The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II – Review

What’s this, a real-time strategy (RTS) game on a home console (as well as PC)? When was the last time you experienced that? Oh, wait, I recall trying to play Age of Empires II on the PlayStation 2 a couple of years ago. The controlling with the standard PS2 ‘controller’ was a nightmare and in no time I connected my USB mouse to gain control over the gameplay. But then the question arose: why am I playing it on the PS2 instead of the PC? Why did developers even try to convert a PC-reliant game to a console game? Four years later, and Electronic Arts brings Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II on the market for PC and Xbox 360, and guess which one I needed to review…

In the Xbox 360 version of Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II (BFMEII), you’re going to experience strategic fights in campaigns and scenarios—which you’ve never seen before—or in any of the movies for that matter, or in any of the other Lord of the Rings games either. The main story is about the clashes in the Northern Region of Middle-Earth where Elven and Dwarven strongholds are located. Dark Lord Sauron wants to gain control over the total Northern Region and therefore a war between good and evil is unavoidable. The campaigns are divided into eight good and eight evil campaigns, and it’s up to you whether you want to help defend the dwarves and the elves or crush them with orcs, trolls, etc.

The RTS gameplay hasn’t changed much, and the main principle is to build a base with structures that can produce (fighting) units, as well as heroes and other battle resources. Once built, there’s the possibility to upgrade all of them in preparation of a great attack or an act of defence. The only objects that can’t be upgraded are the resource collectors, but you keep on building those to gain more resources, which are necessary to keep on expanding your base. Of course EA has added some new features, such as the possibility to use special powers, which can be bought with points gained during the game in order to produce, for example, a huge earthquake. Also, you need to be careful while placing resource collectors, as some provide a lot of room to gain the full 100% of its capability. While moving your planned object, the resource gaining percentage is visualized to help you out. The buildings provide ‘command points’ that are needed to create units. If you’re not able to create any units, then it’s often better to check the possibility to build even more buildings to earn more command points!

The big difference between the good and evil campaigns is, of course, the goal that results in a more defensive tactic for the good campaigns and a more attacking tactic for the evil campaigns. It’s a shame that only eight campaigns per side are available to enjoy the throughout this latest Battle for Middle Earth RTS game. For a single player there’s also the skirmish gaming mode, which pits you against one or more computer-controlled opponents. Choose the number of opponents, the difficulty level of the A.I., then select a map and your army’s starting location and start the battle!

For multiplayer gaming enjoyment, Xbox Live is the place to be! Think you’ve got enough BFMEII experience? Want to test your skills online? Go ahead and challenge someone in one of the multiple online gaming modes. Play player versus player (or teams) in a free for all, one side standing game or try to become King (Queen) of the Hill with the main goal to take control and hold either a fortress or signal fire. One multiplayer mode, which reminds me of Battlefield’s capture the flag gaming principle, is the ‘capture and hold’ mode. The goal is to capture and maintain various signal fires scattered around the map. And there’s more! What to think of a resource race where the winner is the first one who reaches a certain number of resources. And last but not least there’s a Hero vs. Hero online gaming mode, where a player receives four heroes that will battle until the bitter end. Wow, so much online entertainment is simply amazing! And you can guess that more maps and possibly new campaigns will be added via Xbox Live Marketplace in the near future.

The in-game graphics are quite okay, and you can zoom in to get a closer and better look on the designed structures, units, and heroes. The negative aspect in zooming is the frame drop during big battles and the graphics start to stutter on screen as a result. Bad! The menu is on the bottom of the screen and can expand if there are multiple options (upgrades, for example).

Regarding sound, I still don’t understand why the sound level isn’t equal. If you load a game or watch the intro, the sound is steady. But as soon as you start the game you’ll need to push on the TV’s volume button to hear anything. The mixing of sound differences is just terrible. So keep your remote control nearby while playing this game!

While starting to review The Battle for Middle Earth II, I was very skeptical about the controlling due to bad experiences in the past. Thanks to a decent tutorial mode you’ll get familiar with the RTS controls with a console controller. It’s still a little bit strange, but after a couple of fights and campaigns you’re soon used to it. Mainly the Xbox 360 trigger buttons, the ‘A’ button and the analogue sticks need to be controlled to handle the game. It’s not as bad as I assumed it would be but still not comparable to a mouse and keyboard.

The female gamer point of view is strictly devoted to the game’s one and only heroine—Arwen Undómiel. She is an Elven heroine, born in the Third Age in 241. She has several powers and skills such as mounting and dismounting of her horse, healing nearby allies, and creating a flood that causes a lot of damage in a small area. You’ll all recognize her, as she is a perfect copy of Liv Tyler from the original Lord of the Rings movies.

Overall, Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II on the Xbox 360 is a thoroughly entertaining real-time strategy console game. Thanks to the campaigns and online entertainment, the gaming enjoyment will keep you occupied for many hours. Although I was very skeptical about the controls at first, during the second campaign it felt really good. Of course, there are still some negative points while comparing it to the PC control system; for example, you cannot click on the mini-map to go directly to a selected area; groups of units cannot be assigned to shortcut keys; and if you’re selecting something in the expanded menu and a friend signs in on Xbox live it will be displayed over your menu (very handy!). But it doesn’t beat the fun while conquering your enemies, building and up-grading freaky buildings, showing off your powers, and so on.

Review by Wencke
Thumb Bandits European Correspondent & manager of GGU.

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