It is easy to understand why someone, having just watched the Lord of the Rings, would
want to experience more and relive the epic battles that they saw.
Truly climatic fights at Helm’s Deep, Minas Tirith, Isengard and Moria.
The Lord of the Rings: Conquest tries to bring that feel from the books and movies, only
in an interactive way, having you being one of the soldiers fighting for control of Middle-Earth.
The game could be described as Battlefield 1942 mixed with Lord of the Rings hack and
slash.
You pick your class of warrior and go into battle from spawn points.
You can either be a Warrior, a strong melee type, the Archer, who shoots arrows from a
far, the Scout, a stealthy assassin, or the Mage, who can cast magic to aid your side
and hurt your enemies.
And sometimes you get to take control of a hero, a memorable character who has increased
abilities.
Each class has its own unique specials and enhancements, making them feel different and
play different.
There are two separate campaigns in the game.
One is the War of the Ring, where you control men, elves, and dwarves to fight against the
forces of evil and hope to destroy them.
The other, “The Rise of Sauron,” is played from the other side, with you playing as the
bad guys and trying to conquer the land.
It’s cool to be able to see a campaign shown from the evil perspective.
Who doesn’t want to control the world and wipe out those pesky hobbits.
The battles are designed to give the feel of the epic fights from the books and movies,
but just doesn't really deliver as much as you would like.
The areas appear to be large, open environments with multiple objectives and areas to conquer,
but how it plays is rather linear, with you moving from one area to the next.
The enemies will just charge at you, with you mowing your way through them will relative
ease, especially if you pick the archer as you can just sit back and blast away.
It has kind of the feel of Star Wars Battlefront, with you capturing objectives, but the linear
nature, done with the intent of making the levels more epic, holds back the true openness
that made Battlefront so great.
And because of this, the combat feels like just moving from place to place, hacking and
slashing everything in the way, which don’t get me wrong has it merits, but doesn’t
live up to the greatness the battles are based on.
The Lord of the Rings: Conquest is by no means a bad game, it just doesn’t live up to the
high standard the movies set, which is understandable because that bar was set pretty darn high.
It is close to being a great game, but instead must settle on being alright.