This game is very symplistic at it's core. There are very few unit commands (some hidden comands you can only access view keyboard keys) and you have very little say in how your units repond and where you place your builds. That said the gameplay is not overly shallow since the game uses a strong stone/paper/scissors approach to combat. If you charge pikemen with cavalry your horsemen are good as dead unless the are fully upgraded and outrank the pikemen by many levels. Archers have very high damage but die off like flies. A single troll can take on 40 footmen unscathed but will likely loose to 10 archers. This makes the gameplay very tactical since you have to make sure you charge the right unit at the right time. At least when you play eaither gondor, rohan, or isengard.... mordor... well mordor is a different bag of tricks. The different gameplay mechanics for each faction, raiding with Rohan, defending with Gondor, swarming with Mordor, or tactical manouvering with Isengard make any RTS player happy. Where this game excelles is the sieges. I have not seen a RTS that can make a siege so thrilling as this game does (TW games are good, but they have a much more methodical approach that does not give such an action high). Having your walls lined with all your brave men waiting for the hordes of orcs to try and breach the castle is really a great experience; or when your on the offensive and you finally breach those castle walls and your warriors spill into the soft innards of the citadel. Both of the SP campigns are good, although some parts seems like skrimish maps strawn togather. The MP is fun and entertaining, even more so because the computer is not very apt strategically and does not create very large armies unless the SP scenario spawn the troops for him. The thing that bothered me the most was the lack of formations and a stand-ground command. Graphically this game is very nice, the only problem is the low res textures and low poly models that become noticable if you zoom in, although from faraway they look just like the soldiers and heros from the movie. The physics in the game are well implemented and the many monsters and spells send soldiers flying left and right giving the battelfields a non-static feeling. The amount of little details, like arrows stuck through enemies or random fauna, and the stunning particle effects make the graphics a winner. I jsut wish i could change the camera angle which is awfully high. The music is good... does not always fit what's going on perfectly since most of the scored from the movies are overly dramatic, but the music by itself is good. Sound and voice acting are also very good. I would suggest this game if your a fan of the movies and/or like RTS games in the vein of warcraft.
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