characters against whom the player would be fighting would replicate the actions taken by the player when they had played through the main game; the player's actions during the main game would be replicated by the AI controlled party. Eventually, however, this idea was scrapped and Evil Mode was simplified. The game was first shown at the E3 event in May 2004, when a playable demo was made available for all three consoles. The demo featured gameplay from Moria, and included a fight against two trolls and the battle against the Balrog, as well as some footage from the film. EA announced the game would be about five times as long as the Return of the King game. They also explained that although the game would be linear, and the player would not be free to go wherever they wished in Middle-earth, at most times during the game, optional sidequests would be available. The game would be divided into smaller chapters comprising three main story arcs; the journey from Rivendell through Moria to Lothlórien; the journey across Rohan to Helm's Deep, and the subsequent Battle of the Hornburg; and the journey from Helm's Deep to Minas Tirith, and the subsequent Battle of the Pelennor Fields. EA explained players would be given already developed characters, but customization and attributes would not be tied to character classes, so players would be free to have any character specialize in any mode of combat they wished. Each of the characters in the game was based upon a minor character or extra who appeared at some point in the films, and who was named by the production crew but never named on-screen. Reception The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age received "mixed or average reviews" across all systems; the GameCube version holds an aggregate score of 74 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on twenty-five reviews; the PlayStation 2 version 73 out of 100, based on thirty-five reviews; and the Xbox version 75 out of 100, based on thirty-eight reviews. Eurogamer's Patrick Garratt scored the Xbox version 7 out of 10. Comparing the combat system to Final Fantasy X, he wrote "it's a great formula [...] but there's nowhere near the depth." However, he praised the graphics ("the presentation of the combat sequences will leave Tolkien fans in absolute ecstasy") and the story ("the story itself is actually very cool, and for LOTR fans