The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II
Score: 92% ESRB: Teen Publisher: EA Games Developer: EA Los Angeles Media: CD/1 Players: 1 - 8 Genre: Real-Time Strategy
Graphics & Sound: While it doesn’t break much new RTS ground in either story-telling or gameplay, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II proves to be an entertaining diversion for RTS fans. The Battle for Middle-Earth II showcases some of the best polish and most immersive visuals I’ve seen in a real-time strategy game, and it does so with reasonable system requirements. The unit models are of that very specific style made popular in RTS games by Warcraft III, but taken to the next level. The models feature smoother edges, and the environments are extremely detailed. Because the nature of RTS gameplay favors large numbers of units, you won’t get the best graphics out there, but for an RTS, the game looks extremely good. The game also makes use of the assets and source material of the The Lord of the Rings movies, so much of the visual imagery comes from those movies. So, as an example, when you click on Elrond, you will see Hugo Weaving’s face. Likewise, the music and voice work comes from the movies. Many of the actors have reprised their roles in doing the voice work for the game and do an excellent job. Just about every musical theme from the three films can be heard at some point in the game as well.
Gameplay: The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II is a fairly typical real-time strategy game. Much of the game is spent building, fortifying, and defending a base, while simultaneously training large numbers of combat units. Once your forces reach critical mass, you launch an attack on the enemy base. Of course, there is an entire layer of polish and spice on top of this. Often, missions will start you off with a unit that must reach an already constructed base or city, like Rivendell. While the game’s story isn’t presented as well as some of its peers, Warcraft III comes to mind, the game does an excellent job recreating events from the later books in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Whereas the original The Battle for Middle-Earth focused more on areas seen in the movies: Rohan, Gondor, Mordor, etc., The Battle for Middle-Earth II brings the focus northward to areas like Lorien, Rivendell and The Shire.
Difficulty: The game offers three levels of difficulty. Players more familiar with the details of the book are also likely to have an easier time of it, being able to anticipate events before they happen. As an example, one of the early missions during the evil campaign involves leading a legion of goblins to destroy The Shire. Seeing very little resistance in the early going, I opted to forgo a strong base and just lead my goblin hordes through the area, destroying everything in sight. Those more familiar with the books than I would have known that some very powerful rangers were guarding The Shire. Moments from victory, I was quickly trounced once they appeared.
Game Mechanics: One major factor that separates a good real-time strategy game from a bad real-time strategy game is in offering a multitude of different playable factions, each offering unique, but balanced, gameplay. The Battle for Middle-Earth II offers six well-balanced factions: men of the west, elves, dwarves, Isengard, Mordor and goblin. Though they're not quite as unique as one might prefer, each offers a satisfying play experience. The more “civilized” factions such as men and Isengard can build walls to protect their bases. Conversely, goblins can scale walls and can build tunnels that allow for instant transportation across a map. Each faction also offers a multitude of unique heroes, extremely powerful single character units based on important persons from the books. Some, such as Faramir and The Witch-King, are extremely powerful fighters. Others, like Sam, are stealthier in nature and can become invisible to enemy units. Aside from the standard good and evil single player campaigns, The Battle for Middle-Earth II also offers a very different style of play called War of the Ring. This mode of play incorporates a more strategic overlay on top of specific tactical missions. Players must build and move armies around a map of Middle-Earth, conquering territories. There are many types of play available, and adjustable rule sets as well. Because this is an RTS, many people will be interested in the multiplayer aspects of the game. Since there is a bit of variety between the play styles of each faction and each remain well balanced, people who enjoy the game in general should enjoy the multiplayer matches. The online matchmaking and lobby services provided by EA are extremely good and players should have few problems finding appropriate games. The only technical issue the game presented was in some rather lengthy load times when starting a mission. Other than that, The Battle for Middle-Earth II is an extremely well put together RTS, even if it’s not “the next big thing”.
-Alucard, GameVortex Communications AKA Stephen Triche
Minimum System Requirements: Windows XP, 1.6 GHz or faster CPU, 256 MB RAM, Radeon 8500 / NVIDIA GeForce 3 or greater with 64MB of memory   Test System: Windows XP, Pentium IV 2.8 GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, Radeon 9800 Pro with 256 MB memory
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