The Battle for Middle Earth 2 Review (Xbox 360) By Wriggy

Review

7 / 10
20 Jul 2006 at 22:37

Review by: Wriggy

The Lord of the Rings was one of the best books of all time according to lots of people so Peter Jackson decided to make a film on each book (Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers and Return of the King) which were all 3 hours long. Not only was there a film made, but games.

The first few game (Fellowship of the Ring) was simple. Go around helping people and completing tasks. This was nothing like the film as it wasn’t dark, violent or anything but as the game progressed they got darker and more like the films but then EA Games decided to make a strategy game released in November 2004 called Lord of the Rings: The Third Age which was more tactical. EA then decided to improve on this and they made Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth which was released for the PC. Then came Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II on the PC but this time also on the XBOX 360 (as it is the only next generation console to be able to produce these kind of graphics and power).

As I am not a fan of The Lord of the Rings or strategy games but I’d heard this game was meant to be quite good so I gave it a try.

There is a tutorial to get you started which is done well but is long and boring. There is also Campaign mode but again I feel it is long and boring (don’t forget that these types of games aren’t my type). Multiplayer is slightly better as you can play games including King of the Hill, Capture and Hold and Hero vs. Hero though I don’t see people playing this for months to come especially with the release of games like Dead Rising, Test Drive Unlimited and Saints Row.

The controls are easy enough but you find yourself pressing the wrong button and doing the wrong thing so many times you get annoyed. This is not one of those games you can leave for a while then come back to so if you do that with a lot of games then I would strongly not recommend The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II.

The graphics are some of the best around for strategy games but not the best for the 360. The game runs well but EA’s server isn’t the best so online isn’t too good but when you get online you’ll see it’s much better than offline.

The game’s lifespan lasts a while as there are so many achievements to unlock. They include doing the whole of the good campaign, all the bad campaign and winning a certain amount of games online and offline.

Online/Multiplayer is better than the single player but as I said earlier, the EA’s servers not too good online so it’s best to invite your friends around.

Overall for Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II on the XBOX 360:

Graphics: 7 – Not the best but good for a strategy game.
Gameplay: 7 – Runs well but the game is quite slow.
Lifespan: 8 – With plenty of achievements to unlock and online play you could be playing the game for a month or two.
Online/Multiplayer: 8 – This is probably the best thing about the game.

Overall: 7 – Not one of the best games around but it’s worth downloading the demo from the XBOX Live Marketplace because I feel the game is all down to personal taste.

This game is also available on PC but depending on your PC specification, it may be better to get it for the 360.