"The movies are great, the books are great and this game is great!"

Introduction:

The books were amazing, the movies were amazing and The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth followed suit. LOTR:BFME is a real-time strategy game released for PC late in 2004. I have been a big fan of the Lord of the Rings series for a while now. The only other LOTR game I have played before was The Return of the King, but nevertheless I was expecting good things from this game, and sadly it did not disappoint.
Lord of the Rings as many people know, was made hugely popular with the release of the first movie; The Fellowship of the Ring. The movies were based on the three books written by author JRR Tolkein in the earlier part of the 1900's. The world of LOTR is set Middle Earth, which was introduced to us in some of Tolkein's earlier books, including The Hobbit which features Frodo's uncle, Bilbo Baggins.

Gameplay:
Rating is 10 out of 10

The gameplay is truly amazing and fans of the series will be able to take part in some of their favourite battles, from the epic battle at Helm's Deep to helping The Fellowship make it through the Mines of Moria. Compared to other RTS games this game is quite simple, and will help a beginner to the genre get into the groove for some of the best games PC gaming has to
over. There are four different armies players can choose from. On the side of good there is Rohan and Gondor (The Forces of Light) and for the side of evil there is Isengard and Mordor (The Forces of Darkness). Do not worry however, this game also offers other races like the Elves, Ents and even the Army of the Dead which can be purchased using Power Points.

There are a few modes of play; Campaign Mode (the story mode of real-time strategy games), Skirmishes (battle against other armies) or Multiplayer Mode.

Like any other RTS building an army is a key factor of winning. You will have a base where you will have to collect resources by building farms. Collecting resources isn't as crucial as other RTS games like Warcraft and Age of Empires. One difference in this game is that you can only build a limited number of buildings in your own bases. You will need to build things like Stables and Archery Ranges to create more men.

And of course what Lord of the Rings game is complete without heroes like Aragorn, Gandalf or Saruman? These heroes can be built in Skirmishes but in Campaign Mode they usually are with you at the start of the battle or appear after a certain amount of time. The heroes are much stronger than normal Orcs and Men and will be able to take down hordes of enemies by themselves.

Story:
Rating is 10 out of 10

The story pretty much follows the story of the movies with some added battles here and there. One thing different is that when Heroes were meant to die in the movie, they would live in the game and it will be up to you to save them. Some of the battles are a bit different like Lothlorien, although it is close enough to the original to give you the feeling that only LOTR can.

Graphics/Sound:
Rating is 9 out of 10

This games graphics are amazing in high quality, although if your PC is not powerful enough it will be quite laggy. Everything is beautifully done, the Heroes can easily be associated with their movie counterparts and most of the Orcs and Men are wearing the same outfit as they did in the movies. The battlefields look great although in places they can be a bit bare, and all the buildings and towers look great. The only beef I have with the graphics is that when you zoom in the characters will look quite blurry.

The music in this game in amazing, nothing less than what I expected from a Lord of the Rings game, some parts of the game sound like the movie. The music really seems to build up the atmosphere and adds greatly to the enjoyment of the game. Another good thing is that the characters have voices too and when you click on a battalion they will say something, as will the heroes, most of which have the same people from the movie doing their voices, except Aragorn and Legolas, although you don't notice when playing the game.

Playtime/Replayability:
Rating is 10 out of 10

The Single Player Campaign in this game takes a good amount of time to complete, with the Good Campaign and the Evil Campaign. Along with the Skirmish and Multiplayer this game will easily last you the greater part of year. After winning Campaign Mode with both sides however you might not play it for a while unless if you want to win it on all difficulty.

Overall:
Average: 9.75
GameFaqs Score: 10

I strongly recommend buying this game, although some people may have some difficulty playing it on a lower-end computer, especially during Multiplayer Mode as it can cause other players to lag.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/25/05