Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth II (Xbox 360) Review
Posted by Chris McCarver on 07.18.2006
Seventh-tier elven extras! CHARGE!!!
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II
Platform: Xbox 360 (also available for PC)
Genre: Real-time strategy
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Electronic Arts Los Angeles
ESRB Rating: T
Release Date: July 6, 2006
Review by CHRIS McCARVER
Few can argue the cultural influence of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, even when the saga existed only in the pages of J.R.R. Tolkien before Peter Jackson re-envisioned it into a media juggernaut that has spawned thousands of new fans and dozens of tie-ins and spin-offs. And thanks to EA's dropping a dumptruck of cash for the license, console and PC gamers have had ample opportunity to step into the shoes (yeah, yeah, I know the Hobbits do the barefoot thing) of the famed Fellowship, whether the books and movies are a second religion or you just recognize Legolas and Sam as Will Turner from Pirates of the Caribbean and that hide-bound jerk bureaucrat from the last season of "24." With the epic scale of LOTR's battle scenes, the franchise seems tailor-made for a real-time strategy game. Knowing a good idea when it creeps through the brainpan, EA brings its Tolkien-based RTS series to the console for the first time with the series' second entry, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II.
Graphics
As has been the case with virtually all of EA's LOTR titles, this game is simply stunning to look at. The vast mountainous landscapes look amazing in terms of both detail and sheer scale. The same can be said in reference to the various man-made structures dotting the landscape, and the construction animations for an army's base are quite a nice change from the usual split-second sprouting from the ground amidst a cloud of disturbed earth. As far as the characters go, the characters and beasts display a massive array of detail, but their movement and battle animations are fairly limited and nothing that hasn't been seen in other competing RTS titles. Another downside to the game's visuals is the framerate's sad tendency to slip to choppy numbers when a number of units appear on screen at once as well.
Battle for Middle-Earth II's camera system allows for tight zooms and rotational pans of the maps, so every ounce of foliage is visible, recognizable, and suffers from no pixelization upon zoom-in. What players may find a bit disorienting is that the mini-map in the screen's command menu (displayed as a "Palantir seeing stone," LOTR's answer to a crystal ball) doesn't rotate with the camera, so reorienting oneself can be a bit difficult when your units need to be in an area far off the main screen. However, the palantir itself is a nicely designed menu system, with retractable function "rings" that slide out with the holding down of the right trigger and that are easily selectable and deployable.
Gameplay
Whereas the first game was set square in the epic battles depicted in the films, Battle for Middle-Earth II is set in something of a side story to the main LOTR plotline, wherein the heretofore little-seen wars in Middle-Earth's northern regions take center stage. There are two campaigns available in the game's single-player mode, good (employing the elves of Rivendell, the dwarves, and the men of the western kingdoms of Gondor and Rohan) and evil (where in the player takes command of Sauron's hordes of goblins, trolls, and orcs), each with eight missions. This game will undoubtedly appeal to hardcore fans of the Tolkien mythos, but may have Lord of the Rings neophytes scratching their heads as to why none of the major characters were available to play in this title.
If RTS games are old hat for you, Battle for Middle-Earth II is not going to be a challenge to learn. In fact, this game is probably the most pick-up-and-play RTS available on a home console. The objectives of each mission or each campaign, both those primary to clearing a level and additional bonus objectives, are clearly defined for the most part, as is how to accomplish each goal. This isn't to say that the game's going to lead you by the hand throughout the single-player campaign, but most of the game's checkpoints are explicitly defined well enough to determine what you need to do and how you need to do it. I say "most" because, although a rare occurrence, the game contains some goals that require specific criteria to be met before continuing, and the game becomes cryptic as to what you must do to move forward.
As stated above, the game's primary functions are handled through the Palantir menu in the bottom-right corner of the screen. The dominant feature of the Palantir is a mini-map of the entire level, which, as with most RTS games, brightens up with every new region your forces encroach upon. Holding down the right trigger brings up two series of rings, one along the side that contains the major functions such as managing hero characters and assigning their powers, and another set along the screen's bottom that accesses the specific function of each menu. Also using the Palantir, specific characters or units can be selected such as sword battalions, archery units, or builders, and sending them to attack or fortify your base is as easy as hitting the A button, pointing the screen's center-mounted reticle, and hitting the A button again to get them where they need to go. One liability of the Palantir is its failure to provide the option of deploying troops using the mini-map; you have to actually scroll to the region on the main screen to get your grunts somewhere, even if it's far off in the distance. The game also makes regrouping scattered troops something of a laborious task.
