Customer Reviews

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth (DVD-ROM)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

I usally have trouble finding video & pc games but this game was just a no-brainer( maybe thats because I'm a LOTR junkie).
Anyway,This is a marvolous game, A true pefection by EA.

Overall Gamplay: At the beginning of a new campaign you are givin the choice of playing with the forces of good or evil,Good being the armies of Rohan & Gondor thus evil being the armies of Isengard & Mordor.There are two different kinds of battles:Major battles and Ancillary battles.Major battles such as Helms Deep, Minas Tirith and Isengard.Ancillary battles are just battles For territories such as Emyn Arnen or Mirkwood.In gameplay there are four different building sites Settlements, Outposts ,Camps and Castles.You can build farms, barracks,Orc pits,furnaces ect.Obviously not all this free you need resoures. Produce resoures with farms,blacksmiths,citadels,slauter houses,furnaces ect.You also play not only with soldiers and horseman orcs and warg riders but Giant Eagles,Ents The Oathbreakers the Balrog and more.Sound and graphics are wonderful.But there are always downfalls, the game takes ALOT!!!!!!!! of memory.And one thing that disapointed me was that there was a limit to how many troops you can train called your Command limit.Plus the opposing side really Doesn't really have much sense of stategy well it is okay but it could be better.One thing that impressed me was that your units always take the shortest way somwhere Well I hope this review was helpful.

BFME is a very engaging and addictive real time strategy game; its campaign is very true to the movies,(the map is a beautiful work of art) and the multiplayer matches are extremely fun and challenging and add replayability (did I spell that right?) to the mix. While the campaign isn't nearly as long or dynamic as the incredible Rome: Total War (best game ever!), it is only second to RTW. The campaign features A TON of missions and is varied for the most part, allowing you to either save Middle Earth or conquer it, although some of the skirmish levels can get just a bit repetative. There are parts where video clips from the movies play in the "palantir" map during the campaign, which adds to the atmosphere. The audio quality is crisp and the effects well done (the EA audio team deserved the award they got). The moving score from all three of Peter Jackson's masterpiece films is present is present along with a few extra music pieces thrown in there. One of the things I enjoy most about the game are the emotions of the units; this feature really adds a human element to the game. Ignore the stupid self-proclaimed "hardcore" RTS players out there who say that this game lacks strategy and unit variety, because it doesn't. It has plenty of strategic options and choices and you'll find out if you play it. As for lack of unit variety, that isn't EA's fault, they only had the rights to the elements found in the movies. If you are still hesitant about whether to add this quality title to your library, you might as well wait for BFME II.

If you are not a real picky gamer, and don't mind the story line being bent a little here and there, this is a fantastic game. While the interface may not be everything that hard core gamers love, and some of the resource development (especially for the good guys) is overly simplified, this is the perfect game if you have little time to master gaming subtlety and just want to have fun. The graphics are phenomenal, the array of creatures entertaining and fun, the story..why the story is the best ever written. What else could you want?
The only downside I've found is that once you group different types of units together, you don't seem to be able to ungroup them. A trivial item IMHO.
This game is fast paced, lots of fun, and a great escape.

If you're looking at this game for the single player campaign, you won't be disappointed. It's fun and pretty lengthy. The graphics and the combat are all superb, as is the storyline and voice acting, much of which is done by the actors from the movies.

However, this game has two faults:

1) Replayability. There really isn't any. It's a shame because with the "Risk-style" overhead map of middle earth, they could have turned this into some sort of large scale strategy wargame without much more effort. Instead, it's a fairly linear game and once you've played it through once there's not much point in playing it through again. So the campaign is long and fun but replayability is low.

2) Multiplayer isn't that great. I'll go into some depth on this:

Multiplayer will seem fun at first. It's well balanced, there's a great variety of maps and it seems like there's a lot of strategies to try out. I have two different accounts both ranked in the 200's (out of 60,000+) so I've played and won a lot of games and feel confident in saying that balance is good.

The problem is twofold:
a) There are very few strategies that work. In a Gondor vs Gondor game, for example, there is only 1 strategy that will work. Any deviation from this strategy will result in a loss. You make horses, you get Gandalf the White, you get horseshields, you blow open his gate, game over. There's really no room for creativity. It's not like Gondor infantry or archers could be used as an alternate strategy: they are all easily squished by cavalry so with no good counters, you're absolutely forced to follow this one attack plan.

b) The winning strategies have almost nothing to do with winning massive battles and everything to do with the timing of heroes and upgrades. Heroes and upgrades are so incredibly powerful that they become vastly more important than smart troop manipulation. Multiplayer is about 95% "build order" and 5% "combat". If you do not have the proper build order, you will not win, regardless of how good you think you are at handling your troops and, as per section A, there are very few build order options, oft times there is only 1. It really takes the fun out of the game for me because I wanted big battles. You get big battles in singleplayer but in multiplayer, you're forced to avoid them.


