The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Trick Taking Game
Last year we received The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick Taking Game, and praised the game for its amazing story telling, incredible theme, and gorgeous artwork. While it is a play on The Crew, it’s a must own and play for Lord of the Rings fans; as we noted in our review, though, if you aren’t a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic saga, this probably isn’t for you. With the release of The Two Towers, I wondered if we would get more of the same, or something new.
At first glance, The Two Towers is just more of the same, with new characters of course. You are still playing out valued cards and trying to win – or not win – tricks, but as you get into your first experience, you quickly realize there are a number of changes that make this game feel a bit different, while retaining everything that made The Fellowship of the Ring so great.
The two tower tokens you have should be your first clue. The two towers – Sauron’s tower at Mount Doom and Saruman’s tower at Isengard are two new cards in the deck. Each allows you to instantly win the hand if played, but are nullified if both are played in one trick. This creates another wrinkle to the game – the towers can be your best friend in a time of need, but if played incorrectly, your worst enemy as well.
Also new to The Two Towers is the inclusion of Orc cards. These act as dead cards in your hand and make it harder to do what you want to do. These cards can never lead a trick, and can only be played if the lead suit cannot be followed. If you are forced to lead an Orc, you instantly lose the chapter and must restart.
I’ve said it a few times now, and I’ll say it again – everything that made the first release so special is here, with a few extra features that elevate the experience in my opinion. Once again the game follows the books as opposed to the movies, so you may see characters you are unfamiliar with, and how certain elements play out might be foreign to you. But it’s so dang clever. The story telling is fantastic and the execution is almost flawless.
The only negative thing to say here is that this is still very much a niche experience for hardcore The Lord of the Rings fans. This isn’t necessarily a better game than The Crew mechanically, but story wise there are few games that do what this is doing. My suggestion? If you are not a The Lord of the Rings fan, become one; then grab this game and enjoy!
Article By Adam
