Retro Game Walkthroughs for Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Xbox)
Submitted By: jazzyjeff
The Last Alliance
The Prologue in the movie set up the story, and this level teaches you how to dispatch your enemies throughout the game. Your only choice for a playable character in this level is Isildur, and the stage basically holds your hand throughout the entire thing.
The first half of the level will teach you how to use your quick attack to take out weaker enemies. They will enter the stage from the upper right corner of the screen, and after you kill quite a few, you'll learn how your fierce attack can destroy shielded enemies easily.
After a couple of waves, a cut scene will play, Sauron will fall, and you'll move onto the next level. This is really just a training stage, and it is pretty hard to even get injured here.
Weathertop
Here you'll play as Aragorn as he defends Frodo against the Ringwraiths. The Ranger will be armed with his trusty sword and a lit torch, which will be the only way to harm the Nazgul. To kill each Ringwraith, walk up to them and press the fierce attack button to strike them with the torch. It'll take a few direct hits to scare each one away, and after a couple swings (or if you get knocked to the ground) the torch will extinguish. To re-light it, walk up to the fire in the middle of the stage and press the fierce attack.
As with the previous level, this one isn't too tough, but things start to get a little more challenging after you see a cut scene of the Nazgul going after Frodo. As soon as the video ends, run over to the Hobbit and defend him by torching the Ringwraiths. If Frodo dies, then it's game over for you.
Once the Nazgul are dispatched, the level will end and you'll finally be able to move on to the real meat of the game.
Gates of Moria
This level is the first one where you're able to select what character you play through it as, and as so it goes a little easy on you no matter what character you choose. However, Aragorn and Legolas have a slightly easier time through this level as their arrows can quickly take care of some of the orc archers that appear throughout the stage.
Around the corner at the start of the level, three goblins will slide down the hill. These are easily taken care of with a couple of quick attacks. With them out of the way, move forward along the cliff side where two more goblins will break out of the wall and two more will fall down from above nearby.
Once you take care of those four small enemies, the exact same thing will happen again. Two goblins will explode out of the wall where the two fell down before, and a little ways in front of you another two will drop down from above. As usual, quick attacks are all you need to do to tear through these early enemies.
Move forward a bit to view a small cut scene and then turn the corner to encounter three orc archers in the background and four goblins in the foreground. The archers can be killed by firing arrows (Aragorn or Legolas) or axes (Gimli), and parrying can block their arrows.
Run along the path to the right for another quick cut scene, and then three more archers in the background will attack you and one goblin will run across the bridge to attack you. Quickly kill the archers as they pose more danger than a lone goblin, then KO the little guy, and then run across the bridge to encounter about three more goblins.
With them out of the way, walk up to the caves to be attacked by three or four gobbies from in front of you and another three or so from behind. Simply use quick attacks to knock them down, and then continue up the path to run into two more archers and five more goblins. Defeat them, then run up the hill as it curves to the left for another two archers and goblins.
Now you'll be very close to Moria and will be at the small lake that lies in front of its gates. Immediately four goblins will jump out of the water, and by now they'll be of no trouble to you. Continue wading forward through the water and you'll encounter three archers and a couple more goblins. Defeat them, and then you'll have to fight through one more large group of archers and goblins (about five or six of each) before reaching the boss of this stage.
Boss - The Watcher in the Water
This boss can by very tough the first time you face him. His tentacles will come out of the water and try to knock you down, doing quite a bit of damage each time they hit you.
The way to defeat him is to wait until a tentacle tries to swipe at you, and then parry the attack. When the tentacle is stunned, hit it with a quick attack, and then the Watcher will reveal its face. When that happens, fire a range attack at it to damage it.
Now, you have to be careful, as sometimes more than one tentacle will attack you. When that happens, parry each attack before tossing a ranged weapon at the Watcher. Also, you can use the multiple attacks to your advantage. Sometimes you can time it so you slash one stunned tentacle, attack the watcher, slash a second stunned arm, and then attack him again.
Balin's Tomb
The battle in Balin's Tomb is one of the smaller ones in the game, but it is in no way a small challenge. This stage is split into two parts. In the first, you'll be assaulted by waves of both regular goblins and shielded goblins, and the second will have you facing off against the Cave Troll.
Part one of the battle is the easier of the two. No matter what character you're playing as, park yourself at the doorway and combo the goblins as they come through the door. If you see a shielded one, start the combo with a fierce attack, and use quick attacks for the smaller goblins. By staying near the door not only will you be able to grab "excellents" easier, but the population of goblins in the room won't get too out of hand.
After a few minutes of goblin slaughter, the Cave Troll will enter the room. This battle will come in two parts. Firstly, you need to fight the Troll around the coffin in the middle of the room. To damage him, either get behind him and hit him with one or two fierce attacks, or if you are in front of him hit him with one fierce attack and then run away to dodge his attacks. You'll only need to get a couple hits in before moving on to the last section of the stage.
