Battle For Middle Earth

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Well, I've been on their site and WOW! It looks absolutley amazing! My friend has it and by what he tells me, its more than worth getting. I was wondering if any of you have played it, and if so, what you think if it.

In case any are interested Battle For Middle Earth official site

[ March 16, 2005, 23:11: Message edited by: Rolsuk Fryulee ]

 

I have it...and I think its pretty cool.

The graphics are cool, the sound is good, and the controls are easy to learn...I think its pretty limited in number of units and buildings but then again, they couldn't just make something completely new up...so what they've done with what they had is great!

The power system is cool, and the leveling up system for characters is pretty balanced...apart from legolas just becomes too powerful in my oppinion, but hey he is an elf!

In conclusion, I think this game is worth getting, and will definately not disappoint; I haven't tried it online yet but I've signed up for it so I'm gonna give it a whirl at some point.

 

Thank you for your opinion Dave, I'll probably buy it the next chance I get. Anyone feel free to add your opinion here everyone else.

 

I have the game too and I loved it. It was neat playing the game from a different perspective, rewriting Middle Earth history. It would have been nice for the Evil side to have a few more hero units but overall I was impressed with the game, the AI in skirmish is quite good too. They adapt to your tactics and are quite good in finding holes in your defence. Awesome game!

 

The graphics are nice and the gameplay is enjoyable at first but I found that with a few exceptions the campaign missions gets a little monotonous after a while. The closest game to this would be Age of Mythology but Age of Mythology had much better level design.

The AI IS much better in skirmish mode.

The hero units are too powerful - Gandalf's final ability reminds me of calling down a tactical nuclear strike. For some reason the computer controlled opponent's never seem to make proper use of their heroes' powers.

There are a number of bad quirks in the AI - the ability to shoot arrows from out of a unit's sight range and have it not react would probably be the worst.

 

I thought that it was pretty good. The attention to detail was excellent - the Nazgul had little holes in their wings and everything is perfectly moddled on their movie counterparts. I have heard strong criticism over the fact that you are able to have Gandalf defeat the Balrog and a number of other indescrepencies, but I feel that it doesn't matter, it adds a level of control to the game.

The building system is novel. Instead of being able to build just anywhere, you can only build in specific sites. It can be a little annoying at times but it stops your opponents from loading a chokepoint with guard towers and it adds a new dimension to the game.

Rather than building up a force and rushing an opponent, the game rewards you for engaging in skirmishes early and for advancement by giving you more command points (population cap).

I would seriously recomend the game as it is very different from the tried and tested War Craft III style gameplay and it is a thouroghly enjoying RTS.

 

I've been playing it now for almost a week steady since I got it, and it's been hard for me to put down. Coming from a guy who HATED Warcraft III, that's saying something I think. Then again I'm a devout Age of Mythology junkie as well.

Some hardcore Tolkien-heads will be a little pissy because the game doesn't follow the story exactly (like Boramer still being alive long after Helm's Deep, etc) but I really feel that the game keeps in theme with the movies almost to a tee. The fact that they actually got Ian McKellan, Viggo Mortenson, John Rhys-Davies and a few others to do the actual voiceovers for the game makes the game really exciting at times. You really feel like you're playing the movie.

At first I didn't like the fact that buildings were restricted to only the designated areas (camps, castles, outposts and settlements) but I got over it real quick. Another minor gripe - I think both Mordor and Isengaard should have more heroes to choose from, namely that one Orc general of Mordor with the wierd foreskin thing on his face from RotK. Why they included Lurch - who has comparably much less screen time - and not that guy, I have no idea. But yeah - minor nitpick.

All in all, I think the game is excellent and well worth getting. I have to say I disagree with JSBB (rare indeed) about the Campaign missions. I usually hate playing the campaigns in RTS games - I typically stick exclusively to skirmishes...but I've been really enjoying them here. Fun fun.

Sidenote: When playing the very first level in the "good" campaigns, where the fellowship travels through Moria, I kept thinking to myself "I hope the people designing Baldur's Gate 3 are taking a few cues here - this looks amazing!"

 

Wow, I am really inclined to get it now. I really want it but I have to buy a cable to hook up to my comp for cable internet.... I may get the game anyway...

 

I love it. its fun without being too difficult to play. Its also the only game ive ever owned that actually fixes itself when it encounters a problem. Warning...you do need a good computer to run it especially in the end chapters with all the many units.

 

I have a pretty good comp, 2.4 GHz, 768 MB RAM, 128 MB video card, it should handle it rather well

 

@ Rolsuk

That's more or less what I have - you should be fine. I have an AMD64 2.2ghz processor, 1.5g of Ram, and an nVidia 5900XT, which is 128mb DDR. I only experience any slowdown when there are tons of units on the screen (and I do mean tons), but even then the slowdown is negligable. In fact, during one of the battles DHB mentioned (specifically, the battle for Minas Tyrith) the slowdown actually helped me. When there are that many units onscreen all attacking at once, you need a little help figuring out what the hell is going on! All of my Gondor forces, plus all of my Rohan forces who'd just joined the battle, plus summoned elves, plus all the Mordor forces, plus the Army of the Dead...if all THAT is required to slowdown my rig, and we have relatively similar specs, you should be just fine.

 

Okay, thanks a lot Death Rabbit, that is reasuring. I wasn't sure how well it would work, but a secs are really close and now I know that my comp can take it. Thanks again

And thanks to everyone else for yuor input. I won't be getting that cable cause there's something wrong with the modem. Any way the point is I'm getting BFME today! I can't wait, it looks SO amazing! I shall return with my thoughts on the game... unless I get too into it and spend the next three days playing it.... either way its all good

 

The campaign is much too easy, you make one large balanced army with all upgrades when you nearly killed your enemy (so you can easily build up your army) and then you finish the whole campaign with only this army, because you can always take it with you to the next mission.

Only defending Helms Deep was really interesting, the rest was far too easy for any decent RTS-gamer

loved the graphics and sounds though.

 

Well, I got it, and installed it around 3 or 4 pm yesterday, and played till 6 this morning.... its addictive to be sure. I started both campaigns and played quite a few squrmishes, it AWESOME!! I love how they used the music from the movie, the sound and graphics are awesome too! I love the gameplay, I find it great that they used some different concepts from normal RTS games. I love it but will try to get more sleep in the future....

I haven't found it easy, but thats because I'm not that good of a RTS-gamer usually I pretty good, but I'm used to a pause where I can organize and coordinate serval things at once with ease, as you can't do so in this game, my level of playing is lower than usual. But hey, I love the game By the way, I know you know this but as a reminder, if you're not challenged in solo play, then I'm sure you could find a challenge with online play