Awesome game, although it could've been much better.
Hokay then, I just finished playing this game a few hours ago, overall, it was extremely fun and took up about 12 or so hours of my life. For those that do not know, this game is an RTS (Real Time Strategy), here’s my review:
Contents:
Introduction
Gameplay
Graphics
Sound
Pros/Cons
Conclusion
Introduction
LotRBfME2 takes place during the same time as the movies, although, unlike in the first game, you do not get to play as the MAIN main characters. This game mostly focuses on the parts that were not in the game, but were in the books.
There are two different sides, the Good and the Evil and four different factions. The Good consist of the dwarves and the elves, humans also fit somewhere into this equation but are not main characters, while the bad consist of the goblins and the Orcs. The Good have their campaign, and the bad have their own campaign. The story missions, for the good, is to rid middle earth from evil, while the task for the evil guys is to take over middle earth. There really isn’t much of a story, basically you just play out all of the major events from the books.
Gameplay 9/10
LotRBfME2 doesn’t really differ much from your usual RTS. The controllers and most of the options are also quite the same and don’t differ much. Although the main gameplay elements don’t differ much, there are still some elements that are unique to this game. In this game, you have these powers, it works a lot like Age of Mythology’s system, but you actually get to keep all of your powers here, and you must pay for them using points you earned in combat, thus they are called Combat Points. These powers can range from increasing a structure’s resource intake to summoning an evil demon from hell to devour your enemies. The one thing I despised was the good side’s powers sucked! They all had to do with giving your soldiers a 50% boost for a minute or something lackluster like that. On the other hand, the evils’ powers were much more fun, most of them involving destruction and such. These powers can help you quite a bit as you progress through the game. Once you use a power, you must wait for it to recharge back.
Another interesting element in this game is the use of heroes. Of course, this is nothing you, but this game just has so many of them! They each have their own powers, and unlock new ones as their level goes up. Once again, the good side has sissy little powers while the evil side has powers that are substantially better and MUCH more fun. If these heroes die, you can revive them at your main castle/base like thing for a fee.
Also, as your units gain combat experience, their level will go up, ultimately making them stronger and better. You may also unlock upgrades from the armory and then you can equip your units with those unlocked items. Each faction, has their own star unit, most of them anyway. The humans have their cavalry (best part is that they trample over people, great way to kill enemy units), the elves have their archers (those are some really powerful arrows) and the dwarves have their swordsmen people (they aren’t really too special). The orcs have their trolls (wicked giant things that can rip trees out of the ground and use them as weapons or eat other orcs to replenish health) and goblins have spider riders (these are things on spiders that can switch from blades to arrows and are really fast, they’re really convenient).
Graphics 8.5/10
The graphics are very nice, textures are good, units don’t look too bad, it’s all very nice. All of the units are animated quite nicely, I especially liked how the goblins would bounce up and down or the time, or if units get bored they start doing weird motions and stuff, and it’s always nice to have all of your units cheer and scream after they win a battle. The only rebuts I have is that when you set your shadows to ultra high the shadows become cube like and it doesn’t look very nice at all, other than that, it’s all good. Although, unit models may look poorly textured if you zoom in too close. There are also nice decals, for instance when arrows hit a person they get stuck, or if they hit the ground they are stuck there, same thing with catapults and the like. It’s also quite refreshing to see enemy units run around waving their arms from the fire that just engulfed them.
I also didn’t really like how the phases of the destruction of the building. It would just jump from fine to on fire and grey in a millisecond. It would’ve also been nice to see parts break off and fall to the ground like in Age of Empires III or other newer games. Although, it was really nice to see places like the troll cage, where you can see a little guy poking a troll, or other buildings working on whatever they do. It was also nice to see how the units emerged from their own buildings, unlike games such as AoE where they would just pop out of any random space.
Sound 9/10
Everything sounds like it should in this game, if not better. When your archers shoot their arrows you can here the arrow swish through the air and the screams of pain as the arrows hit their mark. The only thing that I didn’t really like was the narrator, it just didn’t sound authentic.
Pros
-nice graphics
-running over people with cavalry is extremely fun
-trolls are funny
-sweet powers for evil guys
-evil dudes rule!
Cons
-shadows
-good guys sucked
-building animations
-longest title in the history of all games
Conclusion
So, in conclusion, Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2 may not have been a revolutionary game, far from it, but it was still hella’ fun and is definitely worth playing