Once you get a couple of hits in, the battle will switch to where you're on the ledge surrounding the tomb and the Troll will be swinging his chain at you. Now, the chain does tremendous damage, and can kill you in only a couple of hits. So, the way you defeat the troll here is by using your range weapon. Fire one or two shots, then immediately move to the left or right to dodge the chain. Any hesitation can cause you a lot of pain.
Occasionally during the battle, a lone regular goblin will hop up on the ledge and try to distract you. The best way to deal with him is to simply get him on the ground and finish him off with a finishing move before concentrating back on the Troll. Also, you can use the pillars to protect yourself from the chain, however they can only withstand a couple of hits with it before breaking.
Just keep up with the one or two hit/dodge pattern until the Troll is dead, and you'll be able to move on to Amon Hen.
Amon Hen
Just as The Fellowship of the Ring ended with the battle of Amon Hen, its section of this game does. The main goal of this level is to tear through at least 75 Uruk-hai and reach Frodo before his life runs out. There are meters at the top of the screen that display both the Uruk-hai's numbers as well as Frodo's health.
This stage is a pretty straightforward hack & slash area, with only a few sticky spots. All three characters are able to fight their way through without much trouble, but you'll need to use a slightly different strategy with Gimli. Both Aragorn and Legolas are quick enough to get a first strike in on an orc, but Gimli is a bit slower so the Uruk-hai will normally be able to hit him before he can open up a combo. So, when you play this stage with the dwarf and you try to go toe-to-toe with an Uruk-hai, parry their first attack and then begin your combo.
The key to this stage is to keep moving, you must reach the end of the path (where Frodo is) before his health depletes or else it's game over. The only problem with this strategy is a couple points along the way where Uruk-hai archers will block your path. Your first encounter with the archers comes early in the stage, and with Aragorn or Legolas you can just use arrows to take them out. With the default, non-upgraded, arrows it'll take about three hits per archer to down them. If you're playing as Gimli it's usually best just to rush them and melee the orcs if you can reach them. However, there are two spots where the archers are out of melee range and you'll have to use range attacks on them.
The second point such as that has three archers trapping you behind fire. Do not attempt to run through the fire, as it will do you quite a bit of damage. Instead, kill the three archers with a range attack and the fire will go away once they are dead. After that one roadblock, you have a pretty clear path down to the end of the level. Just tear through all the orcs you can see, and kill the archers in the background, and eventually you'll come to a bridge where you and the other two characters will finish off the remainder of the Uruk-hai in the stage. It's now time to face the boss of this stage, Lurtz.
Boss: Lurtz
The fight with Lurtz takes place in two parts. The first half of the fight has the large Uruk-hai firing flaming arrows at you. To pass this part, parry his volley of arrows and then shoot him with a melee attack. Repeat that pattern a couple of times, and you'll move into the melee portion of the fight.
This part of the battle has Lurtz charging at you with his big sword. To defeat him, lure him over to one of the statues, and when he takes a swing he'll become stuck. When he's stuck, combo him until he comes loose and then repeat that same process until he's dead.
Fangorn Forest
As the Three Hunters move into Fangorn Forest to search for Merry and Pippin, the game delivers a slightly more forgiving level than the previous. You aren't really up against any sort of time limit, and the enemy selection here is a bit easier for small Gimli to handle when compared to the previous stage.
The enemies that you'll find in the forest include regular goblins, new shielded orcs, melee orcs that are armed with two small axes, strong Uruk-hai, and Forest Trolls. No matter what character you choose to play through this mission with, the enemies all pose the same challenge. The strong Uruk-hai are just as tricky to take down for Aragorn and Legolas as they are for Gimli. Thankfully, there are only two in this stage.
You'll encounter the first of these tough Uruk-hai early in the stage. After fighting through a combination of goblins and shielded orcs, you'll enter a large hallow log. About halfway through this log one of the strong Uruk-hai will drop down and begin taking quick swings at you with its huge sword. Now, these guys are so fast and skilled that they can block almost any of you're normal attacks, so the way to get rid of one is to parry his swing and then combo him to the ground and finish it off with a finishing move. An alternative to that is if you have already purchased the rising attack ability, you can get yourself knocked to the ground, hit him with a rising attack (which will floor him), and then use a finishing move.
Immediately after that Uruk-hai, you'll have to face your first Forest Troll. These guys are similar to the Cave Troll, but they have a few additional moves. Firstly, if you get to close, they'll pick you up and give you a hug that you don't want, and if you run to far away they will toss logs at you.
The strategy to defeat Forest Trolls is identical to the Cave Troll. Wait for it to attack, then run in and hit it with a fierce attack and then back away to dodge it's next attack. Repeat that until the Troll is dead.
