I’m a pretty big fan of the Star Wars: Battlefront games, as well as the Lord of the Rings books and movies. Needless to say,  I was pretty excited about Lord of the Rings Conquest when I first heard about it. Combining the Lord of the Rings world with Star Wars Battlefront style gameplay should have been a recipe for pure win. Pandemic used the right ingredients, they just took the game out of the oven too soon.

The single player mode takes you through all of the major battles from the Lord of the Rings series. You can choose to play as a warrior, archer, mage, or scout, and you can switch between them at various locations on the map at any time. Each of these classes has it’s own set of strengths and weaknesses, and they all compliment one another nicely. At various points in the game, you’ll also have the opportunity to play as some of the heroes from the LOTR universe. While you’ll enjoy taking control of some of these beloved characters, they just don’t feel different enough from the other members of their class to make the experience truly memorable.

Unfortunately, the well designed classes are quickly overshadowed by the terrible AI. The classes are designed to work in tandem with one another, and the “friendly” AI doesn’t seem to realize that. If you could use a health boost, you can be almost certain that the nearest AI mage will ignore that fact, and continue fighting a single orc off in the distance. The enemy AI, on the other hand, seems competent, and capable of hitting you with an arrow from the other side of the battlefield. They also seem to have a far better grasp of basic battle strategies than your artificial team mates, as they often charge up together as a group, while your allies spread out, and generally fail at assisting you in any way. The level design only helps to add to the frustration fest that is the single player campaign. Many of the maps are laid out with multiple levels, and various paths from one part of the map to another. That on it’s own isn’t a bad thing, however, each objective on these large, varied maps is marked only by a yellow arrow, which only vaguely indicates the direction of your objective. The simple gray map the game provides is no better at helping you find your objective, as it doesn’t give a solid indication of whether the objective is on the top floor of the map, or the bottom. You will likely find yourself wandering around in circles trying to figure out exactly how to get where you need to be.

While the  multiplayer portion of the game trumps the single player portion, it still comes with it’s own set of faults. The first is that, even when playing on the Xbox 360, you have to log into your EA account to play the game online. If you don’t have an EA account, you’ll have to sign up for one before playing, which defeats the purpose of a unified service like Xbox Live.  Once you’ve created your EA account, and you’re playing a match online, the first thing you’ll notice is how much more fun the game is with real live human team mates. The next thing you’ll notice is a lack of game types. There’s deathmatch, hero deathmatch, conquest (territories), and capture the ring (CTF).  Another downside here is the level design. The multiplayer maps all feel sort of uninspired, and on one map in particular, it’s extremely easy to wander “out of bounds” and die instantly.

Conquest’s presentation is something of a mixed bag. While the music is ripped straight from the films, the voice acting comes to us courtesy of what I can only imagine are actors from the community theater nearest to Pandemic Studios. The environments look pretty good, however, the characters themselves look a little last gen. All in all,  the presentation suffers from the same lack of polish that plagues the rest of the game.

It might seem like I’m being a bit hard on this game, and maybe I am. I find it hard to say a lot of nice things when EA chose to release Conquest before it was ready. Pandemic started off with some really solid ideas and concepts, they just didn’t follow through with them. This game could have been brilliant, but as it stands, I just can’t forgive the bugs, and the lack of polish that plague this game. Whether your a fan of the Star Wars Battlefront games, a fan of the LOTR series, or a fan of both like myself, this game is guaranteed to disappoint you.

-Mike Kurz

Tags: LOTR, Pandemic, PC, PS3, review, Xbox 360

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