Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth 2 for Windows

For the fans of Middle-earth (I am one of them) here comes another game for us to enjoy. With the first installment covering all three movies what could this game be about? Would it be more of an expansion game rather than a stand a lone title? What would be enough different content in this game and would it be enough for the die-hard fan? EA's solution was to unify the movie franchise with the general Tolkein license. Now the games can feature content from the movies and the many Middle-Earth books by J.R.R Tokein. The results were a nice real-time strategy game, stand a lone title, featuring all of Middle-earth like it never has been seen before in a video game.

Story
Battle For Middle-earth II focuses around the Elves, Dwarves, and Goblins battling it out in the northern part of Middle-Earth. All of this happening while the hobbits are fighting their way to Mt. Doom. So, this means there are new races and factions to play a long with that were not included in the original PC game. All of these complete with new heroes and units. The game still features The Men of The West, Isengard, and Mordor as well with different units and heroes.

When Aragorn revealed himself to be the rightful heir of Gondor, Mordor sent forth his armies for total conquest of Middle-earth. Although the epic battles we have watched in the three movies, like Helms Deep and Minas Tirith, took place Sauron also marched armies to the north to crush the Elves and Dwarven lands. Armies from Dol Guldur marched on the Elven woods of Lothorien and Milkwood. All the while their eastern armies prepared battle with the Men of dale and the Dwarves of Erebor. Goblins came from the Misty Mountains too wreck total havoc on these forces. All of these battles are in the game and ready to be fought. This is where the game will shine to the true die-hard Lord of the Rings fans who have read all of these books. Even the casual fan that have watched the movies will enjoy seeing some heroes they will find familiar in the movies that just were not focused as much (like Arwen, Haldir, Wormtongue, and much more). These heroes are all playable heroes now and even more that you may not know.

Game Play & Controls 4.5/5
The game play is much like what we have seen from a lot of other RTS genre games. However, there are some unique and nice changes this time around. Once again, you command your hero accompanied by battalions of troops. These battalions come in the form of about 20-30 units in each one. Your heroes, of course, are the bread and butter as they are far more power than your other units with some very unique abilities of their own. These heroes are far more expensive than other unites and take up a lot of your command points but worth it. You can also call upon special powers (like in the first game) that can turn the tide of battle in a hurray. There are a lot more of these to choose from and are tied only with certain factions. The controls are pretty much the same and very user-friendly. You should have no trouble getting the controls down and jumping right into play. Being able to double-click on a heroes portrait to quickly jump to their location or being able to hot-key a camera location really cuts down on frantic mouse movement to get back to your base or anywhere else on the map. You can now also put your units into a formation on the battlefield. This helps keep then looking the right direction giving you correct visibility that is important.

A great new addition the the game play is the new resource-gathering model. You can no longer build up a whole bunch of farms close together and build towers surrounding them for protection. This time around once you build up a resource gathering building it gives off a aura in a circle around the building. The next resource building you build if you place it near the first one you only get a small percentage of the maximum resource. This means, you will have to spread out much farther on the map so you can't just get yourself a small corner of the map and just defend a small section. You will have to pay attention a lot more. Also new is naval battles. There are a small amount of boats to choice from like a transport, battleship, or a barrage ship to lay waist to your enemy for a fair and from the water. The only bad thing, you only see these a couple of times in the campaign mode and only a small handful of maps include them. The best thing about the game play this time is the much improved AI. No more of the enemy just building up a few units and defense structures and waiting for you to build a huge army to take them out. Only sending a unit at you once in a while. The AI is much smarter and sense you have to more spread out this time they will look for weaknesses and holes in your defense and work around it. They will also send out units at a much ramped rate making you have to fight a lot more often and keep troops at your base to help defend ads you try and explore. You will also notice as the missions go longer and longer different and upgraded troops will start heading your way. There are also neutral structures that you can take over during the missions. They are the inn, Signal Fire, Outpost, and Shipwright. Each one of these giving you a bonus like more resources or your powers regenerate faster.

One more quick notable addition is a new Ring Mechanic. Now in skirmishes and in the War of the Ring battles you will notice Golem hiding somewhere on the battlefield. He carries the One Ring with him. if you kill him and take the ring back to your base you will be able to recruit a new Hero. Galadriel if your are a good faction and Sauron himself if you are evil. These two heroes are extremely powerful and worth the trouble even though they are very expensive. The AI will also be looking for the Ring as well so it is kind of a race.

Single Player Campaign Mode 2.5/5
The game features two single player campaigns for both good and evil. This is where the new factions (Elves, Dwarves, and the Goblins) take president and are focused on. Unfortunately this is also where the game takes a major turn for the worse. There are only eight missions each but, there is some pretty cool cut-scenes between each one. There is also some good dialog that explains some of the story and how the story is evolving. However, after listening to the dialog and watching the cut-scene it becomes very repetitive. You will soon start to fell like a robot just going through very similar motions with each mission as they lack any originality or real thought to them. You will mainly just be building a base, constructing base defenses and upgrades, building the biggest army you can, then patrolling the map dismantling your enemy. There is some strategy and some of the missions can be pretty difficult. The AI is smarter this time around and pose some problems as you play through. There are some missions that start off looking different while you control just some units and heroes then are given tasks but, they all just end up with the basics of building a base.

