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Friday 12 January, 2007
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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