The Two Towers is a hack and slash action game played from a third-person perspective. The game features levels taken either directly from scenes in The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers films, or based closely on elements from the films. For example, the levels during the defense of Helm's Deep are very similar to the corresponding scenes in the film, but a level in Fangorn Forest in which the player fights orcs, Uruk-hai and trolls is original to the game. For most of the game, the player is free to play as Aragorn, Gimli or Legolas. In the game's main opening level, however, set at Weathertop, only Aragorn is playable. Isildur is also a playable character in a tutorial level set during the Battle of the Last Alliance. All subsequent levels can be played with any of the three characters. Often, the two characters not chosen as the player character will appear as supporting NPCs.[8] Upon completing the game with all three characters, the player can play through every level with Isildur. In the Game Boy Advance version, which is played from an isometric three-quarter top-down view, the playable characters are Aragorn, Legolas, Gandalf, Frodo and Éowyn, with Gimli available as an unlockable character once the player has completed the game with two other characters.[9]
Although all three characters have different weapons and combos, their basic fighting style is the same. Each character has a quick attack which does minimal damage and can be easily blocked, and a fierce attack, which does more damage, but is slower and leaves the player vulnerable to attack. Only fierce attacks can break enemy shields. Each character also has a ranged attack, a "killing move" (which can be used to instantly kill downed enemies), a parry (which can deflect enemy attacks), a knock back (which pushes nearby enemies away), a jump back (in which the player character jumps back away from the enemy) and a devastating attack (a charged fierce attack).[10] Combos are an important part of combat, with each character having access to a unique list of combos, which are achieved by stringing specific button presses together.[10] Additionally, each character is more skilled at a particular type of combat; Aragorn is the best melee fighter, Legolas is better at ranged combat, and Gimli is a balanced character with nice melee and ranged attacks.[11]