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Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-earth

Score: 90%
ESRB: Teen
Publisher: EA Games
Developer: EA Games
Media: CD/4
Players: 1 - 8
Genre: Real-Time Strategy

Graphics & Sound:

Howard Shore's award-winning score underscores fantastic visuals that match those seen in Peter Jackson’s trilogy. Each area is full of little details, giving the entire game a life that is rarely seen in games. Even when running the game on lower settings, characters are still easily identifiable and match what is seen in the movies. After checking out the extended DVD release of Return of the King, I was amazed to see how many little details were worked into the game.

A big part of the game’s feeling of life is the emotion system used by units. After defeating an opposing army, troops will cheer and celebrate. Suffering heavy casualties or having the Eye of Sauron, if you're playing as the forces of good, will demoralize your troops or cause them to cower in fear. Unit emotions aren't just for show and play into gameplay. Demoralized troops won't fare too well in battle, while armies with high morale will be a little harder to defeat.

Clips from the movie trilogy can be seen throughout the game. Existing sound clips from the movie are used, while new ones have been recorded for certain parts of the game. Most are voiced by their respective actors, though some lines were dubbed by stand-ins. Parts of the movie are also used, but not in the way you'd expect. Instead of using them to tell the story between missions, they are used to augment certain parts of missions, such as in the Mines of Moria or during Helm's Deep.


Gameplay:

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth is split up into two single-player campaigns; good and evil. Playing as the forces of good puts you in control of the Fellowship, as well as the forces of Gondor and Rohan. The evil campaign gives you the might of Isengard and Mordor. Each army has its own distinguishing attributes, such as Rohan's horses or Mordor's ability to pump out hordes of troops in great numbers. Each side also has access to unique hero units who act as generals during each campaign. Having heroes lead armies into battles grants the army special bonuses, such as Gandalf giving all units grouped with him three times more unit experience. Hero units are generally useful, but some become more of a hindrance than help. Characters like the four hobbits and Gollum aren't all that useful and can become a liability during hectic battles.

Each campaign is broken up into several battles. At times the story will dictate which battle you participate in while at other times you'll have a choice. The goal of most battles is to simply defeat the other side, but some will offer special victory conditions. These usually include leveling up a certain character, buying specific upgrades or taking care of side quests. Completing these special conditions will earn extra experience points that go towards purchasing special upgrades via the Evenstar. Abilities gained through the Evenstar allow you to heal units or increase unit attributes. Later abilities include summoning the Balrog or Riders of Rohan into battle.

The good campaign follows the Fellowship through the movies' major events. These include small-scale battles such as the struggle in the Mines of Moria and large-scale battles like Helm's Deep. Between these events, you'll have the opportunity to lead the forces of good through events that were either hinted at during the movie, or were never seen on screen. Although the game follows the same general plot of the movie, a few liberties are taken in order to compliment gameplay. Most of the events are minor and will go unnoticed by casual fans, but some are too big not to over look. A majority of these events take place while playing as the forces of evil. Since there were very few places where the bad guys actually won in the movies, liberties are taken in order to flesh out the evil campaign. Some fans will scoff at the revisionist history, and I'll have to admit I was one of these people initially, but in the end its really not that big a deal. A friend of mine also pointed out that it helps draw the player into the game a little more since they get to put their own personal spin on things. Granted he was drinking while saying this, but it makes sense.

Multiplayer options are also available, but are not for those looking for a quick game. Multiplayer games let you choose one of the game's four factions and battle it out online. Matches can be set up to include up to eight players in free-for-all or team-based battles. Online games are pretty straightforward and can sometimes last a long time. How long depends on how many people are playing, but hour-long matches weren't uncommon. A matchmaking option is included for online games, which sets up players based on latency and skill levels.


Difficulty:

Battles are tied to bonuses that can be obtained with victory. These usually include resource bonuses and are usually indicative as to the battle's difficulty. Battles with a small bonus to gold production will usually be easy while those with multiple bonuses are harder. Varying difficulty levels are also available, helping to make the game even more accessible, even for Lord of the Rings fans who may not be the biggest gamers.

Battles boil down into what equates to a game of Paper-Rock-Scissors. Some units are better than others and will trump them in battle. For example, horsemen can literally trample all over normal foot soldiers, but are weak against pikeman and archers. These differences can sometimes be overcome by higher level troops or better equipment, but understanding what troops are best against what is still a key element to success.


Game Mechanics:

The overall feel and scope of the game is epic. Instead of ordering around a dozen or so soldiers, you are given command of massive armies. When you are creating soldiers, you are really creating small squads of troops that can be linked up to form massive armies. Selecting one soldier in the group orders the entire group, offering large scale battles with small-scale ease of control.

Everything is handled through a one-click system, offering controls that are easy enough for casual fans of the Rings trilogy. At the same time, the system is still deep enough that RTS vets will still be able to exercise enough control. Movement and attack commands follow the familiar point-and-click interface and are easy to use. Special commands, such as using hero abilities can be accessed through either choosing them from the menu or by keyboard commands. All other commands, such as closing gates to forts, are handled by selecting areas of the map and following the pop-ip menus. Admittedly, the system isn't as deep as recent RTS entries like Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War, but there's still enough here that the system never feels dumbed down. Instead it’s streamlined for efficiency.

Unit and base construction is handled a bit differently than in other strategy games. Bases are still a major aspect of the game, but are limited in comparison to other games. Instead of building sprawling structures around the countryside, you are limited to a set number of buildings, which are defined by the number of emblems present around your stronghold. Addition bases can be constructed after capturing outposts in the battlefield.

Another major difference between The Battle for Middle-earth and other strategy games involves troop upgrades. Once an upgrade, like flaming arrows, is purchased, your troops aren't automatically granted its ability. Instead you must purchase the upgrade for each unit in the field (for a small fee). This method adds a sense of realism to the game, but can become frustrating and ends up costing more resources over time. This wouldn't be too much of an issue if resources, especially gold, weren't so hard to come across during some battles. However, when coupled with units' ability to gain experience and grow stronger, you can end up with some powerful armies if you manage your forces right.

After transforming Peter Jackson's Lord of the Ring's movie trilogy into two successful action games and a moderately successful RPG, EA takes the series into the genre it was made for. While it isn't as genre defining as other games, The Battle for Middle-earth is still an amazing experience.


-Starscream, GameVortex Communications
AKA Ricky Tucker

Minimum System Requirements:



Windows 2K/XP, 1.3 GHz processor, NVIDIA GeForce 2 or ATI Radeon 7500 or greater with 32 MB memory, 4 GB free HDD space, 256 MB RAM, Direct X 9.0b
 

Test System:



Windows XP, Pentium 4 1.7 GHz, Radeon 9100 128 MB, 40 Gig HD, 640 MB RAM, DirectX 9.0c

Sony PlayStation 2 Mega Man X8 Microsoft Xbox Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

 
Game Vortex :: PSIllustrated