So it's a fun game, I don't entirely regret my purchase but this really isn't a long term game. The fun for me in taking an RTS online is to try and pioneer new strategies or try something different than the mainstream strats. That doesn't work in BFME. The strats that work are well known and well documented, you can read about them online and making the high ranks is just a matter of having the patience to repeat the same moves over and over.

One of those games where you can tell nothing was rushed. Every aspect was well thought out. Excellent sound, graphics, and many options for replayability. Well worth the money. EA delivers big time!!!!

Now, don't get me wrong here. Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth is a very pleasing, eye-catching game that can keep one entertained for quite a long time. But if you choose to venture on a campaign, after returning to your computer to play a bit more again and again, you'll begin to notice that the game starts to become more and more repetitive as you progress.

In the game, your goals are very simple: Build some places, nab some resources, beat the stuffing out of people who get into your way. The variation in scenery and in different battalions is pleasing and adds to the eyecandy of the game, but eyecandy doesn't make the playing much more fun - thus, even in the larger, more exciting battles, I began to get bored as the game progressed.

Overall, the game will be a great enjoyment for hardcore LOTR fans, but for people who aren't as attatched to the series, it may be a bit of a disappointment - especially considering the heavy price. If you love games with fancy graphics and heaps of battle events, though, it's worth the $40 dollars you'll spend on it.

The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth is a very enjoyable game. The game gives a wonderful feel of the immensity of Tolkien's fantasy world. The World Map's graphics are good but the battlefield graphics could be slightly enhanced. I have had problems with certain units disappearing entirely except for the weapons they are carrying. While they are still possible to use it is difficult to find them.

The gameplay is very enjoyable and follows the story quite well. The important battle maps have been modeled entirely on the sets of the movies, lending a ciematic feel to the important story missions. The use of heroes greatly improves the gameplay by allowing the player to have units that are strong enough to stand up to several enemy battalions and hold off an enemy to rebuild an army or settlement. The recruiting of troops is broken up into battalions of five fighting men. Units may be leveled up and to carried to other campaign missions allowing you to overpower enemies easily in some cases and in others entirely neccesary for survival.

In many ways this game is like any other RTS. However, there are few tactics involved and much of the campaign is made up of battles that you must fight to push the story forward. In saying that there is little strategy I mean that the player simply points the units in the right direction. Flanking and rear attacks mean nothing and the only extra unit formation is the wedge, which increases the damage of a charge.

One gameplay improvement that I am happy to see is that resource gathering is much less tedious than that in other games. The buildings used to collect resources are different for every country but do almost the same thing. There are no units needed to collect resources (although some may be created) the building simply collects the resources.

During the campaign, each battle won allows the player resources, which inrease the food collected by structures during all campaign scenarios, or power. Power allows the player to buy special powers that can be used during battle to affect the outcome. Some powers include summoning elves, summoning the witch-king or giving certain heroes extra powers.

I recommend this game for any fan of The Lord of the Rings because of the way it accurately follows the story and allows the player to play the role of important characters as well as cammand countries. For an advanced player looking for a great RTS I would say that the game lacks tactics and that it might be wise to look elsewhere for that type of game.

Alright, this is a real blast. The sequel is coming out in March 2nd 2006. But never mind that now. Okay, You can use the Nazgul, the Witch-King, the Balrog, Lurtz, Saruman, Gandalf, Farimir, Borimir, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Merry, Pippen, etc.
Heroes are cool. Plus the units. Orcs, Uruk-Hai, Tower Guards, Archers, Trolls, etc. You should get it. It's one great game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:-)

This game has excellent graphics and very smooth and simple gameplay. It also manages to follow the storyline of the movies reasonaly well. This game is definatly not for the timid RTS player. To defeat you enemies, you have to keep the pressure on them constantly. You have to coordinate attacks on a number of different fronts with multiple unit types or you will not succeed. You can not just sit back in you base and destroy your enemy with special attacks like you could in Command and Conquer Generals. This game is highly energetic and fast-paced. The different factions (i.e. Rohan, Gondor, Isenguard, and Mordor)are well balanced and each has its own unique strengths and weaknesses. This game, however, is not quite perfect. First of all, you need to have a really good computer just to run it. Also, a lot of the mission objectives can be repetative. Most of the time, you just go in and kill everyone as quickly as possible. The epic sounding voices of the heroes can get old after a while too. I have heard some say that they believe that Gandalf is too powerful. I disagree with this. In fact, if anything, Gandalf was not powerful enough in the movies (the fact that Jackson thinks that Gandalf could not stand up to the Witch King would be laughable if it was not so disappointing). Gandalf killed a Balrog! Sauron, for lack of a better description, is a Balrog (the Silmarillion). Gandalf and Sauron are polar opposites; therefore, it makes sense for Gandalf to be more powerful than everyone else. Besides, his power is offset by the almost unreasonable amount of money require to recruit him.