Following that fight, you'll enter an area with a large group of shielded and melee orcs, and then you'll head down a river with melee orcs, shielded orcs, and two archers. At the end of that river is a cave, and as soon as you enter another Forest Troll will appear behind you. While the confines make combat a bit trickier than before, use the same hit and run tactics once again to defeat the big gray guy.
After that Troll fight, another strong Uruk-hai will appear and once again begin swinging away at you. Use the same tactic that you used before, and then continue past him along the path where you'll encounter more shielded orcs and more regular goblins.
At the end of the stage, you'll run into two Forest Trolls. Once again they can be defeated with the same hit and run strategy that all Trolls can, but as there are two it can be tricky. Sometimes you can get lucky and they'll get stuck in a corner, which makes it harder for them to move after you and easier for you to run in and hit them with your fierce attack. Once they are defeated, enter the cave at the top of the screen to continue to the next stage.
Rohan
Both Rohan and Helm's Deep close out the game, and both areas are split into three smaller stages. The Rohan area finds the Three Hunters making their way to Edoras to meet up with King Theoden before heading to the Battle of Helm's Deep. Along the way, they will help out the people on the planes, who are under siege by the forces of Isengard and Mordor.
The Plains of Rohan
This first level in Rohan brings you to a town that is under attack by Saruman's Uruk-hai. As with Amon Hen, this level is a bit tricky for Gimli due to his slow speed and the quickness of the orcs, but once again if you parry their attacks before making your's, you can defeat them.
Also like with Amon Hen, this level has you racing against a time limit to save the town residents. Their numbers are represented by a life meter in the upper right hand corner of the screen, and if it is depleted it's game over.
Gandalf will accompany you for the first two areas of the stage. Before you enter town, there will be two Uruk-hai to defeat, and then as you enter the gates you'll find many more, although Gandalf will help you kill this first large group.
After you defeat that group inside the courtyard, Gandalf will blast open the tavern door and leave you. Immediately run inside, break the chairs and such with your weapon, and shoot the barrel to extinguish the flames to free the trapped villagers. After that a lone Uruk-hai will come through the door that you just did, and you'll see a villager being tossed from the upper level.
Once his body puts out the flames at the foot of the stairs, run up to the upper level to kill the Uruk-hai that are attacking the people. Tear through the archer in the doorway, and continue outside where there will be four more villagers under attack. When you free them and round the corner, you'll run into another strong Uruk-hai, so use the same parry/attack strategy as in Fangorn to defeat him and save the villager that he's after.
Continue over the rooftop where there are two archers, and around the next corner to see a group of villagers trapped by a burning barricade. Shoot the barrel with a ranged attack and then run up to the barricade and destroy it with fierce attacks to clear the path for the villagers to escape.
Keep fighting through the Uruk-hai, and eventually you'll come to a large group where Gandalf will return to help you once again. While you can choose to fight the Uruk-hai around you, there will be a strong Uruk-hai attacking some villagers on a staircase at the top part of the screen. As soon as he shows up, immediately start attacking him with ranged attacks until he's dead, and then finish off the rest of the enemies in the area.
After those Uruk-hai are defeated, break the barricade to the left side of the screen, and make your way up to the final area. Here, not only will you have to deal with multiple Uruk-hai, including a couple of the strong sort, but a couple of villagers have been trapped in a burning building.
Before even beginning to attack the enemies, you must free the villagers as if they die it will be an instant game over. To free them, run over to the barricade that's blocking the door and destroy it with fierce attacks. Then, focus on wiping out the rest of the Uruk-hai, and you'll be able to move on to the next Rohan level.
The Westfold
This level is actually one of the easier ones in the game, if you stick to ranged attacks. The forces of Isengard are moving explosives through the plains of Rohan, and you set out with a lone soldier to wipe out the explosives shipments. Throughout the stage there are explosive caches that you can explode with an ranged attack, which will kill surrounding orcs.
The level introduces you to the explosive Uruk-hai enemy, who has bombs strapped to his back and will detonate them if he gets close to you. However, you can use this to your advantage if you shoot the orc from a distance, which will cause them to explode and take out the surrounding orcs as well.
By staying back and tossing ranged weapons at the explosive orcs and explosive caches, you can make it through to the end of the stage without a scratch.
When you finally reach the end of the stage, there will be a group of orc archers on the far bank of a pond, with explosives behind them. You do not need to kill any of the orcs in this area to complete the level. One well placed shot from your ranged weapon in the explosives will cause them to go up and the stage to end.
Gap of Rohan
More of a boss battle than anything else; this stage is one of the shortest in the game, aside from possibly Weathertop. In this level, you'll be facing off against Wargs and fight one tough one in a boss battle.
