For Christmas ’08, I bought the PC version of Sierra’s The Hobbit video game for my brother. I, Uhh… found it real cheap. At a secondhand store. Unfortunately, he had seen this same video game at this same secondhand store before, sooo… my gift wasn’t totally unexpected, I guess. Oh well. Hey, it still functions as it should.
Cover art from The Hobbit
Entertainment Level: Of course, Tolkien’s original adventure novel is a fun book in and of itself, and The Hobbit video game follows the tale through pretty faithful (if acutely condensed) story interludes. While actually playing through the game, the action does stray from Tolkien canon. It’s all good, though. The music, too, is all good. It’s almost as fun to listen to as it is to play the game. You can listen to the complete soundtrack here at Grooveshark. Bright, colorful graphics and good attention to detail (for an “old” video game) also add a sense of lighthearted fun. That’s not to say that there aren’t any moments of peril throughout. Bilbo has his chances to battle wolves, spiders, fire-spitting plants, “evil minions of the Necromancer”, goblins, bats, and all manner of vile creatures. The way in which Bilbo (you can only be Bilbo, at least in the PC version) is called upon to discover gems and treasure chests and to acquire coins and various “health potions” lends a treasure hunter feel to the whole game. Not just in the final chapter when you encounter Smaug’s loot.
Violent Content: Very mild. No blood. Enemies burst into a shower of gems, which Bilbo acquires to boost his life. Bilbo can expire by falling from a great height or by being poisoned, besides the usual method of death by facing too many (or too competent of) enemies. Also, there were times when my brother and I were literally screaming (or yelling, in my bro’s case) at the top of our lungs in a purely automatic response to enemies that would sneak up quite unexpectedly to inflict harmful injuries (I like to watch people play video games, too). Obviously I haven’t played many video games before.
Sensuality: The elvish women look like barbie dolls. Some of them wear midriff bearing shirts, and all of them wear leggings.
Language: A few mild exclamations such as “blimey”, “drat”, and “confusticate”.
All of us kids really enjoyed playing this game. Even my oldest sister deigned to try it out. Now we all quote from it (which raises a question: is it more kitschy to quote from a video game than it is to quote from a book or movie?). Though The Hobbit is a prequel to LOTR, I’ve always been aware of how different a tone it has from the trilogy (or six-book saga, if you really insist). Much more fun and lighthearted. Really, I’m not trying to dis Tolkien’s incredible work. LOTR is awesome! But I hope – not expect – that Peter Jackson and the rest of his crew understand that The Hobbit is supposed to be different from LOTR. Less grand and epic. More fun and frolicsome.
Finis
