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

"The series continues!!!"

Introduction
EA continues their series of Lord of The Rings with this game. Lord of The Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II is most commonly abbreviated by the letters LOTRBFME2. This is one of the newest installments of The Lord of The Rings game series. All of the games are based of the movies The Lord of The Rings, The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers, and the final movie The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King. The game reaches out to fantasy and combat fans. People who were fans of the movies would definitely love this game if not make it their favorite game. This is one of the 360's first and successful RTS (real time strategy) game. Instead of this game featuring the regular heroes of middle earth, it features new heroes with a new battle.

A New Story
The last installment of the series was LOTRBFME, (Lord of The Rings: Battle for Middle Earth) which featured the story of all the movies wrapped up into one game. This new installment offers a new story and battle to play, the battle of the north! The game has two stories; you can play as the power of good or the power of darkness. The army of light consists of elves, dwarves, and the men of the west. The army of darkness consists of goblins, uruk, wild men of Dunland, trolls, orcs, and also the forces of easterlings. In both of the stories as you progress the battles get harder and more fun than before.

The story of the north is a totally new one that made fans happy and excited to try something new. A lot of the battles in the game where not featured in the movies. The story gives new hope to continue the franchise, and to truly play and understand the story you must be into the game and actually listen. The story is not hard to follow but if you listen and pay attention, it makes the game more epic and exciting.

Game Play
Many fans and gamers were very anxious to see if the game's controls were simply enough not to cause confusion and frustration, Microsoft successed in doing their best to make the game simply the way most possible without ruining the game. The game also offers a tutorial for the game which shows you the basics and fundamentals of the game. The game's controls where simple as promised and gave fans the opportunity to decide the prosperity or fate of middle earth. During game play you'll get numerous objectives that must be completed to beat that certain level. Some times during play you'll receive side objects which help finish the mission or give extra points at the end of the mission. In game play, you can buy and use special powers. These powers can turn the tide of the battle if used correctly. Factions also can buy and use powers that some cannot, this helps even out the game so that one force can't unleash total chaos on another. The factions and units have different advantages when fighting. The dwarves are known for their huge war machines that can oblivarate any castle or fortress. Elves are known for their mastery of archery that defends castle walls extremely well. The game also brings a new battle feature that was not included on the prequel to this game. Now you can take to seas of middle earth with new battle and transport ships. One level requires you to make ships and to transport your soldiers to the front line. Units and heroes are probably the most essential part of the game. Without your units you have no army, without a hero you have no one to encourage them.

heroes and villains "You shall not pass!!!"
Aside from the new heroes, but some of your favorite heroes make an apprance too. The new heroes are entirely new with the exception of one that appeared in Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers who lead the archers into the fortress at helms deep. Heroes in the game, help tremendously in the game, they lead, encourage, and bring hope to your soldiers. Villains are the heroes of the evil side, and most people must admit that it's fun to play as them. Some of the games powers allow you to summon a hero or villain. One of the last powers you get is to summon the Balrog of Morgoth which can devastate the battlefield. The old heroes make an apprance on some of the last levels. For the most part the heroes are very detailed and fun to control. The more exciting and most powerful heroes are the leaders of the armies of good and evil. Sauron is one of these people the other I'll leave out not to spoil the game.

Armies
An army is created by a barracks and other basic unit generating buildings. An army can consist of infantry, archer, pike men, castle invading, and ship units. Some units may not be available during cretin levels (ex: cannot have a ship on land) but that doesn't stop you from making a vast and powerful. There is a limit on how many soldiers you can generate though, but your limit can get larger if you make more buildings while playing the game. Units have different advantages and disadvantages while fighting. Archers can kill cavalry quite quickly but might get eliminated easily by pike men. Knowing your enemy or friend can dramatically change the battle. Your friend might love to make cavalry units so you can strategically make archers to dominate his army.

Can we build it? Yes we can!
Buildings are also a major factor of this game. To make soldiers and buildings you must have resource points. At the start of the level you will have a certain amount of buildings. One of the most used buildings that you must have is a resource generating building. These buildings will give you resource points for you to produce other buildings. A thing that you must remember is that you can almost never have enough resources buildings, resources are almost constantly running out at the beginning of the level if not constantly getting rescores in return. Sometimes your army will die with no survivors and it costs rescores to make new soldiers. If a hero dies they cost a large amount of points. The most basic buildings to produce soldiers are barracks and archeries. Your main building is your citadel which is the building that gives you the power to make heroes and produce buildings. Without your citadel you are barely alive in the game.

Graphics & Sound
The graphics in standard are simply amazing and the games so much detailed that it shows just part of the 360's power. The soldiers and every single one of the enemies are detailed strongly. Sound is also a huge factor of a game and the game did not fail with this. The game's graphics and sound go together almost perfectly to bring a true gaming performance that truly demonstrated the 360's power. Theme, voice, background, and almost every sound is loud and clear which sounds like magic.

Skirmish Mode
Skirmish mode is an optional game mode where you can choose your army and fight. Choose any army known to middle earth and pit it against 4 other armies on the battle map. Some times it's even fun to make your own story line where the elves get mad at the dwarves and they finally collide.

Play time & Re-play ability
This game is so fun that there is a 90% re-play ability promise by me. The game takes about 4 days to beat unless you're very interested in the game. You can even just play a skirmish and make up your own story! This game has many missions to play but everyone is fun and exciting. If you can only play about 1 hour a day to play this game, it'd probably take about a week to beat.

should you get this game?
My recommendation for this game is very high. This game is one of my favorite games which lead me to make this review. The game is very fun and cool, almost everything is perfect. If your a Lord of The Rings fan then this is a must buy for any Lord of The Rings game collector. If you're new to the gaming world and just got a360 then this makes a great first game. It's up to you but I'd seriously recommend this game. If you step this up to high definition then you'll be awe shocked. High definition really makes this game perfect, and the best RTS out there.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/30/06