Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II - Page 2

Battle II's single-player campaigns deviate from the originals' "Risk-style" dynamic map conquest mode that has become popular among RTS and team-based shooter games. The campaigns offer good and evil storylines, each with 8 linear missions. This storyline chronicles the never-before-seen battles in the north, where the Dwarves and Elves struggle for survival against Sauron's Goblins. The single-player game's focus shifts to these three new factions, and also introduces several locations, including Celduin, Erebor and even the Shire. The story isn't quite as compelling as the original game's, but some interesting twists and turns keep it exciting. And conquest mode isn't forgotten altogether as it's been absorbed into the War of the Ring mode, which offers exciting starting and victory conditions that offer a good deal of variety for gameplay.

One RTS To Rule Them All
If Battle II has a kink in its chain mail, it's in the slightly clunky interface. Despite big ups and Hobbit props to the inclusion of each unit's strengths and weaknesses in their basic descriptions, the heads-up-display makes controlling multiple units fairly difficult. It's hard to understand how many units are left in a battalion, or what a customized command group contains from the display. Pathfinding is also very tricky, and AI units often don't respond to attacks in any kind of realistic manner.

Battle II is the most complete and exciting standard RTS to come along in a long time. It's hardly unique, but it also doesn't stumble over the genre-busting attempts that have plagued RTS' of late, forcing them to create bizarre conventions that quickly lose sight of the beautiful simplicity of the genre. This is a worthy successor to Command & Conquer, StarCraft, or Age of Empires.

RTS fans should absolutely not miss this game.


Some old friends, and a few old foes, make a reappearance in Battle for Middle-Earth II.

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