Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth

Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth is a game that comes close to equaling the scale of the movies. With detailed graphics and a storyline based on the films and classic novels, it also gives you the opportunity to choose sides and rewrite the history of Middle Earth. With these endless possibilities it’s sure to be a fan favorite.

The previous LOTR RTS game, War of the Ring released last year, left a little something to be desired. The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth makes up for it in virtually all aspects of game play and tries to match the grand scale of the Films.

The story for Battle for Middle Earth covers the three films and includes all the familiar characters who are available as hero units; Playing either as the forces of good or evil you will battle for control of 30 provinces and have the ability to write the history of Middle Earth as you succeed (or fail) to gain control of these. Similar in ways to Rise of Nations, there’s a global map from where you select provinces to conquer or defend; playing out the real time portion one province at a time. Controlling provinces, also gives you special abilities which can help you in your goal by adding resources, combat bonuses, etc.

The graphics are beautiful, both landscapes and battles are huge and colorfully detailed bringing the world of Middle Earth alive. The musical score is possibly the best game soundtrack to date, using a nice blend of original game and movie soundtrack to give it the right atmosphere.

The game play is typical of many RTS games, the combat and resource gathering phases flow seamlessly with both sides equally balanced. Even though the battles are large in scale one disappointment for me is the population cap, it would have been nice to the scale of Rome Total War where thousands of units are involved.