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(More customer reviews)As Shelob the Spider webs up a helpless Frodo, Sam Gamgee emerges holding up his sword. Shouting, "Get away from him you filth!" Sam charges the giant spider, backed up by fifty Gondor soldiers and archers. During the same time, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are struck down by the fiery Balrog on the Pelennor fields, thus snatching away any chance of victory. Oh yeah, and after Theoden dies at Helms Deep, valiant Boromir commands the Rohirrim to victory against Saruman.
Fan fiction at work? Nope. Simply another day playing The Lord of the Ring: The Battle for Middle-Earth.
The Battle for Middle Earth (BFME) is a real time strategy game where the player commands either for the forces of light (Gandalf, Gondor and Rohan, etc) or the forces of Darkness (Sauron and Saruman). Throughout your playtime as either faction, you'll wage warfare against your enemies, conquer (or defend)territory, and get into lots of bloodthirsty hand to hand combat.
For those who want a tactical game basaed on the utterly fantastic Lord of the Rings movies without having it be an RPG will find almost everything they could want here. You've got large armies, many, many territories to explore (and conquer), and lots of "wow" moments that can take your breath away.
At it's core, BFME is a simple, effective strategy game, and while it may not have a lot of depth, it does pack a lot of fun. For most of the game, you'll be spending your time at various locations in Middle Earth, either defending or conquering the regions you are in (as a side note, the world map is one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen in a video or computer game. It's absoloutly breathtaking). At each location, you start out with a base, where you build various structures such as farms,armorsmiths, archery ranges, etc. When you feel ready, you set out across the map to destroy the enemy, thier bases, and achieve victory. Occasionally you get to play a special mission based directly offof the movie, such as commanding the battle against Helms Deep or leading the Fellowship through the mines of Moria.
The gameplay in these missions is very simple and simplified, most likely in an attempt to be as user friendly as possible. To keep things simple, you can only build your bases at certian-pre set locations, and within these bases, you can only build buildings at designated locations. With this system, you can quickly build your base, collect resources (via farms, slaughterhouses, or other buildings), build up your forces and attack the enemy. I personally like this approach, because it lets me go for all out combat rather then micro-managing my resources. Combat,though quite simple, does require some thinking. For example, horsemen are very effective against infantry, but if they go up against spear-carrying orcs (or other soldiers), they are in big trouble. Archers can take down enemies from a distance, but are exceptionally vulnerable to every other type of troop. When attacking the enemy, it's best to learn each unit's strenths and weakness, and adjust combat
accordingly.
When building your armies, you have lots of choices for what kinds of soldiers you'd like to have. Gondor has good infantry, while Rohan has kick-ass horses that can mow down the majority of troops they come across. Isengard has fearsome berserkers, wargs, and cheap yet strong Uruck-hai. Mordor has access to
strong mountain trolls and the fearsome and formidable Mumukil (those giant elephants). No one unit is invincible, and all can be defeated by other units using the right strategy. For example, Mordor's trolls and mumukil are very strong, but both are extremly vulnerable to arrow fire (and they are pretty much dead if those arrows are on fire).
Along with your infantry, you also have exclusive "hero" units that are stronger and more efficent in battle. All these hero's are from the movie, such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir (who lives!), Saruman, the Witch king, etc. Even Gollum is avaliable (though he's pretty much useless). Each hero has exclusive powers that can help them turn the tide of battle in an instant. Saruman, for example, can temporarilly control enemy units using his oh-so-charming voice. Legolas can unleash a very fast and furious birrage of arrows at a set target. And Gandalf...wow. one move, and he can destroy an entire army. At one point, Shelob the spider is controllable as a hero! (But only if you are playing the shadow campaign). If you wish to succed at BFME, you'll need to use your hero's efficently.
