I'm writing this review from the point of view of a casual gamer who only plays against the computer; I like being able to quit a game whenever I feel like it. So, obviously, I'll only be commenting on the single-player modes.
The campaign modes of the game features nothing from the movies proper, instead focusing on the "War in the North" - the Goblins versus the Elves and Dwarves. The campaign is comparatively short, featuring only about 1/3 of the missions of the original BFME, presented in a fixed order. However, the locales and actual missions are varied and well-designed, avoiding the monotony that was 75% of the BFME I campaigns (a.k.a. destroy the enemy base, which was always located directly opposite you on the map, and maybe fulfill the ridiculously easy secondary objective).
As you can tell from the campaigns, three new factions are introduced - Goblins (roughly equivalent to the spam-happy Mordor from BFME I - units that are weak but cheap with a few random heavy hitters), Dwarves (incredibly strong and ponderously slow, very good on the defensive), and Elves (think Gondor from BFME I and soup it up, making them stronger and faster but are slightly weaker defensively as a trade off). Gondor and Rohan have been combined into the "Men of the West" faction, combining the best of both worlds, and Mordor has been made slightly more robust, including adding a few more heroes, but have lost the free orcs. Isengard, with the exception of adding new heroes, is pretty much identical.
My favorite addition to the game is the "War of the Ring" mode, which takes the campaign mode from BFME I and turns it into a Risk type of game, with territories able to be reconquered, garrisoned, built up and more. This adds a great level of strategy and fun to the game, and any battles can be auto-resolved or fought out in real-time. My only complaints about this mode are that the AI tends to be too agressive, leaving their territories undefended, and that the players only can have three armies that invade other territories (they led by pre-selected heroes you have at the beginning of the game; later heroes you build can't lead armies).
The create-a-hero feature is a cool concept, but I would have liked to see more options - each character can only have certain skills depending on their class (wizard, orc, et cetera), which is fine, but we only get 12 or so to choose from. Appearance options are even worse, with only a sparse variety - you can't even change hair color. And every hero costs 2000 resources, no matter how powerful or useless they are. (This was apparently fixed in the now-difficult-to-find expansion pack, "Rise of the Witch King")
Also, a lot of the little annoying things from BFME I have been fixed. Unit-producing buildings now can be upgraded by purchasing an upgrade, cutting out the rank-based-on-production system that never worked because the command point limit was so low - another issue that has been resolved in BFME II, with a base CP limit of 1000 that is adjustable (it also is realistic - player start a game with 100 CPs and, as they build up their infrastructure, get more). Resource gathering is now based on territory and buildings can be built anywhere, which makes the game more realistic - factions now battle it out for the entire map instead of trying to control one of several arbitrarily-chosen "expansion points." There is also a new difficulty for the AI - "Brutal" - for those of us who found the "Hard" opponents somewhat lacking.
All in all, this is a very worthwhile game that is both deeper than BFME I (thereby pleasing the BFME and other RTS veterans) while still being fairly easy to pick up (meaning the rookies will enjoy it). It's quality and fun, but has enough frustrations and shortcomings to land it squarely in 4-star territory. |
Expedited Available
"in a word - disappointing"
"Satisfied Customer"