For those familiar with the first game in the Battle for Middle-Earth series on the PC, a few things have changed to change up the BFME experience. Prominent among these new features is the addition of naval battles. For instance, in the evil campaign, one level involves commandeering a dock, building an armada of Corsair transport ships, and first sinking fleeing elven transport ships before making a D-Day-like beachfall to destroy a series of defense towers. Building has also been modified to the point that assigning building locations is much more freeform. Rather than, as in the first game, using predetermined building plots, a faction's fortress is used as a hub from which to branch out with walls, battle towers and mini-hubs for varying a wall's layout in a non-linear manner. Walls can also be attached to portions of the environment in order to close off access to that area.
Audio
As with previous entries in EA's LOTR titles, we are regaled with a number of voices supplied by actors from the film trilogy, specifically Ian McKellen (the White Wizard Gandalf), Christopher Lee (Saruman), and, of special note, Hugo Weaving, who narrates the single-player campaigns as the elven king Elrond. Unfortunately, BMFE2 falls into the same trap that most RTS games fall into; with all of the various voice barks to denote that a character or unit has been selected or deployed, the likelihood that the dialogue will get repetitive in the extreme is all too prevalent. The voices themselves, even the soundalikes employed for the major characters for whom the films' actors were unavailable, aren't necessarily bad, but when they all say the same thing over and over again, hearing the voices becomes all too tedious.
The soundtrack, on the other hand, is classic orchestral Lord of the Rings fare, but is composed of not only original film music, but all new music arranged exclusively for the game. The music score effectively captures the epic feel of the battles as depicted in-game, especially when taken into consideration whether the player is going through the good or evil campaign.
Lasting Appeal
While the sixteen single-player levels in this game are chock full of sack-the-fortress fun, what really should make this a must-own title for a 360 owner is its online multiplayer features through Xbox Live, upon which players can go head-to-head on forty different maps (even more on the collectors' edition of the game). Battle for Middle-Earth 2 contains a number of the old multi-player standbys such as the standard one-on-one skirmish, King of the Hill, and Capture and Hold, wherein an enemy stronghold must be sacked and held onto for a pre-determined time interval. Also, by completing objectives in the single-player campaign, hero characters can be unlocked for use in the multiplayer game modes. While the multiplayer games suffer from a fair amount of framerate chug, it's no worse than that in the single-player campaigns.
Even with Lord of the Rings fandom on something of a comedown, there's still a large legion of Tolkien fans chomping at the bit to take up arms in battles only hinted at in the books or movies. And even for gamers for whom LOTR is something they wouldn't touch with a cave-troll's thighbone, there's enough crunchiness and challenge in both single-player and multiplayer to keep this disc in the 360's tray for a long while.
Fun Factor
Real-time strategy is a genre that can be a bit daunting for those who don't down a daily dose of Warcraft or its many imitators. Battle for Middle-Earth II, however, may make a few converts to the genre with its simplified controls, expansive game world, and the opportunity to explore parts of the LOTR metaplot only worth a few brief mentions previously. The game is challenging enough to make players really put on the thinking caps, while still simple enough to allow RTS noobies the chance to try a genre once perhaps seemingly unapproachable.
The 411
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth II is probably the best console RTS title on the market, which is a considerable feat given the genre's lack of success away from the PC platform on which it has thrived. The genre's inherent pitfalls do provide a bit of hindrance and the relative lack of opportunity to play as the trilogy's more famous figures may cause even the die-hardiest of the die-hard Tolkien fans turn a blind eye to it, but getting the chance to trade in a keyboard and mouse for a handy console gamepad to play an RTS (and that opportunity not falling into a flaming pit of suck) is a tasty cake for which the application of the world of Lord of the Rings is an even tastier slathering of frosting.
Graphics
8.5
Awesome environments, tight camera controls, some framerate slowdown
Gameplay
8.0
Challenging missions, easy-to-learn controls, troop movement could be tighter
Sound
8.0
Excellent music score, well-acted voice performances if a little repetitive
Lasting Appeal
8.5
Huge number of multiplayer maps and options, single-player just as engaging, non-LOTR fans may be turned off
Fun Factor
9.0
Lots of fun for both Tolkien and RTS fans, game's flaws can be worked around
