The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II

"This genre really isn't at home with a controller."

So Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II is another attempt to bring an RTS to a console.

They really should stop.

On to the review.

Graphics: this is a 360 game?

Rating: 4/10

Ever wondered what it looks like when mud becomes animated? Here's your chance to experience it first hand. Low quality textures abound, this is one of the uglier games I've seen on the system. The buildings look really nice, though, and the architecture for everything feels authentic, and very Middle-Earth like. Which is probably the reasoning it didn't get a lower score.

Sound: It sounds like I'm in heaven. With some orcs.

Rating: 10/10

This is where the game shines. Awesome musical score, incredible voice acting, everything in the sound department checks out. The original actors lend their voice work for the game, so it still sounds like the movies. Troops yell as they rush into battle, weapons strike armor, its perfection.

Control: Radial menus help maximize efficiency.

Rating: 5/10

Ok, so you select your builder with the A button. Then use the right trigger to pull up the build menu. Fairly easy, doesn't take long to learn, not too terribly bad. Not many complaints here. It's still an RTS on a controller though, so it feels clunky and awkward.

Game play: I can't quite understand what button you are pushing!

Rating: 1/10

Alright, so it's your basic RTS game play. Build farms, build barracks, build troops, collect resources, try and stay alive. The system it uses for farms is a very good idea. The basic idea is that you have to build farms away from each other, so you can maximize the productivity of each one. This prevents players from creating little "colonies" of farms.

So why does the game play section get such a bad score? The first battle I fought was a 2v2. The teams were Men of the West, Elves, vs. Elves, Dwarves. The game starts off lagging, with a very spotty frame rate. After that kind of settles itself down a little bit, you start your regular BFME2 run. You get your farms up, a barracks, get some troops to defend said farms, and a hero. By this point, the opposing team had sent some an initial wave of troops at me. No big deal, 2 battalions of lorien warriors. I'm in the back of my base getting my farms set up, so I start to speed over to where the enemy is at so I can send my troops in to stop them. On the way there, the frame rate drops again. While trying to stop a fight, the frame rate dips and speeds back up. So I get the enemy troops on screen, hold L and hit A to select all my troops. Now, I click on the first enemy battalion to initiate attack. No response. I tell myself “umm, okay.” and do it again. No response. 3 tries later, my troops start yelling and march into battle.

This is what we call input lag, and in an RTS where you have to have some sort of basic quick thinking, this is no good. And this is in a skirmish game! This isn't online where network lag could be a problem, no no. This is in a single player skirmish game. This is what we call a slight problem.

Overall:

Basically, this is a good example of a good idea gone horribly wrong. The only thing making me hold onto this game is because it's Lord of the Rings, and I am a huge fan of anything and everything related to middle-earth. If you must play it, rent it first at least. If you are new to the RTS genre, then you may like it, since you will not have anything to base its quality on. But if you play RTS regularly (or even irregularly) then there's a good chance you'll notice all of the flaws.

If it's a must buy for you, get it on PC.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/10/06