An uninspired sequal, yet still quite good.
gameplay-------------------------------------------
There is the SP campign and the War of the Ring. Watch the Gamespot Review to see what the War of the Ring more is about.
The most drastic addition is the ability to construct your own walls and buildings, anywhere. The downside is that the walls are paper thin, extremly expensive, can be destroyed by a single punk group of orcs, and cannot be rebuilt easily or garssioned with archers... thus they are completly useless, so much for siege warfare. ( I modified my game files to add 10X the hitpoints to walls and defensive structures to allow for seiges)
The resource gathering is handled by costructing resource buildings. The resource buildings have to be constructed quite a ways away from each other or they produce less cash. This prompts for a very expansionist/aggresive gamestyle that revolves around territory control.
The different races are very well balanced. The only problem is that the variety found in the previous game is almost completly gone. All sides have about the same units but with different visiauls. Goblins and orcs are only slightly weaker than elves, only exeption here are the monsters which are unique to the evil side. The stone/paper/scissors approach to units has also been reduced and it no longer matters what unit types you send into battle. The major differences between factions are unit speed, heroes, and powers. (here I also modified the game to make elves 2x as strong/expensive and orcs and goblins 2x weaker/cheap)
The powers have a lot of visial varity and are very spectacular, yet ultimatley they are also fairly similar in their effect for both sides.
Although the game now offers flanking bonuses and more unit variety the tactical part is greatly dimished compared to the predecesor. Since you will have a huge army it will be extremly difficult to mange it in combat and since you need to constatly expand your territory you'll find yourself sending armies on move-attack orders to the enemy base while you macromange the homefront.
The "creat a hero feature" is a nice addition that lets you letting you customize the character in terms of abilities and stats. The custom created heroes can be used in War of the Ring mode, multiplayer, and skrimish matches. The game keeps a track record for your custom hero which adds a nice sense of achievement. I especially liked the Hardrim heroes since they offered a cool ninja like gameplay... not that it matters since the scale of the game utlimatley dwarfs the heroes (... the dwarves too..).
The SP campign is high quality although it is no different from what we are used to with other RTS games.
Sound ---------------------------------------------
The Sound is the same as in the previous game. The only addition is the dwarf faction music, which is as good as rest of the audio.
Graphics-----------------------------------------
The game offers a slightly improved version of the graphics from the first game.
I don't particularly like the look of the new factions. The design isn't as slick as the movie-based factions. Compared to other RTS games the graphics are still quite superb, although I wish there was more done on the design front. ( giant scorpion riding goblin with a towel on his head? gimme a break)
The new water effects are very nice although I had to play without them since they taxed my machine quite a bit ( Athlon XP 3200+, GeForce 6600 GT, 1ghz ram).
The realistic shadows really make the forests and buildings come alive and they are quite easy on the framerate.
Value-----------------------------------------------
The game offers a fantastic value package. SP story campign, skrimish mode, and War of the Ring mode give the game a lot of juice.
Closing comments--------------------------------
A good game in terms of production values, but not a spiritual successor of the first game nor a great improvment. It's a regular RTS with LotR paint splashed on top.
If you liked WC3 or Age of Mythology this game should appeal to you.