The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth (PC DVD)

As such the game simulates the entire world of Middle-Earth with designs based exactly on those from the movies. In fact enormous efforts have been made to make the game as cinematic as possible with numerous cut scenes and a cleverly streamlined interface. The latter not only makes the game look more visually interesting than other strategy games, with its huge animated map of Middle-Earth and game options only becoming available when you hover your mouse over buildings and units, but also makes sure it as accessible as possible for those unused to playing such games.

The graphics help too and the recreations of the battles at Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith, for example, really do look just like the films, with individual troops reacting realistically to the battle, with human soldiers hesitating in the face of huge trolls and balrogs or cheering and celebrating when defeating a band of orcs. So even if you're usually put off by this sorting of thing, thinking it either too complicated or boring, The Battle for Middle-Earth should appeal to just about everyone except confirmed Tolkien haters. --David Jenkins

Don't get me wrong there are many plus points to the game but everyone has not mentioned points which some gamers may find frustrating.

The game itself is like having 'The Lord of the Rings' Trilogy implanted on your computer. You can fight as both sides of the struggle with forces from Gondor, Rohan, Isengard and Mordor. You then follow the campaigns of either side. Middle Earth is broken into three distinct categories
1. Fellowship missions following the heroes of the films.
2. Defensive and Offensive Siege missions
3. Base building and conquering.

Firstly the plus points, in which it wins many -

No collection of resources (unless you play the Mordor or Isengard, the lumberjack structure is set outside your camp and collects wood), numerous units, sound, characters from the trilogy of films, large battles, nice control interface. The use of Morale is a nice touch with groups cowering from something that scares them. You can play both sides of the struggle, little micro-management, you can determine the fate of Middle Earth and very nice graphics!

Negative points -

Limited AI, units sometimes will not do any damage due to needed upgrades (fire arrows are needed later in the game to do damage), battles are won through force and no guile, the strategy element is limited, not in the same strategy league as Rome Total War and Dawn of War. Repetitive unit production is required at times to batter down the enemy which can tkae a while, which leads to frustration and repetition.

On the whole it looks as if it is going to be a good game but with the negative points it is not a great game. But still it looks gorgeous and I am sure battling the forces of both sides will take time and pleasure. The Army of the Dead looked really fine when it appeared on a trailer on the EA site and the magical effects look dam good. It's a game that will appeal to many people and many people will love it, but if your looking for a more strategy game go for Rome Total War. Then again if you like 'The Lord of the Rings' Trilogy don't be too put off by this review. But it's nice to know the plus and negative points to a game!


Word of Warning about System Specs   December 12, 2004
Mr. J. D. Rose (Trelewis, South Wales, UK)
101 out of 107 found this review helpful

If, like me you brought this game believing various sites claims (including Amazaon's) that the game will run under Windows 98 or ME then you are going to be sorely disappointed and are going to have to waste a lot of time getting your money back.

For those interested the game Specs as listed on the game itself are:-

System : Windows 2000 or XP only

Processor : 1.3GHz

Memory : 256Mb

Hard Drive : 3.5Gb
Only comes on a DVD-Rom and needs a minimum read speed of 8x

Video Card : 32Mb Direct3D (Cards supported: NVidia Geforce 2 GTS or later, NVidia Geforce FX Series or later, NVidia Geforce 6800, ATI Radeon 7500 or greater, ATI Radeon X800).

Sound : DirectX9.0b compatible

Internet: 56.6Kbps for 2 players or Broadband for 2-8 players.


The best bit of LotR merchandising ever.   January 2, 2005
Ian Tapley
73 out of 76 found this review helpful

THE STORY:
As the forces of good, you control the Fellowship and their allies from Gondor and Rohan as you fight across Middle-Earth before taking your war to the Black Gate itself. If you choose the forces of evil, lead armies from Isengard and Mordor in hunting down the Fellowship and despoiling the lands of your enemy. Levels includes such iconic settings as Moria, Isengard, Helm's Deep, Minas Tirith and Cirith Ungol.