At least this time there are more bonus missions that you can accomplish if you want. I just wish that more of these bonus missions had more baring on the main mission at hand. There is also no score at the end of the campaigns. I like knowing how I performed throughout the campaign and have some sort of stats that I can try to improve on if I wish later. This really confuses me because at the end of each mission, even a skirmish or War Of The Ring fight, there are different stats the game keeps track off that are pretty nice. for example, when you finish a mission it keeps track of various stats, some new ones like your strategic skill and tactical skill, but, there is nothing at the end to tell you how you preformed. So this means absolutely nothing to me then.

However, this is unlike the first game where some of the missions had some good thought and you found yourself doing different things often (trying to follow in WarCraft III Reign of Chaos footsteps with some originality in their missions). I'm not sure why they would venture from this but, they did. All though you will have some fun going through the campaign mode you will probably feel very cheated at the end.

War of the Ring Mode 4/5
The War of the Ring mode is like a separate game inside the game. It is a turn-based strategic board game played a lot like the game Risk that involves all of Middle-earth. There a number of different ways and scenarios to choose from but, your basic goal is to conquer all of Middle-earth one territory at a time. For example, you can play this as a free for all 1vs1 up to 6vs6 or you can even team up with the computer and play as teams 2v2, 3v3, or even 2vs2vs2. There are even different victory conditions such as the classic game, take over the enemies base territory to knock them out, or you have to take over each and every territory of your opponents. Again, the number of different options and ways to play it really is a game inside the game.

After you choose what type of game to play and layout where everyone starts on the map you can choose what race you wish to play as and what hero you want to include (this includes created heroes as well). Then pick what side each player is to play on and the difficulty of the AI for each player and click "start game". Once the game starts you have control of three generated heroes that you move around the board. You also need to choose what you want to build in each territory like a fortress, barracks, or farm. Each territory can have two of these. If you have barracks then you can build extra troops at them that will be available next turn or you can create more heroes at a fortress that also gives you extra defense in that territory. Your farms give you the ability to build more troops just the same as an actual battle. This is whats called a planning phase. Then the movement phase where you order your heroes and garrisoned troops around the board. You want to give these extra troops to your heroes so when you start a real-time battle your start the battle with those troops on the battle-field. You then move to the battle phase. If any enemy army or if your army enters an enemies territory you have to fight to take control or keep control. You can do this in real-time and fight yourself or you can auto-resolve and let the computer play out the battle. If you play the battle yourself you armies and heroes will gain levels that will stay with them throughout the game making them tougher for the next battle. If you know you will win the battle because you have an overwhelming number of troops you may want to let the computer take control. You will win the fight as the computer does a good job and keeps it realistic. Your armies will still level up this way (if they win) just a snails crawl compared to real-time battles. You can choose to retreat if you know you are over-whelmed to save the heartache of the actual battle and give up the territory for that turn. After all of the battles are played out and territories divided accordingly the game goes to a retreat phase and all loosing armies retreat a territory of their own that is touching that territory. After all of this, the game starts a new turn and you do it all over again.

I have read some reviews and I notice a lot of complaining about certain aspects of this game that I don't understand. When a battle takes place in a territory, even yours, after the battle, the buildings that were in that territory are destroyed. I don't mind this thinking that in a real-life battle I would think some buildings, even fortress, might go down even if you win the battle. It balances to game-play out. Also, I see complaints that after a battle all of the armies you built in real-time fighting the battle disappear when you are back to the map screen. You do keep all of the troops that you started the battle with (as long as they don't parish) and they level up. To me, if you were to keep the hundreds of troops you built to win that battle it would completely unbalance the game. For example, you start a battle and have one hero with a garrison of one archer unit and one horse unit. You build up a huge army and defeat your enemy. If you kept all of those troops you had built in rea-time and your opponent was defeated and looses all of his troops (which he will) you would have such an over-whelming advantage on the next turn it would make the game far to easy and boring. I think the game is well balanced and a great addition.

Create a Hero3.5/5
Also new this time around is the ability to create your own hero. You can choose from over a dozen of pre-set looks and change a few things like armor and helmets. you can change the color scheme as well along with a few choices of weapons depending on what kind of avatar you choose. You can then create the powers and how strong you want them to be for your hero. While not incredibly in-depth by any means and it will only take about five minutes to accomplish this, it's still something not offered in the previous game.