At the start of the stage, the Three Hunters will face off against two Wargs. If they charge at you, parry to avoid damage, and kill them by firing ranged attacks at them. When they die, pick up the health powerups that drop (if needed), and then break through the burning building to continue to the boss battle.
Boss: Warg
When you enter the area, a couple of Wargs will rush you. Parry their attacks and then take them out with ranged attacks once again. Eventually a tougher Warg will appear who is able to block your ranged attacks.
He will charge at you a couple times (dodge or parry these attacks), and then taunt you by getting up on his hind legs. When he does this, fire a ranged attack to stun him and then run in to combo him. Occasionally he'll call in a couple of weaker Wargs that you can kill with ranged attacks, but keep up the pattern of dodging or parrying his charges, and hit him when he taunts you to move on to Helm's Deep.
Helms Deep
The final stage in the game is the Battle of Helm's Deep where Saruman sends 10,000 Uruk-hai to destroy the refugees hiding in the caves behind the walls. The battle comes in three stages, with the middle part being the hardest level in the entire game.
The Deeping Wall
As the battle begins; Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli will be on top of the Deeping Wall along with Human and Elvish troops. The wall is what is protecting the refugees from Edoras from death, and the goal of this stage is to keep it from being overrun with orcs.
At the top right of the screen you'll see a diagram of the wall. Red dots are ladders that orcs will use to get on the wall, and the bar will fill with a line. When it's blue, that means that there are only a few orcs on the wall, as more and more orcs climb up on to the wall, the bar will turn yellow and eventually red. If it turns red and starts to flash for more than a couple of minutes, it's game over.
What you need to do in this stage is run along the wall and kick the ladders as they appear. At the same time, try your best to keep that bar blue by killing the orcs as they appear. Each orc that dies, lowers the bar a little bit, so don't pass up a battle when it presents itself.
Aragorn and Gimli's regular attacks work well (however when the Uruk-hai show up, remember to parry their attacks), and with Legolas use powered-up arrow attacks to kill the orcs.
Even if you hold out until the very end of the level, the wall will be breached, which brings us to the next stage.
The Breached Wall
This is easily one of the most challenging levels in the game, simply because it is non-stop action that doesn't let up for a second. The goal of this stage is to protect a small door from wave after wave of orcs.
You'll have to fight fourteen waves of orcs in this stage, while protecting the door. The general rule in this level is to always attack the explosive orcs with ranged attacks first. These orcs can do devastating damage to the door if they get close and set off their explosives, so always kill them before focusing on the shielded or melee orcs that are banging against the door. The small damage normal orcs do is nothing compared to how quickly the bombers can tear it apart.
The last couple waves of naturally the toughest. Starting with Wave Ten, strong Uruk-hai will appear, and you know how to defeat them. Wave Thirteen features the return of our pal the Cave Troll, in addition to the normal explosive orcs and a wave of archers. If you get lucky, you can take out a bunch of archers using the explosive orc's deaths, but if not quickly kill the explosive orcs, then the archers, and finally the Cave Troll.
When the final wave arrives, it will include an Uruk-hai leader, Uruk-hai warriors, shielded orcs, archers, and a catapult. The leader will rush you first, but he isn't even as tough as a strong Uruk-hai. Combo him to the ground and finish him off, and then run directly to the catapult.
The enemies here will be more interested in killing you than the door, so focus your attacks on the catapult while fending off anyone who gets close to you, and be sure to watch out for bombs from the archers. To destroy the catapult, use fierce attacks on the forward, right, and left armored panels. Once each is destroyed, the stage will end and you'll head to the Courtyard to finish the game.
Hornburg Courtyard
If you've made it this far, you only have one final chaotic battle to experience before viewing the awesome cinema from The Two Towers that ends the game. If you have your character at level 8, 9, or 10 you should have no real trouble plowing through this final battle, if you don't waste your time.
Your goal will be once again to protect a door; this time it?s the one leading into the great hall. This stage will throw everything at you; shielded orcs, melee orcs, Uruk-hai, strong Uruk-hai, and more. For the most part of the level, park yourself near the door and protect it by doing combo after combo to defeat the orcs as they try to break it down.
When you hear your ally call for help on the wall, immediately run up the stairs and kill the Uruk-hai that are attacking him. Then immediately return to the door and protect it until you hear a call of archers on the wall.
Run up the stairs once again, and aim your ranged attack to kill the orc archers on the far side of the wall. After at least five archers are dead, you'll hear a battle cry about Uruk-hai, and return to the door to fight a large group of Saruman's forces including Uruk-hai warriors and strong Uruk-hai.
Just keep up the combos and stay near the door, and eventually a cut scene will play where two massive Cave Trolls show up to start hacking away at the door. This is the end of the game. In the chaos of the battle, you can quite easily get behind the Trolls and hit them with fierce attacks. As soon as the killing blow is landed on the second Troll, it will fall backward and destroy the barricade.
