There are lots of reasons that consoles don’t get many real-time strategy games. Well, there’s mostly just one: the lack of keyboard and mouse support. These types of games require precise control of small objects that is difficult to replicate on a standard console pad. The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II actually manages to pull off a decent console friendly control scheme without losing too much in the process. That said, there’s only one reason someone would want to purchase this game: they enjoy real-time strategy games, but lack a gaming-quality PC. If you fall into that category, this is probably the game for you.

BfME2 is a pretty standard RTS. There are 6 factions (elves, dwarves, men, Isengard, Mordor and goblins), each of which has their own advantages and unique units/structures/heroes. Most games will begin with the construction of a base, where you’ll gather resources, recruit units and research unit upgrades. The unit and upgrade selection isn’t incredibly complex, but there is enough depth to keep things interesting. Heroes, although expensive, add additional strategy to battle, since they bring with them unique abilities that can turn the tide of battle. If you’ve played real-time strategy before, then you know what you’re getting into here.

The controls aren’t perfect by any means. A keyboard and mouse would obviously be superior, but after an hour or so of playing, you probably won’t be wishing for that mouse quite so often. Essentially, the A button in combination with the triggers and bumpers control everything. Move the cursor (which also moves the viewing area) with the analog over a unit and press A to grab him. To add additional units to the group, hold down the appropriate trigger and press A over them, too. With a group assembled, you can then bookmark them, so that a quick tap of the d-pad will allow you to quickly select them. You could, for example, keep your archers on one bookmark and your infantrymen on another so that assigning different targets is as fast as possible. There’s also a “select entire army” one button command, and you can scroll through your heroes with a couple d-pad presses, too.

The single player campaigns (one good and one evil) won’t take too long to tear through, but they‘re interesting and there‘s a good variety of mission objectvies. The average player could probably clear them in under 10 hours, and then there’s the Live play. If you’re just one guy looking to play against other random people, the online matchmaking works just fine (aside from the fact that it has trouble finding games sometimes, even though there are clearly games out there). Select the game type and how many players, hit search, and with any luck, it will pop you into a game. If you and a friend want to take on another pair, this is where things get tricky. Since there’s no way to select what room you’re going into, it’s pretty much blind luck that you’ll end up together. There are also no Invites to ranked games, and you can easily sit in an unranked lobby with your friend for 10 or 15 minutes before another player joins. This is really too bad, especially since 2 on 2 matches are so much more fun when you’re playing alongside a friend instead of someone random.

There are other problems. The greatest of which is that sometimes your units simply don’t obey orders. I could order my half-troll pikemen to attack a group of archers directly in front of them, but every once in a while, they’ll decide it’s better to simply stand there are get shot. Little things like that happen at least once or twice per game, and it can very frustrating in key battles. Goblins and dwarves have the ability to enter their resource tunnels and instantly pop out at any other tunnel. Occasionally, while clicking the evacuate button on the command bar, it will randomly and instantly change from evacuate unit to demolish structure. Perhaps EA didn’t make their bug testers work quite enough overtime for this one?

The other major problem with BfME2 is that, quite simply, the framerate is dreadful. The game is never steady, no matter what’s on screen. In major battles, the framerate will jump around so much that it can actually interfere with issuing commands. This is completely inexcusable for a “next” generation game. I’d much rather give up real-time shadows for each individual unit than have this awful framerate. Other than that, the game looks pretty good and there is often a ton of units on the screen, but those visuals come at a hefty price.

For more in depth discussion of Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2, check out the 7/16/06 edition of the Team Fremont Live podcast.




Article By: Joe