From Helm's Deep to the Black Gate, this game delivers with great gameplay, but Tolkien fans may find it lacking.
Graphics: 9
On console, the graphics may look a bit passe, but the PC version presents crisp visuals with excellent artistic style, assuming your hardware can keep up with it. The troops are easily distinguishable, too. You'll be able to tell between an archer, mage, or lowly grunt at a glance. Some of the effects, such as the trails left by swords and arrows, are noticeable throwbacks to the old action-RPG LOTR games, and while I find them enjoyable, some may dislike the powerful, over-the-top feel that they give to attacks of mere foot soldiers. Overall, I give the graphics a 9, mostly because of the wonderful and faithful renditions of the universe. The obvious use of low-poly surfaces, along with a few minor annoyances keeps it from being a 10.
Sound: 7
Conquest's sound effects are very engaging...it's the voices that I'm not too crazy about. The sounds of swords clashing, roaring orcs, and lightning playing across the battlefield really immerse you in the game, but as soon as you start to feel like part of the battle, the obnoxious, tinny commander's voice comes on to tell you your next objective, making you conspicuously aware that you're just playing a game. The voice of the orc commander in the evil campaign is slightly better, but it sounds so much like the voice of the warboss in Dawn of War, I almost expect him to shout "Waagh!" every other sentence. All in all, the sound is polished and exciting, with the exception of the voice acting, which brings it down to a clean 7.
Gameplay: 9
The gameplay is where this game truly shines. Taking the large-scale battles of Battlefront and combining them with the action of an LOTR game worked beautifully, and the game really flows well. Stringing combos together is easy; with the mage there's just one melee button, and with the scout and warrior combos always scale upwards (light->medium->heavy attacks). Each class has special abilities, too, which make the game completely different depending on your choice of character. Just as in Battlefront, heroes are a blast to play as, and their special abilities and attacks sometimes differ from those of their base class, making each hero different. The combination of the two campaigns, the different instant action game modes and difficulties, and the ever popular hero deathmatch will have you coming back to this game long after you thought you were done with it. The difficulty of getting your character back up after being knocked down brings my score down to a 9, though.
Story: 8
We all know the story of Lord of the Rings, and the game stays pretty true to it, using scenes from the movies as introductory and concluding scenes to each mission in the campaign mode. Particularly interesting is the evil campaign, which suggests and alternate ending to the War of the Rings, starting with the Nazgul retrieving the ring from Frodo on Mount Doom. This campaign also uses footage from the movies to get its point across, which is impressive, considering the divergent stories of the movies and evil campaign. Unfortunately, some of the battles will not remain completely faithful from a by-the-book standpoint, but for the most part these infidelities are easy to overlook, as they only occur to preserve the gameplay. Overall, the story gets an 8.
My take:
The game is fun, and that's what really matters. True LOTR fans might have some gripes with it, like the fact that men can kill Nazgul, but I'm willing to overlook such minor shortcomings and look at the game as an exciting, enjoyable experience.