The Battle for Middle Earth

Sam sits in on EA's final milking...

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This game marks one of the last hurrahs in an entertainment phenomenon that has gripped the world for the last three and a half years. Until the uber-mega box set of DVDs makes an inevitable appearance next Christmas, LOTR fans will have to come to terms with the end of an era. Battle for Middle Earth is the last movie tie-in game to come out and it has been the source of much speculation. Considering the pedigree of its developers high hopes have surrounded this game since its announcement last year.

Using a spruced-up version of the C&C Generals engine, BfME turns out to be a novel take on the RTS. Eschewing the traditional notions of strategy and tactics, BfME prefers to emulate the frenzied action from the trilogyfs battle scenes. Massive engagements on expansive battlefields, charging Olliphants and Cave Trolls flinging hapless victims through the air, heroes with tide-turning abilities and incredible Ring powers, all of these elements help to create an RTS unlike any you have played before. This is an action-RTS with many of the missions having no bases and practically no armies.

The first thing the player sees is the lovingly rendered map of Middle Earth. From here, when allowed, you will choose the direction of your campaign. After selecting the next battleground the game loads up the main battle window. Practically indistinguishable in layout from a hundred other games, two items of note do stick out. The first is the glowing Ring power icon. Click on this and you will see the branching tree of various super powers that will be unlocked as play progresses. You need command points to purchase these powers; these points can be had from certain missions which have them as a reward for completion, or for killing a huge number of enemies in one battle. Acting much like the super-weapons in Generals these powers can turn the tide of battle or provide aid to your battle weary troops at a crucial juncture. All of the powers take their inspiration from the films so by the later stages of the game you have Giant Eagles, Undead Armies and Balrogs at your disposal. Most satisfying.

The other thing players will quickly notice is the line of hero portraits along the bottom of the screen. Depending on who is under your control for the mission this line could stretch for two or more heroes long. Selecting a hero - or any unit for that matter - will bring up a set of circular icons beside the mini-map. These are the various abilities for the chosen unit. So amongst other powers, Gandalf has the ability to cast a destructive ray of light while the Uruk-hai can eat the bodies of their living allies to gain some experience. All units in the game get experience, and as they rise in rank the increase in their fighting abilities is complimented by new powers. Some of the units have up to ten ranks to progress through but it is the heroes that players will want to level up the most as this unlocks special abilities. Some of these, especially Gandalffs can be real tide-turners, so itfs a shame that selecting the right hero, then the right ability and then the right target is a tricky affair, even in mild combat. The size of the icons is restrictively small and remembering the hotkeys for each individual hero is an effort only to be undertaken by brains which have seen no chemical alterations in the pursuit of pleasure.

One thing RTS players have been screaming out for ever since the genre first appeared is a persistent army. And BfME finally delivers. Every unit that survives one mission will be there for the next. And while they donft carry over equipment upgrades they do retain all their experience. You can even rename units at the end of each mission. Itfs a shame that such a feature makes its first really solid appearance in an RTS-lite, but I think this will be one of a number of innovations from BfME that will be quietly absorbed by other developers.

The graphics are very good indeed. While some shortcuts have had to be taken with the number of polygons for each model so as to accommodate the huge numbers of troops, overall the game looks great. Things are as close to the look of the film as could be reasonably expected. The lighting and particle effects deserve a special mention yet not as much as the incredibly bountiful animation. For instance, each model has a notable number of death animations which help to add to the inescapably cinematic feelings of the proceedings. On top of that, the overall design of the gameworld and the way it and the gameplay have been moulded to form a close approximation of the filmfs events on both the macro and micro scales is most impressive. For example, the layout and design of the bases is obviously taken from the headquarters around Isengard. And while this decision is partly behind the restricted and set areas available for building it certainly works well in so far as replicating what is seen on the screen on the gamerfs monitor. The effect this attitude in design has on gameplay is profound, yet as long as you can accept the very action heavy nature of BfME then many of the restrictions actually turn out to be quite liberating.

On the side of good there are two types of missions. Depending on which group of characters the mission involves the style of play changes. The Rohan missions are fairly standard RTS fair with all the base building and resource collecting that entails. The Fellowship missions, on the other hand, tend to concentrate on smaller skirmishes and more linear objectives. As long as you donft expect to have a full blown RTS level for each mission this technique works well and helps to stop things from becoming overly repetitive. The evil campaign follows a similar formula, although there are more of the traditional RTS style missions to play through. The smaller levels also serve to keep things varied and help to prevent ennui from setting in. In the quest for action above all else the number of branches on the tech trees of the various races is very limited, with only the forces of Gondor having anything like a full bodied scope for advancement. Unfortunately this means therefs not an awful lot to do outside of raising massive armies, quickly assigning them their simple upgrades, (there is usually one for weapons and armour, with some variety if they are a more specialised unit) and hurling them into battle. Unit control is a blessedly simple affair and while there are one or two instances of erratic AI, especially in that perennial RTS gremlin pathfinding, the action is usually intense enough to not leave much time for such concerns.