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Jan 12th, 2007 at 05:28:22 - Battle For Middle Earth (PC) |
Some of the other problems I had with this game was the terrain on which you are battling. The maps seem to be desolate monotonous areas that look like they were thrown together haphazardly at the last minute. The same tree model and is used for ALL trees in different maps. The mounds of rocks and trees not only do not live up to the epic scenery of LOTR at all but in addition i would still criticize it if were any other RTS game.
Another problem is resource collection. Before you can get the ball really rolling you have to build only farms and use half of the designated numbered spots you have in your base (no freedom in that respect either) before you can branch off and begin to build other buildings and have a steady rate of resources to start pumping out a decent amount of men. This creates a game that does not require a whole lot of skill but a lot patience.
The cramming of two many ideas into a game that could have just been improved in some of the aspects listed before does not help either. Adding the option of heroes, veterancy, and a "tree" of special powers unlocked by some unknown measuring of experience (maybe unit kills?) to a mix that already isn't flowing too well is going to frustrate the player rather than engage him/her.
These problems combined make BFME an unpleasant experience. While the backstory is amazing (as it should be being based off best selling books and movies) all the best cut scenes in the world are not going to save a game if the gameplay itself is not enjoyable. Within the RTS (real-time strategy genre) there have been many greats such as the Command and Conquer Series to the huge hits put out by Blizzard which include of course Starcraft and Warcraft series. Unfortunately, this is not one of those games.
P.S. This is NOT a 5 out of 5 game~I was not aware of the rating system option before I created this log.
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Jan 12th, 2007 at 04:52:09 - Battle For Middle Earth (PC) |
Battle For Middle Earth is a game that takes a gamers hopes of defending or wreaking havoc in Middle Earth and then utterly destroys these hopes with a non-intuitive user interface, crappy graphics (dangerously low polygon counts), and a limited amount of supply limit (which equals a small army).
Lets start with problem number one: user interface. Of all the things that should not be done cheaply or skipped over, I believe, is the virtual controls for which you view and control a game. One of the problems with the UI is that it is way too small. This would make sense if the graphics were great because if the game is gorgeous or has an absorbing cinematic quality its good to keep the UI out of the way of that, however, that is not the case. In addition, many of the little spheres that supposedly hold actions that you can potentially use are largely empty making most of the slots useless even if you were tried to use it (instead of keystrokes).
In addition to a user interface that to put it mildly; sucks, there is also the issue that the game for some reason requires a 4 CD installation for 3D graphics that sadly would have been better off being done in greater detail isometrically in 2D. The heads on most of the soldiers look like little knobs with no detail at all. I would much rather see some detail on my characters to ensure their valiant or evil qualities than see faceless groups of humanoids fighting each other.
A third problem I have noticed so far is a low supply limit. While a 200 supply limit seems reasonable and is in most cases the norm some of the more advanced creatures like mountain trolls and mukamil eat up a good quantity of this allowance reducing the sheer size of you army greatly. While this could be acceptable for any other game, the fact that BFME should be representing imagery where infantry cover whole mountainsides and valley makes this unacceptable. As I said before, if the constraints (average gamer hardware) kept developers from creating a massive army as LOTR should be AND besides one that is not even very detailed, they should have followed Blizzard's cue with Starcraft and kept it simple with 2D that looked fairly 3D.
My quest continues...
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