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Though it’s a mouthful to say, The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II proves that consoles can handle complex RTS games. Getting these games to work on consoles has always been the desire of more than a few developers but they never managed to accurately capture the feel of the PC original. Thanks in no small part to the power of the Xbox 360, EA has finally been able to pull off what many previously considered unachievable.
The Battle for Middle-earth II, as I alluded to in the introduction, is an RTS set in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings universe. The game also includes characters and villains from Tolkien’s other works, although a fair amount of characters from the trilogy are included in the game. Many of the scenarios are alternates to those that played out in the movies. The game’s single-player campaign includes three game modes: a skirmish mode to let you enter a quick battle and both a good and evil campaign. You’ll play these scenarios out in all of the maps found in the PC version of the game, as well as some maps found in the prequel. If you choose to play for the good side you’ll chose between the Men of the West, a combination of Gondor and Rohan, the warrior-like dwarves and the projectile-heavy elves. The evil side includes the goblins who rely on the help of giants and trolls, Isengerd, which is led by Saruman, and Mordon, which is led by Sauron.
As expected in an RTS title, to do well you’ll have to upgrade facilities and skills, create booming economies, and amass a large army. The upgrades, in particular, prove to be very important since they provide an essential boost to your army. You won’t be able to get far without researching early and heavily. As expected, there is some balance with the units as cavalry can easily take out archers, who in turn fare well against swordsmen. As expected, there is a unit that does well against cavalry. In addition to these units, you can also control heroes. These heroes are typically notable characters from the universe and are considerably stronger than other characters. Aside from heroes, you can gain powers to summon reinforcements or simply heal your troops. You don’t have to micromanage your units to do well in the game, although as expected if you put a bit more time in, your results will increase.
You’re probably wondering how they managed to pull off the control scheme on the console. The game does use every button on the gamepad, but it’s easy to get by with just a few. Both joysticks are essential as you need them to control the camera (which can zoom in and out) and cursor, which you’ll need to move units around. The A button is context-sensitive, meaning that if you select an unit and simply move the cursor elsewhere, your unit will move there but if there is an enemy there, it will change into an attack button. Both triggers are rather important too. The left trigger lets you select all of the units onscreen while the right trigger is needed to build buildings. It’s fairly intuitive and EA LA deserves props for mapping the control scheme into a few buttons.
The game includes a sizeable multiplayer component as five modes are included. As expected, there is a skirmish mode to get you in a game easily. The game includes resource race, capture-the-flag, and capture-and-hold modes. To succeed in these modes you often have to be quite confident in your base but you can’t wait too long either, making them ideal for short matches. In hero mode, you won’t have to control an army at all, just a few heroes battling a few other heroes. Hero mode can last quite some time, as can skirmish matches so if you’re looking for a long, epic match you can definitely find that in the game.
Visually, the game looks great provided that you’re playing on a screen with a fair amount of real estate. The character models are excellently designed with plenty of detail and a distinctive look to each one of the factions. The environments are lush, vast, and varied as you’ll be playing in a number of locations from Shire to Mirkwood exploring the greenness that one area provides while avoiding the murkiness of another. There are a lot of units to fit into a standard definition TV’s resolution so you’ll notice that much of the detail is gone. It’s still very playable but definitely a touch below what you would find on the PC even on a modest configuration.
The audio holds up very well, though. The background music could have been lifted from the films but it sounds suitably grand. It fits the game’s ambition very well and makes the battles that much more interesting. The sound effects are top-notch, too, allowing you to really get immersed in these battles. Many of the film’s stars lent their voice to the game including Ian McKellen, Christopher Lee and Hugo Weaving. The voice acting is solid.
The audio is still top-notch, though. Actor Hugo Weaving lends his voice to Elrond in the game, though you'll also hear Ian McKellen, Christopher Lee, and other familiar voices that were featured in the original Battle for Middle-earth, as well. And the music is appropriately epic, obviously inspired by the Academy Award-winning movie scores.
The Battle for Middle-earth II was a very ambitious undertaking but the end result is extremely impressive. There is a lot of gameplay to be enjoyed in the game thanks to the highly entertaining multiplayer mode, the presentation is superb (albeit somewhat less so if you’re playing on a SDTV), and the game makes good use of its source material. No one thought that it could be done successfully, but this game proves that RTSs can be done on consoles and done very well.
-- Adam Nunez & -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Jul 19, 2006
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