WHAT'S GOOD:
Not only is the best LotR game I've ever played, but it's also the best strategy game I've ever played. Your army fights in units, doing away with the tiresome process of purchasing your forces one man at a time, but you are also given Heroes to control, who add an entire new depth to the game with their powerful special attacks and the bonuses they grant to nearby troops. All of the main characters of the films (Gandalf, Merry, Pippin, Sam, Frodo, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Boromir, Faramir, Treebeard, Eomer, Eowyn, Theoden, Saruman, Shelob, Lurtz, Gollum and the Witch-King) have been included and each is entirely unique. Also, each of the carefully researched locations (most taken from Tolkien's texts rather than the films) presents different challenges, be it preparing to ambush a convoy of Haradrim or (best of all) desperately trying to prepare Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith for the immanent arrival of the enemy army. Oh, and just wait until you take control of your super special power (the Balrog for evil, the Army of the Dead for good)! Add to all this excellent graphics that even hold up when you zoom right in and a wonderfully streamlined resource-gathering system (none of the AoE '4 wood, 6 gold, 9 stone' rubbish). I would say this is 'one game to rule them all', but I'd have to break my own legs for using such a tired cliche. *SNAP - SNAP - ARRGGGH!*

WHAT'S BAD:
There's really not much to complain about here, but I was a little disappointed about the briefness of the levels in which you just control the Fellowship. I can't help feeling that they could have made an entire game just based on those too few bits. The other really bad thing about this game is the fact that you become so engrossed that you suffer from alien-abduction-style missing time and suddenly realise it's 3AM and you've been playing for six hours straight!


what a game!   January 30, 2005
alex mckeegan
46 out of 52 found this review helpful

Well, what can I say? I have been looking for a game of this quality for many years. The first thing that will astound you is the graphics! The introduction is amazing, the beginning story to the trilogy. Then you enter the main menu, the back-ground picture of the army that is about to attack helms deep. The detail in this picture alone is amazing! Their is no other word i can use. Then we go through and enter the campaign menu, you have the option of following the people of middle earth in their struggle against the evil that is clouding their land. Or the evil side who have a great desire to shroud the middle earth in a brand new darkness. i started by choosing the good campaign. The next thing to make me gasp was the main map! They have taken the pencil drawing out of the book and made it into a 3d wonder. you can see all the main parts of the map in great detail like, helms deep, minas thirth, isangaurd ect. You then zoom into the section you want to and begin. The first mission is getting the fellowship through balin's tomb. i would not mention this really because it is quite basic, until you reach the end. Remember that impressive battle between Gandalf the grey and that awesome balrog? Well this battle is 100 times better. The balrog its self is a work of art. The whip. The flame sword, the tail, all the detail is exquisite! So now you decide whether the evil balrog destroys Gandalf? Or does Gandalf survive to continue helping the fellowship? Their are a lot of decisions like this to be found out! The next wonder to be seen is the building interface! One thing us gamers have had a problem with for a long time is having large buttons with big gaps in between them. And we used to end up paying more attention to the buttons than the actual game! Were as now the E.A. team have come up with nice sized buttons with just the right amount of space in between them. So you can produce units and buildings at a touch of a nice sized button.
We then move onto the sound in the game, the E.A. team have rounded up all cast and asked them to record different sayings for the game. so now, for instance, during the battle for helms deep, you get to here gimli shouting an accurate amount of how many urak-hai he has killed. or Aragon shouting his anger when the wall is breached!
Now we move on to look at each unit. Their are many units, and it depends who you are fighting for, as to if you can get them. For instance, if you are rohan, you can't have minas thirth solders. The one other thing i must, must talk about that to be the mumakill!!! The team really have gone to town on this one! The thing is totally breath taking! The size is portrayed really well, the war paint visible but not intrusive and the solders on their back's very effective! But the thing that makes this game totally unique is that units have emotion!!! If a troll is approaching a group of solders they start walking backward and screaming! If they have a captain he might try to steady his soldiers before he is picked up and crushed under the monster's hand! Another example of this is looking again at that awesome mumakill, if fire archers manage to set fire to the stand on the beast's back, the poor creature will panic, running around madly and stamping on its troops. were as if orc archers manage to set fire to an ent, then the ent get a bit scared, but keeps carm and finds water to put its self out in!

I hope you have enjoyed this review, I certainly enjoyed the game! Please leave feedback.
Thanks
ALEX