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Squidget's Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth (PC)
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| [January 18, 2007 06:38:10 PM]
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Playing this game through several missions has strengthened my opinion that the design needed more time before release. There are several mechanics in place that don't make sense or contradict themselves.
For example, as they engage in battle, units level up and become stronger in the usual RPG style. Since your army is carried between missions, this encourages a defensive playstyle where you try to keep your units alive at any cost, since so much effort is invested in making them good. However, buildings also level up as they produce more units, and to access the best units you need your buildings to have leveled up several times. This creates a weird situation where you want your units to die so you can upgrade your buildings (see the aforementioned low command limit), but you also want your units to live so they can level up and become stronger. The outcome of this is that every battle turns into a bunch of complex micromanagement where you try to keep certain units alive while killing others so you can maximize the power of both your units and your buildings. In a game so focused on creating an atmosphere, having to constantly think about these game mechanics really harms this game's presentation.
That said, one thing that did impress me while playing the game was the sound. Unlike most RTS games, giving a unit an order actually illicits an appropriate response - if you tell them to retreat they shout things like "Fall Back!" and "Reform the Lines!", while telling them to attack gives calls of battle or the sound of Rohan's Horns. It's a great touch that really adds to the game's presentation and makes you feel as if the battle is actually going on.
Heroes are another place where EA did suprisingly well. Many of the hero abilities can be used to amazing effect when micromanaged, and allow for fun 'stunts.' One memorable moment involved Gimli catapulting off the wall of Helm's Deep into a group of orcish warriors, sending them flying in every direction and finishing the stragglers with a few swings of his axe. The sound, music, and mechanics come together beautifully in moments like that to make you feel as if you were playing the movie.
Overall, it's an enjoyable game and if you're willing to overlook the mechanical flaws and just have fun with it. I intend to keep playing it, though whether I'll go through the Evil side of the campaign remains to be seen.
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| [January 12, 2007 08:26:34 PM]
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After the massive success of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, EA released a slew of games based on the franchise with varying levels of success. In the past EA Games has shown their willingness to release subpar material in the name of a franchise, but LoTR: Battle for Middle Earth proved a refreshing exception. It is obvious from the first minute (once you get past the long and un-skippable opening logos) that presentation and immersion were at the top of EA's priority list for this game. The voiceovers, music, and sounds of battle as you play through the opening level (the infamous Mines of Moria) are all either taken directly from the movies or feel as if they were. The approach works suprisingly well - the real appeal of a Lord of the Rings game is playing the part of the characters within the world, and the team in charge of this game seemed to understand that well.
Unfortunately, there are times when this focus on presentation seems to have made the gameplay suffer, and there are a few issues that probably would have been fixed if more attention was spent on the actual gameplay. The command limit (a mechanism that prevents you from building past a certain number of units) feels extremely restricting and often leaves you unable to mount a successful offense. In most RTS games, the command limit is in place to restrict your army from getting to ridiculous levels, but in TBfME, it seems to hit just as you start to get a reasonably sized force. Completing missions in the campaign can increase the command limit though, so this problem may become less of an issue later on.
There are other more minor problems that still seem like something the QA department should have caught. For example, I can place archers into nearby ruined towers to better fortify my defenses, but there's no way for me to take the archers out again when I want to attack. They're stuck in the tower permanently with no warning. It seems strange that that kind of gameplay mechanic was able to get through when the presentation remains so polished and effective.
There are also certain aspects of the gameplay that break the otherwise excellent atmosphere. Buildings level up as you create units out of them, forcing you to send existing units into pointless deaths if you want to be able to build the best upgrades while remaining within the command limit. Gandalf's fight with the Balrog should be an epic event, but it's actually just 5 minutes of clicking in a circle and hitting skills occasionally because of the RTS gameplay's weakness when it comes to 1v1 battles.
Overall, the game remains enjoyable, but that enjoyment is largely attributable to atmosphere and association with the movies, rather than compelling gameplay. Strip away Ian Mckellen's voiceovers and the fancy music and you'd have a game that doesn't stand on its own. Still, it's good to see that EA isn't completely incapable of making something that is both a franchise and a reasonably enjoyable game.
Peace,
-Squidget
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Squidget's Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth (PC)
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Current Status: Finished playing
GameLog started on: Friday 12 January, 2007
GameLog closed on: Sunday 21 January, 2007 |
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