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What is more epic than the story of Lord of the Rings? This question is downright easy to answer; the battles. The march of thousands of orcs to Helm's Deep, where even children are being outfitted with arms to fight a losing war. The great mumak storming toward Minas Tirith, while Ring Wraiths haunt the skies and Man's final hope is fading fast. All are moments we won't easily forget, and this is exactly why EA is returning to Middle-earth. The stories have been told, and the lives of the ring bearer already experienced. So EA and Pandemic, the studio behind Star Wars: Battlefront, are taking you once more into the bloody battles that define one of the greatest fantasy tales ever told.
Pandemic is taking their popular style of battlefield mayhem and adapting it to the Lord of the Rings license. Our demo opened on Helm's Deep, and thousands of Uruk'Hai marching on. As in Battlefront, we begin each battle by choosing your class from a rotating table of heroes and villains – depending on your side. The usual archetypes are here: archer, mage, defender, scout, and a few others round out the list. They each sport their own strengths, weaknesses, and special abilities. Mages can fling fireballs and offer healing aid to troops, where the archers almost play like a third-person shooter.
Each class varies greatly, and we found that not every class will appeal to all players. Thankfully Pandemic is allowing us to swap our character class at any time. So if you find sitting back and flinging arrows at the black behemoths isn't exciting enough, you can swap to a scout, sneak behind the enemies and wet your blade in their life blood.
You are not simply resigned to these nameless soldiers either. Do well enough, and standout in the battlefield and you will snag the chance to become a hero. If you are good enough to nab that chance you can storm the enemies as Eowyn, or the Ents, the Balrog, or Legolas. Even Sauron and Aragorn are available.
After a few minutes of exploring we found that Helm's Deep was a massive environment, which we would expect given the source material. But Pandemic even raised the bar by taking the fight through areas only glimpsed, or never even showed in the films. You will still take part in the expected slaying of suicide Uruk'Hai, sprinting toward the drainage holes with bombs, and kicking of ladders off the wall, but we didn't expect to take the fight deep inside the hulking mountain.
EA is promising each of the 13 levels will be just as giant, and a single glimpse at the battle on the Pellinor Fields will strongly back their claim. We saw a great host of orcs marching and slashing through anything close, while trolls push forward catapults and other weapons of war. The cavalry of Men dashing through the lines of the Black Army, while Ring Wraiths swoop down from above to halt the charge, and of course, the mumakil. Like giant fortresses on four legs, they stomped through the battle field, with horns echoing the sound for the defeat of Men.
Not only will we expect to wage war in the most known locales in the Lord of the Rings universe, but we will fight the battles that were only suggested in the books and movies. Minas Morgul, for instance, will be the site of another epic conflict. And once you lace up the boots of the evil side, expect to take on the elves in their home of Rivendell.
The bread and butter of a game like this would reside in fantastic multiplayer, and Pandemic has that covered. Conquest will bring 16 player battles to Xbox LIVE, along with four-player co-op and split-screen in all modes.
Some purists may say that EA and Pandemic are taking too many liberties with the license, but to them we say, the story has been told. This is just plain, bloody fun to take the fight to the battles we have seen and experienced, and even the battles that just reside in the answers to "what if" questions. Expect us to be putting on our troll battle helm for when Lord of the Rings: Conquest hits store shelves this fall.
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