Lord of The Rings: Battle for Middle Earth

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Despite the average reviews it has been getting, i am dying for a new RTS so badly that i bought LOTR:BFME today.

Most of the reviews give mixed opinions (PCG= 76%, PCZ=91%, others around 85%)- and the reason for this is that the game is so unbalanced. And i don't mean in terms of units- i mean that half of the game has some of the best RTS elements seen in a game for ages, the other half is a major dissapointment.

I played the game round my freinds house (he has a warez version, he offered to burn it onto a disc for me but i prefer my games in a nice, shiny case- or not at all ;) ) and i played it for a while. At first i thought it was crap- the units were way too easy to kill, both on your side and the enemies. The game seemed pointless with no tactics needed- and to a certain extent, that's stil true. But the thing that changed my mind was the campaign mode- it's like Rome: total war, only worse :) But in some ways i prefer this to Rome:TW- as i am much more at home with the traditional RTS than the rather time consuming TW series. BFME is essentially RomeTW for the traditional RTS fan.

But the thing is- BFME tries to be too clever fr its own good. One of the really annoying things is that the limit cap for your army gets full very quickly- and the only way to get the elite units is to build lots of troops from a certain barracks and "level it up" untill your barracks is experienced enough to train these elete units. But the thing is, by the time you've built enough units to obtain the elites, youve reached your limit cap and must send your crap troops on suicidal missions to make room. Unless, of course, you are constantly attacking the enemy and losing units, but you probally won't want to do this as your units level up, and to lose a level 5 unit (out of 10 levels) is incredibly annoying- and by the time you are ready to get the elite units, most of your troops will be upgraded, so you won't want to give them up... a MAJOR flaw.

The hero system is actually rather good- but like so many things in this game- at the same time it is trumendously frustrating. Heroes are near to invincible, in a very annyoing way. It took 3 units of crossbowmen and 3 units of urak-hai to kill argorn, and this took a fair bit of time too, even with my hero Lurtz contributing. But to balance this out, they can't do too much damage- they kill a unit in one hit usually, but the're so slow it's stupid. But suddenly this is all turned on it's head in certain situations- if an ent chucks two or three stones at my saruman he is squashed outright. Snd while he kills infantry pathetically slowly with his slow staff, he can suddenly unleash a move that kills five or six in one swift blow. It's terribly unrealistic to have a hero standing there, being pelted with MILLIONS of arrows and remaining unhurt. But then when you're hero eventually DOES die, you are so frustrated (especially in a mission with no base, so you can't revive them) that you feel like reloading a save. But DESPITE this, the heroes still manage to be quite fun to use, which is strange...

As i said before, units gain levels from one to 10, and can have their armour and weapons upgraded for a small cost per- unit. And because the campaign allows you to keep units between battles, you can gradually build up a faithful bodyguard unit over a series of battles that are amazing, and that you use only when you are SURE they won't die (even if most of them do, i'ts not the end of the world... for isenguard (not sure about other armies), if you have a standard bearer in a unit, the unit will regenerate back to 10 or so men over time- even if there is only one left). But then to have this unit squashed in ONE by a crappy ent and his big stupid rock it's incredibly frustrating- especially as to get to level 10 the unit needs to kill about 300 men.

i am still undecided about this game. I bought it from virgin megastores, so if i decide i dont like it i can take it back within a month and get a refund... But i don't like doing that, especially with a game that has lots of replay value, like BFME.

if you are considering buying this game, i recommend you to try it first. Some people may find it annoying and can't stand it, others may love it. The only way to find out is to borrow it or buy it from a shop that allows returns.

*edit* I haven't played the multiplayer yet, but i looked at it and it is VERY similar to C+C generals. I'll tell you more of what i think of the game when i've played it more.
 
Haha, the more players join an online game, the less the popcap is for each. In an 8-player game, each player has a popcap of 80. Now THAT's innovation.
 
Llyranor said:
Haha, the more players join an online game, the less the popcap is for each. In an 8-player game, each player has a popcap of 80. Now THAT's innovation.

what the hell... how are you supposed to fight with 3 or 4 units? that's insane! I don't even know why a unit cap is in the multiplayer or skirmish modes! It should only be in the campaign to stop you accumulating millions of men for the next battle.
 
Hmm well since i was having some trouble thinking about what i wanted for Christmas, BFME seemed like a really good choice (b/c i love LOTR and i really enjoyed RTW....i was craving more rts games), so i picked it up and will be playing it come christmas.
 
I brought it, and LOVE IT. its a game based on a film thats GOOD, got to be a first.
 
i - just - picked this up, because it looked quite promising, and it's made by westwood ;)
 
FOL (Forces of Light), FOD (Forces of Darkness), Number indicates max command points.

2 Players:
FOL = 200
FOD = 400

3-4 Players:
FOL = 150
FOD = 300

5-6 Players:
FOL = 100
FOD = 200

7-8 Players:
FOL = 80
FOD = 160

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
 
Whats so funny? FOD get more then FOL since FODs units are weaker so you can mob them, and following the story the FOL are outnumbered anyways.
 
Llyranor said:
FOL (Forces of Light), FOD (Forces of Darkness), Number indicates max command points.

2 Players:
FOL = 200
FOD = 400

3-4 Players:
FOL = 150
FOD = 300

5-6 Players:
FOL = 100
FOD = 200

7-8 Players:
FOL = 80
FOD = 160

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Dont the FOD, like mordor have different strategy? i.e. They use mass production of semi-crappy units to overwhelm while Gondor uses steady good units?

(i could be way off since ive yet to play it)
 
ah, just played for 2-3 hours.

it's damn awesome, quite innovative too ;)
 
destrukt said:
i - just - picked this up, because it looked quite promising, and it's made by westwood ;)
ermm...what ?....westwood ?
i thought they shut it down...
 
if by 'shut it down' you mean, westwood shutdown. no. they were bought out by ea.

and i just checked, the developer is ea las vegas, not westwood as i was told*

* i was told that they had been working on this, and since it was completed, they made the ra 3 announcement.

i hate liars ;(
 
Llyranor said:
What's funny is that 80 popcap = 20 rohirrim.

80 x 9 players, 640 units around at the same time, that still makes for big battles, besides, small groups are fun in this game just as much as large ones, alot of tactics would have to be used.
 
Sounds like a good game to me, I hate when units in a RTS is extremly hard to kill, thats why I dont like Warcraft III.

The heroes is not my ideal (My ideal = High offensive power but is still quite fragile) but that wont stop me.

Besides I have seen a video with gandalf casting a spell that literally killed hundreds of orcs.
 
when i had my lutzor to rank 10, he can kill anyone, he took like 4 heros, and he can kill horse back soldiers in one hit with his bow, it was awsome
 
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