And as if those heros weren't enough, you also have exclusive powers that can help turn the tide of battle in an instnat. By killing huge amounts of enemies (or conquering regions), you can power points, which can be used to buy new powers, such as being able to summon allies (eagles, ents, elves, etc), being able
to get more resources quicker, or summoning almost invincible allies, such as the balrog and the army of the dead. Some of these powers are incredibly useful, and amazingly cool.
While the normal missions are fun, the real fun comes from playing the movie-based missions, such as Helms Deep, Minas Tirith, etc. All of them give you the chance to play these battles in a different way then what happens in the books or the movies. When defending Minas Tirith for example, it's possible, though difficult, to go through the entire battle (which lasts roughtly forty minutes!) without losing a single soldier! Likewise, Saruman and his forces can either blow up the wall at Helms Deep, or they can work thier way through the keep and behind the wall.
Indeed, some of the best parts of the game are "what if?" moments where you can change the story. When Saruman burned down the door of Mirith Tirith and ran inside, followed by the Balrog, I just couldn't help but grin like a madman. Likewise, having Treebeard crush Saruman into a bloody pulp at Isengard brought another smile to my face. And having Shelob kill Frodo and Sam will have you grinning like the evil dark lord that you are.
As a further element of challenge, each faction in the game plays differently from each other. In general, the forces of light have stronger units with strong defenses, but have smaller armies. Likewise, the forces of shadow have weaker units and defenses (Mordor in paticular, has very weak foot soldiers), but have the advantage of sheer numbers and a few powerful units. I'd say that the shadow campaign is harder, especially when playing as Mordor, but it is certianlly possible to win even when playing as the harder factions.
For those who are not interested in going through an entire campagin, BFME features a skirmish mode, where you can select your army, the territory, the enemy army, and then jump in to start killing each other. With the wide range of possible battles, it's easy to come up with some great "What if" scenarios. For example, in one battle I had Gondor fight Rohan in Fangorn forest, with Boromir leading the forces of Gondor (He killed Eowyn by the way). It was a long battle, but eventually Gondor was triumphant. Likewise, In another battle, I pitted the forces of Mordor against...Mordor? The result was an hour long battle against two perfectly matched foes. Eventually however, victory was mine, thanks to recruiting the Nazgul.
Though BFME is a fun, enjoyable, and long game, there are some significant issues that need to be addressed. Probably the greatest issue is it's simplicity. The game can pretty much be boiled down to: build base, build forces, attack enemy base, destroy enemy base, conquer/defend territory. Select next territory and repeat. Doing upwards of ten of these missions in a row can get a bit repetititve. No matter how varied the enviornment, you're still doing the same thing over and over. Thank goodness there are movie based missions to help break up the pace.
Many people have pointed out that the armies in the game are pathetically tiny compared to the movie, and i'm afraid I have to agree with them. When playing as the forces of light, the absoloute maximum amount of units I controlled was about seven hundred. But it's not a huge issue because the battles are just as chaotic as the movies. Another issue I have with the battles is the edge of the maps. In the cinematics you see endless fields, mountains, sky, etc. Yet in the actual game, when you reach the edge of a map, it just stops, with a huge span of darkness beyond it. It's very jarring and unrealistic, and it is especially obvious at the black gate of Mordor.
I'm also not so sure about the replay value. When you finish either campaign, you get a fast twenty second cinematic, followed by the campagin totals, and the credits. A bit unsatisfying, and it doesn't really leave one wanting to play again. The replay value is there, but it's not one of those "Jump back in right away" games.
Another quibble that I have is the issue of replays. The game automatically saves a replay of multiplayer missions, but not of single player missions. Why? So if you play an incredible, last ditch defense, save the day mission, you can't save it. You'll never be able to see what happened in that mission ever again. It's a big disapointment that EA did not include this feature.
But in the end, BFME is a fun, exciting game that will bring a lot of satisfaction and fun to a lord of the rings fan, even if they are not big on strategy games as I am. If you have a powerful enough computer, then I highly recommend this game.
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The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth (DVD-ROM)
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