The Prologue in the movie set up the story, and this level teaches you how to dispatch your enemies throughout the game. Your only choice for a playable character in this level is Isildur, and the stage basically holds your hand throughout the entire thing.
The first half of the level will teach you how to use your quick attack to take out weaker enemies. They will enter the stage from the upper right corner of the screen, and after you kill quite a few, you'll learn how your fierce attack can destroy shielded enemies easily.
After a couple of waves, a cut scene will play, Sauron will fall, and you'll move onto the next level. This is really just a training stage, and it is pretty hard to even get injured here.
Weathertop
Here you'll play as Aragorn as he defends Frodo against the Ringwraiths. The Ranger will be armed with his trusty sword and a lit torch, which will be the only way to harm the Nazgul. To kill each Ringwraith, walk up to them and press the fierce attack button to strike them with the torch. It'll take a few direct hits to scare each one away, and after a couple swings (or if you get knocked to the ground) the torch will extinguish. To re-light it, walk up to the fire in the middle of the stage and press the fierce attack.
As with the previous level, this one isn't too tough, but things start to get a little more challenging after you see a cut scene of the Nazgul going after Frodo. As soon as the video ends, run over to the Hobbit and defend him by torching the Ringwraiths. If Frodo dies, then it's game over for you.
Once the Nazgul are dispatched, the level will end and you'll finally be able to move on to the real meat of the game.
Gates of Moria
This level is the first one where you're able to select what character you play through it as, and as so it goes a little easy on you no matter what character you choose. However, Aragorn and Legolas have a slightly easier time through this level as their arrows can quickly take care of some of the orc archers that appear throughout the stage.
Around the corner at the start of the level, three goblins will slide down the hill. These are easily taken care of with a couple of quick attacks. With them out of the way, move forward along the cliff side where two more goblins will break out of the wall and two more will fall down from above nearby.
Once you take care of those four small enemies, the exact same thing will happen again. Two goblins will explode out of the wall where the two fell down before, and a little ways in front of you another two will drop down from above. As usual, quick attacks are all you need to do to tear through these early enemies.
Move forward a bit to view a small cut scene and then turn the corner to encounter three orc archers in the background and four goblins in the foreground. The archers can be killed by firing arrows (Aragorn or Legolas) or axes (Gimli), and parrying can block their arrows.
Run along the path to the right for another quick cut scene, and then three more archers in the background will attack you and one goblin will run across the bridge to attack you. Quickly kill the archers as they pose more danger than a lone goblin, then KO the little guy, and then run across the bridge to encounter about three more goblins.
With them out of the way, walk up to the caves to be attacked by three or four gobbies from in front of you and another three or so from behind. Simply use quick attacks to knock them down, and then continue up the path to run into two more archers and five more goblins. Defeat them, then run up the hill as it curves to the left for another two archers and goblins.
Now you'll be very close to Moria and will be at the small lake that lies in front of its gates. Immediately four goblins will jump out of the water, and by now they'll be of no trouble to you. Continue wading forward through the water and you'll encounter three archers and a couple more goblins. Defeat them, and then you'll have to fight through one more large group of archers and goblins (about five or six of each) before reaching the boss of this stage.
Boss - The Watcher in the Water
This boss can by very tough the first time you face him. His tentacles will come out of the water and try to knock you down, doing quite a bit of damage each time they hit you.
The way to defeat him is to wait until a tentacle tries to swipe at you, and then parry the attack. When the tentacle is stunned, hit it with a quick attack, and then the Watcher will reveal its face. When that happens, fire a range attack at it to damage it.
Now, you have to be careful, as sometimes more than one tentacle will attack you. When that happens, parry each attack before tossing a ranged weapon at the Watcher. Also, you can use the multiple attacks to your advantage. Sometimes you can time it so you slash one stunned tentacle, attack the watcher, slash a second stunned arm, and then attack him again.
Balin's Tomb
The battle in Balin's Tomb is one of the smaller ones in the game, but it is in no way a small challenge. This stage is split into two parts. In the first, you'll be assaulted by waves of both regular goblins and shielded goblins, and the second will have you facing off against the Cave Troll.
Part one of the battle is the easier of the two. No matter what character you're playing as, park yourself at the doorway and combo the goblins as they come through the door. If you see a shielded one, start the combo with a fierce attack, and use quick attacks for the smaller goblins. By staying near the door not only will you be able to grab "excellents" easier, but the population of goblins in the room won't get too out of hand.
After a few minutes of goblin slaughter, the Cave Troll will enter the room. This battle will come in two parts. Firstly, you need to fight the Troll around the coffin in the middle of the room. To damage him, either get behind him and hit him with one or two fierce attacks, or if you are in front of him hit him with one fierce attack and then run away to dodge his attacks. You'll only need to get a couple hits in before moving on to the last section of the stage.
