"Sweet RTS, 1000 times better than War of the Ring"

Finally, we have a good RTS based on the Lord of the Rings. Compared to the lackluster War of the Ring, the RTS is am amazingly addictive.

Gameplay: 10/10
In campaign mode you can choose Good and play as Rohan and Gondor, or you can choose Evil and play as Isengard and Mordor. If you choose Good you will play defense a lot, especially when trying to guard Helms Deep and Minus Tirith. If you play evil you will have to take over Rohan and Gondor, before making your final attack at Helms Deep and Minus Tirith, respectively. Unlike the standard one unit made at a time system, units come out in battalions of 4 or more, except the stronger units, like trolls, which come one at a time. Most RTS games give you a small limit of how many soldiers you can use at a time, but Battle for Middle Earth allows 200 each on 2 vs 2, even more in 1 vs 1. Solo play is where the game really shines, allowing 600 units when you play as Mordor. That brings me into another great part of the game...multiplayer. Games usually take an 30 minutes to an hour, and they are always tons of fun. Watching Mordor put ladders against Gondors walls and raid the camp while fire arrows fly at them feels epic and looks...well, cool.

Graphics: 9/10
This is an RTS game, so the graphics and expected to be great, but they are purely beautiful compared to other games in the genre. Of course, if you have an old computer you can put it on very low, but on very high the graphics are breath taking. Not only do things and effects look great, but there is constantly motion, be it animals running through the field or your soldiers doing things to pass the time.

Sound: 9/10
Everything is voice acted, and you can turn off the subtitles if you want. There are thousands upon thousands of different things that they say, and there pretty smart about it. When you click on units, they yell things like "ready to ride" or "get your crossbows ready." If you move them and then immediately move them again, they will say "no time to rest!" If enemies enter your radar someone will alert you, so you don't always have to stare at the radar. If you get a new hero or special unit, the whole army will begin to cheer as it walks by. Music doesn't suck, but it is nothing special.

Replayablity: 10/10
Huge...its ****ing huge. Two whole campaigns to go through, and beating one doesn't make the other boring. Plus theres the online system, which totally owns. It is ranked, so you can work on your stats, and hopefully they will put in a friends list soon.

Overall: 10/10
Definitely worth a buy.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/21/04