 The Lord of the Rings- The Battle for Middle-Earth (DVD-ROM) Deluxe
Author Company: Electronic Arts
Category: 
The Lord of the Rings- The Battle for Middle-Earth (DVD-ROM) Deluxe 4 stars (Fun, but overall...) - Now, don't get me wrong here ...
File Size: 27.95 kB
OS: Windows 98 / NT / 2000 / ME / XP / VISTA
License: DVD-ROM - Time Limit, free to try, 37.99 to buy.
Software Developed by Electronic Arts
 Download now (27.95 kB)
 Click to buy with discount via Amazon (37.99$)
Description :
The Lord of the Rings- The Battle for Middle-Earth (DVD-ROM) - 4 stars (Fun, but overall..
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth (DVD-ROM) review:4 stars (Fun, but overall...) - 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.3 stars (Great Singleplayer, Lackluster Multiplayer / Replayability) - 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.
5 stars (An Excellent RTS) - 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.
This is the DVD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "Buy Now" button below for around $37.99 USD.
Click to buy with discount via Amazon
    
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