Once you get a couple of hits in, the battle will switch to where you're on the ledge surrounding the tomb and the Troll will be swinging his chain at you. Now, the chain does tremendous damage, and can kill you in only a couple of hits. So, the way you defeat the troll here is by using your range weapon. Fire one or two shots, then immediately move to the left or right to dodge the chain. Any hesitation can cause you a lot of pain.
Occasionally during the battle, a lone regular goblin will hop up on the ledge and try to distract you. The best way to deal with him is to simply get him on the ground and finish him off with a finishing move before concentrating back on the Troll. Also, you can use the pillars to protect yourself from the chain, however they can only withstand a couple of hits with it before breaking.
Just keep up with the one or two hit/dodge pattern until the Troll is dead, and you'll be able to move on to Amon Hen.
Amon Hen
Just as The Fellowship of the Ring ended with the battle of Amon Hen, its section of this game does. The main goal of this level is to tear through at least 75 Uruk-hai and reach Frodo before his life runs out. There are meters at the top of the screen that display both the Uruk-hai's numbers as well as Frodo's health.
This stage is a pretty straightforward hack & slash area, with only a few sticky spots. All three characters are able to fight their way through without much trouble, but you'll need to use a slightly different strategy with Gimli. Both Aragorn and Legolas are quick enough to get a first strike in on an orc, but Gimli is a bit slower so the Uruk-hai will normally be able to hit him before he can open up a combo. So, when you play this stage with the dwarf and you try to go toe-to-toe with an Uruk-hai, parry their first attack and then begin your combo.
The key to this stage is to keep moving, you must reach the end of the path (where Frodo is) before his health depletes or else it's game over. The only problem with this strategy is a couple points along the way where Uruk-hai archers will block your path. Your first encounter with the archers comes early in the stage, and with Aragorn or Legolas you can just use arrows to take them out. With the default, non-upgraded, arrows it'll take about three hits per archer to down them. If you're playing as Gimli it's usually best just to rush them and melee the orcs if you can reach them. However, there are two spots where the archers are out of melee range and you'll have to use range attacks on them.
The second point such as that has three archers trapping you behind fire. Do not attempt to run through the fire, as it will do you quite a bit of damage. Instead, kill the three archers with a range attack and the fire will go away once they are dead. After that one roadblock, you have a pretty clear path down to the end of the level. Just tear through all the orcs you can see, and kill the archers in the background, and eventually you'll come to a bridge where you and the other two characters will finish off the remainder of the Uruk-hai in the stage. It's now time to face the boss of this stage, Lurtz.
Boss: Lurtz
The fight with Lurtz takes place in two parts. The first half of the fight has the large Uruk-hai firing flaming arrows at you. To pass this part, parry his volley of arrows and then shoot him with a melee attack. Repeat that pattern a couple of times, and you'll move into the melee portion of the fight.
This part of the battle has Lurtz charging at you with his big sword. To defeat him, lure him over to one of the statues, and when he takes a swing he'll become stuck. When he's stuck, combo him until he comes loose and then repeat that same process until he's dead.
Fangorn Forest
As the Three Hunters move into Fangorn Forest to search for Merry and Pippin, the game delivers a slightly more forgiving level than the previous. You aren't really up against any sort of time limit, and the enemy selection here is a bit easier for small Gimli to handle when compared to the previous stage.
The enemies that you'll find in the forest include regular goblins, new shielded orcs, melee orcs that are armed with two small axes, strong Uruk-hai, and Forest Trolls. No matter what character you choose to play through this mission with, the enemies all pose the same challenge. The strong Uruk-hai are just as tricky to take down for Aragorn and Legolas as they are for Gimli. Thankfully, there are only two in this stage.
You'll encounter the first of these tough Uruk-hai early in the stage. After fighting through a combination of goblins and shielded orcs, you'll enter a large hallow log. About halfway through this log one of the strong Uruk-hai will drop down and begin taking quick swings at you with its huge sword. Now, these guys are so fast and skilled that they can block almost any of you're normal attacks, so the way to get rid of one is to parry his swing and then combo him to the ground and finish it off with a finishing move. An alternative to that is if you have already purchased the rising attack ability, you can get yourself knocked to the ground, hit him with a rising attack (which will floor him), and then use a finishing move.
Immediately after that Uruk-hai, you'll have to face your first Forest Troll. These guys are similar to the Cave Troll, but they have a few additional moves. Firstly, if you get to close, they'll pick you up and give you a hug that you don't want, and if you run to far away they will toss logs at you.
The strategy to defeat Forest Trolls is identical to the Cave Troll. Wait for it to attack, then run in and hit it with a fierce attack and then back away to dodge it's next attack. Repeat that until the Troll is dead.
