How to play The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age on Mac

Game summary

The Lord of the Rings:The Third Age introduces entirely new characters which aren't mentioned in the books or movies. The game does relate to the movies by including scenes from all three movies, with new background speech by Ian McKellen (Gandalf). There are seven playable characters in the game which have been created specifically for it, as well a small appearances by characters such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Eowyn, Faramir, and Gothmog. The game covers events in all three movies/books, mostly with references to major events shown through cut scenes, or the scenes from the movies with Ian McKellan's narration. A classic RPG game, The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age has gameplay elements similar to Final Fantasy, where you have a party of characters, each with a different set of skills and attributes, who gain levels, making them stronger as the game progresses. Battles are turn-based, and let the gamer make different decisions on what they want to do to change the outcome of the battle. The game travels through many areas throughout Tolkien's Middle Earth, including The Pelennor Fields and Moria.
First released: Nov 2004

Play The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age on a Mac is through Parallels, which allows you to virtualize a Windows machine on Macs. The setup is very easy and it works for Apple Silicon Macs as well as for older Intel-based Macs.

Parallels supports the latest version of DirectX and OpenGL, allowing you to play the latest PC games on any Mac. The latest version of DirectX is up to 20% faster.

Our favorite feature of Parallels Desktop is that when you turn off your virtual machine, all the unused disk space gets returned to your main OS, thus minimizing resource waste (which used to be a problem with virtualization).

The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age installation steps for Mac

Step 1
Go to Parallels.com and download the latest version of the software.
Step 2
Follow the installation process and make sure you allow Parallels in your Mac’s security preferences (it will prompt you to do so).
Step 3
When prompted, download and install Windows 10. The download is around 5.7GB. Make sure you give it all the permissions that it asks for.
Step 4
Once Windows is done installing, you are ready to go. All that’s left to do is install The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age like you would on any PC.
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🕹 Editor's notes

The Lord Of The Rings The Third Age is an RPG based on the Lord Of The Rings franchise. It was released in 2004 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox and is a single and multiplayer game.

People who have played this game have given excellent reviews about its graphics, giving it a sense of realism. However, there has been negative feedback on the plot, saying that the development of the characters through the game is feeble.

Plot

This game has brand new characters, unlike other versions of the Lord Of The Rings series. The plot of this game unravels in 109 epic scenes as you progress further.

Gandalf is the narrator in this game, using clips from the original LOTR movies. The story is entirely fresh and similar to the movie’s timeline.

This game has different landscapes, like mountains, snow, castles, forests, etc.

In this game, You travel through middle earth, forming a group of heroes. The main target for you and the other heroes is to fight against evil forces so that you can destroy the One Ring. The whole game takes place during the same time frame as the movies.

Gameplay

The Lord Of The Rings The Third Age will take you about 22 hours to complete, and it offers single-player and co-op multiplayer modes for more convenience.

The battle menu in Perfect Mode will help you choose the actions to use during battle. This mode allows you to continuously charge up your power while attacking your enemies. Once the power limit reaches, you can hit the enemies with a super attack.

You will receive points at the end of each battle, depending on the number of enemy characters you have killed. Those who did not participate in annihilating the enemy characters will receive lesser points.

Games like The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age playable on Mac