Jump to content

The Battle for Middle Earth is out!


Gol_Stoan
 Share

Recommended Posts

quote:

Originally posted by Gol_Stoan:

We wants it, we needs it, the precioussss.

I will probably get mine in a day or two, anybody have any thoughts on this one? Gamespot gave it an 8.4

I've only read reviews so far, but I'm disheartened to hear about the lack of unit diversity (two types of foot soldiers, two types of archers, and two types of cavalry for both sides --- and thats it?! (ignoring special characters of course) and the fact that units, once grouped, stay grouped. HUH?!? Who the hell thought that up?!

Graphically it looks gorgeous. But I do believe I will find that, once I play it, it will pale in comparison to Rome: Total War. Which I'm still playing, months after release. I've conquered all of europe up to Spain, I'm on my way to england, and ASia is next.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I am also still having huge amounts of fun slaughtering barbarians in Rome:TW. I have also been playing a lot of Warhammer 40K DoW, which is quite violent and entertaining. Even though the campaign is pretty short (only about ten missions and linear), the skirmish mode is quite fun.

LOTR:TBFME won't hold a candle to Rome:TW from what I have seen about it. Gamespot calls it a "conventional RTS" (It is based on the C&C Generals engine after all) It should still be an entertaining game though, of course this is an opinion a LOTR nut, (I even paint the wargame miniatures on occasion).

There are really four sides in this one evidently, Gondor, Rohan, Isengard, and Mordor and thay can all be played against each other in the skirmish mode, which can lead to the strange occurance of playing Rohan against Gondor. And the more likely and entertaining Isengard against Mordor.

Evidently during the campaign you can muck about with the storyline, which may appeal to some. You can keep Boromir alive, and Gandalf can defeat the Balrog and walk out of Moria with the rest of the fellowship.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have actually played the game now. I enjoy it quite a bit. I have been alternating between playing the two campaigns. The good side has been alternating between Eomer clearing out the Rohan countryside and moving the Fellowship along their journey.

The evil side gets to really shift from the story. So far I have been playing Isengard, among the first things I did was to kill Treebeard and destroy the Entmoot. At Amon Hen I killed all of the Fellowship except for Frodo and Sam who somehow managed to make it across the river.

There is a strategic "living" map, a 3D map of Middle-Earth with lots of neat animated bits, like the eye of Sauron roaming the map being cast from Barad-dur, and Nazgul flying around over the mountains, and if you hover the cursor over certain locations or armies/people, it will show you a clip from the movies. You pick which territory you will attack next in a manner similar to C&C.

You can do some off the wall stuff in the skirmish mode like playing Gondor against Rohan. This leads to the unusual situation of Merry fighting Pippin or Gandalf fighting himself. Merry is a Rohan hero character and Pippin is a Gondor hero character.

As you defeat enemies in the game, you build up points to use to purchase "Evenstar" powers or "One Ring" powers. These are spells that you can cast on the ground to do various things, like blighting the land, which gives evil side forces armor bonuses, and to summon the uber units. The good side gets the Army of the Dead and the evil side can summon the Balrog. Gondor versus Rohan leads to the situation of the Army of the Dead fighting itself.

While I do really enjoy playing this game, I can't ignore some of its shortcomings. If you are looking for something similar to Rome:TW, this is not it. It is a conventional RTS in the tradition of C&C and Warcraft. Warhammer 40K DoW, which is much closer to being a direct rival than Rome:TW, is really much more fun to play in my opinion (the skirmishes at least, the campaign is really quite short), it has a lot more tactical depth with cover and morale effects, not to mention the blood and gore and sheer carnage (specifically the melee weapon death animations, particularly ones involving the robotic walker units).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only played a tiny bit so far, but moreso than any other game it reminds me of Kohan quite a bit. Especially the way bases are built.

While I really love Kohan and everything - I'm actually pretty bummed by how BFME turned out - it's just nothing like TW, which is what the devs kept billing it as. The non-negotiable 45 degree angle view is also a gargantuan put-off, especially with TW giving complete freedom - and early previews & actual current in-game cinematics showing a camera with an adjustable angle... it's just infuriating.

Yeah, it's pretty much standard fare. Obviously noone went above or beyond to make the game really special. It's the same old formula with a little LOTR flare.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

So, a bit late, but...got a chance to play this recently. Very, very unimpressed --- took it back to EB, demanded my money back.

I read all the reviews, so I should not have been surprised to find that I was purchasing an RTS. I did not WANT an RTS --- I wanted what I saw in those screenshots in the months before its release --- a Middle Earth: Total War type of affair. But no...it's just the C&C: Generals engine with middle earth graphics, large unit count and pretty effects. It's pace is slow beyond belief --- and you can feel that it was done ON PURPOSE, else general RTS style play would have rendered it unplayable.

The base building aspect is neat, but as Scriv mentioned, Kohan did it --- and did it better. I'm going back to Rome

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...