Following that fight, you'll enter an area with a large group of shielded and melee orcs, and then you'll head down a river with melee orcs, shielded orcs, and two archers. At the end of that river is a cave, and as soon as you enter another Forest Troll will appear behind you. While the confines make combat a bit trickier than before, use the same hit and run tactics once again to defeat the big gray guy.
After that Troll fight, another strong Uruk-hai will appear and once again begin swinging away at you. Use the same tactic that you used before, and then continue past him along the path where you'll encounter more shielded orcs and more regular goblins.
At the end of the stage, you'll run into two Forest Trolls. Once again they can be defeated with the same hit and run strategy that all Trolls can, but as there are two it can be tricky. Sometimes you can get lucky and they'll get stuck in a corner, which makes it harder for them to move after you and easier for you to run in and hit them with your fierce attack. Once they are defeated, enter the cave at the top of the screen to continue to the next stage.
Rohan
Both Rohan and Helm's Deep close out the game, and both areas are split into three smaller stages. The Rohan area finds the Three Hunters making their way to Edoras to meet up with King Theoden before heading to the Battle of Helm's Deep. Along the way, they will help out the people on the planes, who are under siege by the forces of Isengard and Mordor.
The Plains of Rohan
This first level in Rohan brings you to a town that is under attack by Saruman's Uruk-hai. As with Amon Hen, this level is a bit tricky for Gimli due to his slow speed and the quickness of the orcs, but once again if you parry their attacks before making your's, you can defeat them.
Also like with Amon Hen, this level has you racing against a time limit to save the town residents. Their numbers are represented by a life meter in the upper right hand corner of the screen, and if it is depleted it's game over.
Gandalf will accompany you for the first two areas of the stage. Before you enter town, there will be two Uruk-hai to defeat, and then as you enter the gates you'll find many more, although Gandalf will help you kill this first large group.
After you defeat that group inside the courtyard, Gandalf will blast open the tavern door and leave you. Immediately run inside, break the chairs and such with your weapon, and shoot the barrel to extinguish the flames to free the trapped villagers. After that a lone Uruk-hai will come through the door that you just did, and you'll see a villager being tossed from the upper level.
Once his body puts out the flames at the foot of the stairs, run up to the upper level to kill the Uruk-hai that are attacking the people. Tear through the archer in the doorway, and continue outside where there will be four more villagers under attack. When you free them and round the corner, you'll run into another strong Uruk-hai, so use the same parry/attack strategy as in Fangorn to defeat him and save the villager that he's after.
Continue over the rooftop where there are two archers, and around the next corner to see a group of villagers trapped by a burning barricade. Shoot the barrel with a ranged attack and then run up to the barricade and destroy it with fierce attacks to clear the path for the villagers to escape.
Keep fighting through the Uruk-hai, and eventually you'll come to a large group where Gandalf will return to help you once again. While you can choose to fight the Uruk-hai around you, there will be a strong Uruk-hai attacking some villagers on a staircase at the top part of the screen. As soon as he shows up, immediately start attacking him with ranged attacks until he's dead, and then finish off the rest of the enemies in the area.
After those Uruk-hai are defeated, break the barricade to the left side of the screen, and make your way up to the final area. Here, not only will you have to deal with multiple Uruk-hai, including a couple of the strong sort, but a couple of villagers have been trapped in a burning building.
Before even beginning to attack the enemies, you must free the villagers as if they die it will be an instant game over. To free them, run over to the barricade that's blocking the door and destroy it with fierce attacks. Then, focus on wiping out the rest of the Uruk-hai, and you'll be able to move on to the next Rohan level.
The Westfold
This level is actually one of the easier ones in the game, if you stick to ranged attacks. The forces of Isengard are moving explosives through the plains of Rohan, and you set out with a lone soldier to wipe out the explosives shipments. Throughout the stage there are explosive caches that you can explode with an ranged attack, which will kill surrounding orcs.
The level introduces you to the explosive Uruk-hai enemy, who has bombs strapped to his back and will detonate them if he gets close to you. However, you can use this to your advantage if you shoot the orc from a distance, which will cause them to explode and take out the surrounding orcs as well.
By staying back and tossing ranged weapons at the explosive orcs and explosive caches, you can make it through to the end of the stage without a scratch.
When you finally reach the end of the stage, there will be a group of orc archers on the far bank of a pond, with explosives behind them. You do not need to kill any of the orcs in this area to complete the level. One well placed shot from your ranged weapon in the explosives will cause them to go up and the stage to end.
Gap of Rohan
More of a boss battle than anything else; this stage is one of the shortest in the game, aside from possibly Weathertop. In this level, you'll be facing off against Wargs and fight one tough one in a boss battle.
