Bind Spirit spells, like Silence Evil. It also says that on the card and in the back. But he is immune!
The Evil Mode help isn't even help. And sometimes it doesn't even give a complete list of items achieved.
I do NOT reccommend this guide to someone who actually expects to be decently helped. Yes, it helps. Just not very much. This book is almost worthless. It makes you think the writers didn't even play it or know what they were talking about, some of that information is so off target. Find a new strategy guide, by someone else. Or, go to a FAQ page. They're more useful than this wad of paper.
Trust me, do not buy this book, unless you want to know obvious music. Like item and character descriptions. And a list of skills. If I could, I'd take it back. It isn't really needed, anyways.
Not a bad guide 2005-01-03
·Complete weapons and armor appendix includes full stats for hundreds of armaments
·Full walkthrough to help you earn a 100% completion ranking
·All character and guest character skills covered
·Detailed strategies for developing your heroes
·Complete "Evil Mode" and earn exclusive secret items
·All monster stats, abilities, vulnerabilities, and immunities covered
