First impressions
If, like us, you are a fan of all things Hobbit, you will have been one of the first at the cinema for the second installment of three films covering the story of Bilbo and his friends’ journey to Lonely Mountain and subsequent encounter with Smaug, the terrible dragon.
The Tolkien books covered an awful lot of ground, not to mention a dizzying array of names and languages, and Peter Jackson has certainly brought them all to life in his much lauded films. For those of us who have never read the books, or would just like to get a better history of the characters, items and lands depicted in the stories, the Hobbit Companion app is an excellent way to improve our knowledge so we can impress (or annoy) friends at any social gathering.
From finding out what makes the Wood Elves tick, to navigating the nooks and crannies of Middle Earth, the Hobbit Companion offers lots of information combined with excellent graphics and 3D effects to help you completely immerse yourself in a magical world.
How it works
Once it’s installed, it loads up the music and map of Middle Earth with a menu across the top of the screen. Options go from “Show All” to “Characters,” “Locations,” “Objects” and “Races.” These refer to items you can find throughout the map. If you choose “Show All,” you will see references to everything as you move across the land – thin shards of light that pinpoint specific characters and where they reside; races such as dwarfs and orcs; and objects including The Ring, Glamdring and the Moon Runes.
If, however, you want to concentrate on one specialty subject to better concentrate, you can choose the individual topics instead.
You’ll click on each one and open it to reveal a representative image and a few paragraphs of information to absorb. If you really feel confident, you can jump forward to the multiple choice trivia questions that follow. Be prepared for some in-depth stumpers that will definitely test your knowledge. Our sister has read the books multiple times, and even she was challenged by a few of the questions. Note that the answer lies in the information you read beforehand.
If you don’t fancy moving around the map, you can also tap on “Full Index” along the top, which gives you everything in list format. As you visit each item and answer the question correctly, its accompanying symbol turns from gray to gold to keep track of what you’ve seen so far.
Change the settings if you wish to adjust the graphics quality, wipe your progress, reset the intro, and increase or decrease the sound volume.
When we tried it
As we mentioned earlier, even though we’ve seen the “Lord of the Rings” films a few times, and are up-to-date on both “Hobbit” installments, we have never read the books, so we were keen to bone up on the subject. Before we knew it, we were neck-deep in “Azog The Defiler” (apparently also known as the “White Orc of Gundabad”) and “Wargs” – evil packs of wild wolves. All very interesting indeed. The names and languages throughout these stories certainly put our spelling skills to the test, but then they didn’t teach Elvish when we attended John Gray High School.
We were pretty impressed with the graphics, and the depth of information to be found. We also came across bonus articles that can only be accessed when you sign up through Facebook or use your email address. We didn’t choose to participate, as we still had lots to read before we got to this stage.
Did you know that “The Ring” is also known as the “Ruling Ring”? Neither did we. Or that there are ancient beings called “Skin-Changers” such as Beorn, who can transform into a bear? It was apparently Radagast the Brown who witnessed giant black spiders making their way out of the abandoned fort of Dol Guldur into the forest of Mirkwood. We guess he didn’t suffer from arachnophobia…
By the time we’d sat with this app for an hour or so, we reckoned we were ready to compete on “Jeopardy.” We just needed our specialty subject to come up.
Final thoughts
This app is the perfect gift for a Tolkien nut, or you can buy it for yourself to have as a great companion to the present films. We wouldn’t encourage you to take your iPad or iPhone into the cinema so you can follow along at the same time, but if you have any questions about characters, objects, places or horrible creatures after you’ve seen the films, the odds are good that this app will answer them, and more.
- Pros: Easy to use. Lots of information. Great graphics.
- Cons: Might be a bit pricey for some.
- The Hobbit: Official Visual Companion
- Cost: $4.99
- Seller: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
- Devices: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch
- Rating: E for Everyone
- Three stars
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