At the start of the stage, the Three Hunters will face off against two Wargs. If they charge at you, parry to avoid damage, and kill them by firing ranged attacks at them. When they die, pick up the health powerups that drop (if needed), and then break through the burning building to continue to the boss battle.
Boss: Warg
When you enter the area, a couple of Wargs will rush you. Parry their attacks and then take them out with ranged attacks once again. Eventually a tougher Warg will appear who is able to block your ranged attacks.
He will charge at you a couple times (dodge or parry these attacks), and then taunt you by getting up on his hind legs. When he does this, fire a ranged attack to stun him and then run in to combo him. Occasionally he'll call in a couple of weaker Wargs that you can kill with ranged attacks, but keep up the pattern of dodging or parrying his charges, and hit him when he taunts you to move on to Helm's Deep.
Helms Deep
The final stage in the game is the Battle of Helm's Deep where Saruman sends 10,000 Uruk-hai to destroy the refugees hiding in the caves behind the walls. The battle comes in three stages, with the middle part being the hardest level in the entire game.
The Deeping Wall
As the battle begins; Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli will be on top of the Deeping Wall along with Human and Elvish troops. The wall is what is protecting the refugees from Edoras from death, and the goal of this stage is to keep it from being overrun with orcs.
At the top right of the screen you'll see a diagram of the wall. Red dots are ladders that orcs will use to get on the wall, and the bar will fill with a line. When it's blue, that means that there are only a few orcs on the wall, as more and more orcs climb up on to the wall, the bar will turn yellow and eventually red. If it turns red and starts to flash for more than a couple of minutes, it's game over.
What you need to do in this stage is run along the wall and kick the ladders as they appear. At the same time, try your best to keep that bar blue by killing the orcs as they appear. Each orc that dies, lowers the bar a little bit, so don't pass up a battle when it presents itself.
Aragorn and Gimli's regular attacks work well (however when the Uruk-hai show up, remember to parry their attacks), and with Legolas use powered-up arrow attacks to kill the orcs.
Even if you hold out until the very end of the level, the wall will be breached, which brings us to the next stage.
The Breached Wall
This is easily one of the most challenging levels in the game, simply because it is non-stop action that doesn't let up for a second. The goal of this stage is to protect a small door from wave after wave of orcs.
You'll have to fight fourteen waves of orcs in this stage, while protecting the door. The general rule in this level is to always attack the explosive orcs with ranged attacks first. These orcs can do devastating damage to the door if they get close and set off their explosives, so always kill them before focusing on the shielded or melee orcs that are banging against the door. The small damage normal orcs do is nothing compared to how quickly the bombers can tear it apart.
The last couple waves of naturally the toughest. Starting with Wave Ten, strong Uruk-hai will appear, and you know how to defeat them. Wave Thirteen features the return of our pal the Cave Troll, in addition to the normal explosive orcs and a wave of archers. If you get lucky, you can take out a bunch of archers using the explosive orc's deaths, but if not quickly kill the explosive orcs, then the archers, and finally the Cave Troll.
When the final wave arrives, it will include an Uruk-hai leader, Uruk-hai warriors, shielded orcs, archers, and a catapult. The leader will rush you first, but he isn't even as tough as a strong Uruk-hai. Combo him to the ground and finish him off, and then run directly to the catapult.
The enemies here will be more interested in killing you than the door, so focus your attacks on the catapult while fending off anyone who gets close to you, and be sure to watch out for bombs from the archers. To destroy the catapult, use fierce attacks on the forward, right, and left armored panels. Once each is destroyed, the stage will end and you'll head to the Courtyard to finish the game.
Hornburg Courtyard
If you've made it this far, you only have one final chaotic battle to experience before viewing the awesome cinema from The Two Towers that ends the game. If you have your character at level 8, 9, or 10 you should have no real trouble plowing through this final battle, if you don't waste your time.
Your goal will be once again to protect a door; this time it?s the one leading into the great hall. This stage will throw everything at you; shielded orcs, melee orcs, Uruk-hai, strong Uruk-hai, and more. For the most part of the level, park yourself near the door and protect it by doing combo after combo to defeat the orcs as they try to break it down.
When you hear your ally call for help on the wall, immediately run up the stairs and kill the Uruk-hai that are attacking him. Then immediately return to the door and protect it until you hear a call of archers on the wall.
Run up the stairs once again, and aim your ranged attack to kill the orc archers on the far side of the wall. After at least five archers are dead, you'll hear a battle cry about Uruk-hai, and return to the door to fight a large group of Saruman's forces including Uruk-hai warriors and strong Uruk-hai.
Just keep up the combos and stay near the door, and eventually a cut scene will play where two massive Cave Trolls show up to start hacking away at the door. This is the end of the game. In the chaos of the battle, you can quite easily get behind the Trolls and hit them with fierce attacks. As soon as the killing blow is landed on the second Troll, it will fall backward and destroy the barricade.