Graphics 4/5
The second go around does look better than the first in some ways though not in a huge way. The new water battles look pretty mainly because of the rippling water effects. There is also some improvement to the lighting and shadow effects throughout the game. These new shadowing effects give a great depth to the battle field. The main standout are the buildings and environments. As your buildings improve in rank or you upgrade them they take on a different look. These buildings look very nice and smooth. The lands that you fight on in Middle-earth also look lush. From the icy ground, up to the mountains, to the grass swaying at your feet. The individual units or hordes are nothing spectacular to look at but, the larger creatures in the game are beautiful. Looking at a squad of archers is one thing, but looking at a huge feellbeast or a giant eagle swooping down and picking up the enemy throwing them around the battle field looks great. In all, the graphics are not a huge improvement over the first game. This is not a bad thing as they looked good already and there is enough improvement here that you will notice there was some time spent smoothing things over.

The cut-scenes in this game that you see between missions in the campaign mode are nothing too spectacular. They do offer a unique change in the normal though by combining some real time action to cartoonish still shots. There are no more movie cut-scenes and understandably because no movies were made that follows the story-line of the game. In all, everything looks very well if you have the video card to run the game at it's full potential. If you don't and have to run the game at a lower level you still will not be disappointed.

A quick note: I run this game on a Intel Pentium duel-core with Windows Vista without any problems.

Sound 5/5
All of the sound effects in the game are still solid and sound great. Howard Shore's music plays throughout the entire game keeping the feel of the movies a live. I could not be happier than to her the famous voices of Chrisopher Lee and Ian McKellen's voices back for another go around in a Lord of the Ring video game. It doesn't get any better than hearing one of them declaring victory after a win. The rest of the voice overs for the other heroes are well put together and stay true in keeping the feel of that hero. The battle's sound the same as the first game and that is a good thing. Hearing the armor clash, the arrows whistling in the air, the catapults throwing burning rock into buildings, all the way to the fellbeasts screeching in the air as they fly by all sound great.

On-Line 4.5/5
You can play in the customary skirmish games 1vs1 or teams. Since this game uses the new resource-gathering model on line play is much more brutal as all the players need a lot more room to gather their resources. This is a lot of fun and makes the games last longer as the beginning of the match is all about battling for those square feet for a new farm/tree etc. The heroes stand out a lot more on line as well since a human opponent will always be a tougher opponent and know how to use their hero to his/her fullest extent. The War of the Ring mode is also available on line just make sure you have the time to spare before getting into one of these lengthy games. They have tournaments, ladders, and custom games for you to join as well. You can also save replays of your match to your hard-drive after you successfully complete an on line match. You can view these anytime. On line is a lot of fun but, try and find players of your own caliber too start with until you learn the ropes. If not, you are looking at a serious headache.

Conclusion
Even if your not a fan of the Lord of the Rings world, or don't know a lot about the series, and are just an RTS fan there is no reason why you wouldn't enjoy playing Battle for Middle-earth II. If you are both, you will happy with the attention of the new races, heroes, and new units found in this game. Where the Campaign mode fails the new War of the Ring mode and skirmish mode makes it up with a few tweaks that keeps this game interestesting. And the on line is worth the venture as well with still plenty of games to be found. I am happy I did not pay full price for this game and waited a while. With the price of this game being around $12 now, it is a great game for the money. The Battle for Middle-earth II is the better of the two games but, they work together because of their differences and originality of what they are focused on. I would have rated this game a "5 star" game if it wasn't for the boring single-player mode.

Game Specs
Publisher: EA Games
Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS)
ESRB: Teen
Minimum System Requirements
System: 1.6 Ghz or equivalent
RAM: 256 MB
Video Memory: 64 MB
Hard Drive Space: 6000 MB
Other: Broadband connection for online play with 3 or more players
Recommended System Requirements
System: 1.6 Ghz or equivalent
RAM: 512 MB
Video Memory: 64 MB
Hard Drive Space: 6000 MB
Other: DVD-ROM drive (for the Collector's Edition)
64 MB GeForce3-class video card. The game only officially supports cards with ATI (Radeon 8500 or greater) and Nvidia chipsets, and the Intel GMA 900 and GMA 950 products. The GeForce 4 MX is not suppor


Thank you for reading.

Related game reviews if you are interested in reading them

WarCraft III "Reign of Chaos"
WarCraft III "Frozen Thorne"
Gladius
Stronghold
Dungeon Siege
Diablo II "Lord of Destruction
Diablo II

A quick break-down of the playable heroes in the game
Heroes of Good
Theoden
Eomer
Eowyn
Gandalf
Boromir
Aragorn
Faramir
Merry, Pippen, frodo, and Sam
Elven Heroes
Glorfindel
Thranduil
Elrond
Haldir
Legolas
Arwen
Treebeard
Dwarven Heroes
Gimli
Gloin
King Dain
Heroes of Evil
Saruman
Lurtz
Sharku
Wormtongue
Heroes of Mordor
Fellbeasts
The Witch-King
The Mouth of Sauron
Nazgul
Goblin Heroes
Gorkil the Goblin King
Drogoth
Shelob
The Ring Heroes
Galadriel
Sauron