The battle for middle earth

[HunterSeeker]

Personally I think the A.I. is done badly in this game, its not that challanging and is not designed to work well with large scale battles that is clearly the games most fun aspects.

That said online multiplayer rocks! If you want a RTS to play online get this!

One of the best parts of the game is that things react as you would expect them to, giving a sense of realism (it is not super realistic though, but if you can do it in BFME and it would work in real life, it most likely works here as well), eh eants and structures catches fire, water puts the fire out etc...

I just had 3h battle (2 vs 2), and I must say that was the most fun Ive got out of a RTS that I can remember. The teams where unfluffy, me as Isengard and my Rhohan ally vs 2 gondor.

After many many assaults on one enemy we finally managed to destroy him but only barely, this was the third balrog a sent against this poor saps castle (first ones time ran out before castle being burned to nothing, second got destroyed by gandalf).
My ally summoned the army of the dead and deastroyed every troop and hero (except gandalf who at that time was elsewhere) as well 35% of the castle. I quickly followed with a balrog, who was almost destroyed by gandalf again but this time I was prepered and the balrag fried the wizard. I continued burning the castle but the guy summoned eagles, the balrgo still destroyed everything, except one tower, the balrog got one hit at it when an eagle ripped its brains out.

Now if that tower was demloished the castle would be considered destroyed and that player defeated so both my and my ally send our regular troops to destroy it, both our armys was beaten by our other oppents suprise attack. Then we got the message that the enemy who had suffered from a balrog and the army of the dead had been defeated, apperently the tower had caught on fire and collapsed by itself! Saurman got respawned and my army replaced (when you have to recources for it you can get an army up in minutes in BFME if the battlen has gone on for a while) we managed to deafeat the other opponent and prevail!

We had not just conquered with out difficulty, around 700 urak hai had died for me in failed assaults and my base nearly destroyed by an army of the dead, my ally had also suffered similary.

I have a replay if anyone feels like watching it. (warning: I am tired and have bad memory so the story above is only 95% accurate).

 

[B.Calhoun]

Hmm ive only played the skirmish mode for a little while. And i wasnt happy at all. It seemed like when i started making some units id march them out then they'd get jumped by double the amount of orcs. Then i do the same thing over and over, it was just a long stalemate of my making and getting my men killed. And the most units i had at one time was like 30 or something, and they spawn like 5 men at a time which isnt very fun when they get killed very easily (i was gondor). pLus it seemed very slow when creating your castle then trying to get it upgraded. Maybe i need to take a step away from WoW for a bit, hopefully i learn a little more about it then in good and join in on the multiplyer goodness.

So far however, I didnt really like it.

EDIT: Yes id really like to see a replay.

 

[destrukt]

i'd watch the replay. maybe get a few hints before i go to a lan to play it this week

 

[[Matt]]

I took this game back and exchanged it for prince of persia: warrior within. Glad i did that!

 

[HunterSeeker]

I took this game back and exchanged it for prince of persia: warrior within. Glad i did that!

As I said the AI does not make the game fun, its the equilant to play against a lamer in multiplayer.

Anyway anyone know of a good file hosting service? The replay is 109kb, compressed.

 

[HunterSeeker]

Never mind convinved a friend to be allowed to host it on his FTP:

http://ostserver.mine.nu/home/pierre/00000001.rar

EA is not the best at making a confortable file system so you need to put replays in :

C:\Documents and Settings\[YOUR LOGIN + COMPUTER NAME]\Application Data\My Battle for Middle-earth Files\Replays

Note that Application Data is a hidden folder.

 

[Sui]

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.

that's what i think.

To add to the list of things i wrote, i hate the lack of tactics. In C+C generals (another game by EA), they have acomplished tactics and balancing very well (NOT in the expansion though) by allowing you to build up elite units that are swift and deadly, then packing them into a chopper and sending them around into the back of the enemy base. While this is happenning, you can distract the enemy with a large army, and confront him head on, sucking all of his units into a huge war, while you destroy his base under his nose. Brilliant.

If you tried this in BFME though, even if you sent a few high level units, They would not be able to do much before the enemy realised what was going on and just got some cocky ent to chuck a stone at you.

Seiges- however- are so f'ing fun. ballistas own The only thing that's better than building something only to knock it down, is for an enmy to build something and for you to seige it wit ladders, fire ballistas at defenders and blow up bombs.

 

[HunterSeeker]

Well I will give my rewiev of thïs game:

The units are valnurable they die easily and to me that is a good thing. However the upgrades are way to powerful, a unit of Gondor Soliders with forged blades and full armor will defeat 3 units of Gondor Soliders without upgrades, although its terrible annoying at least its balanced: A unit of Gondor Soliders with forged Blades and Full Armor = 1100 resources, 3 units without = 300 resources (not including any discounts).

Heroes are sufficently powerfull, but some are way to strong: Ie legolas, its terrible frustrating when he single handly killed my entire castle garrison. But on the other hand a unit of soliders are a danger to heroes when upgraded offensively. I would still prefer it so that standard units was not so much weaker then upgraded ones and heroes had more offensive power but less defensive (so arrows are still something to fear).

Monsters are like that, easy to kill with arrows but few things can stand up agaisnt a mountain troll in melee (heroes included), which is nice and the fact that mumakils tree thingy on its back and ents catches fire from fire attacks are extremly nice and tactical things (Ents will get all confused, Mumakils go rampage).

The graphics are good and the sound is excellent, the unit responses escpecially becouse they tend to fit the situation (ie if you send a unit back home while fighting they will scream something like: "We must retreat!"). That also provides you with a lot of information ("Nazgul take cover!"). Two thumbs up for the sound. The music are from the Lord of the Rings movies, nuff said.

Concluding: It has a lot of things done extremly well, somethings just average and some things very poor. Now EA has promised that they will support this game and not just abandon it like they are notouris for. If they keep that promise and does the support well this RTS can very well become one of the beast strategy games of all time (maybe an expension pack is required though).

Things that need fixing: Balancing, Upgrades not so extreme, A.I. and more units (seems nearly like the whole package lol). Only the balancing is really critical though.

My Score: 83%

 

[Sui]

I agree hunterseeker... but...

NO EXPANSION PACK PLEASE!!!

For a start, all of the units are in the game. EA would have to make up new units. Secondly, the whole of the LOTR story has been included in the game- there would be no more missions. So that rules out new units and new campaign. greeeaaat. Look what EA did to Generals- granted zero hour is fun, but it is incredibly inbalanced- so much so, there is NO way to defend in the game- as there is always some crappy unit that can beat you.

The only way an expansion would work is if they did the samarilian (for those of you tolkien illiterate, it's a huge bunch of notes, collected and put into a "prequel" if you like). But i can't see that happening, as EA have no inspiration

 

[destrukt]

The only way an expansion would work is if they did the samarilian (for those of you tolkien illiterate, it's a huge bunch of notes, collected and put into a "prequel" if you like). But i can't see that happening, as EA have no inspiration

good book

i think it could as an expansion .. starting off in the beginning, being on the undying lands etc

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

Yes, and the game would take about 12 years to play...let alone make.

 

[Sui]

Yes, and the game would take about 12 years to play...

Not if it went in FAST MOTION, with all the funny lil' worms voices *giggles*

...let alone make.

come on, you know that EA just has a giant computer that they just give inspiration and it makes games. For lord of the rings, BFME they just gave it all 3 special edition LOTR DVDs, then chucked in warcraft 3 as well and it "popped" out BFME. Then they sat on their asses for a year or so waiting for the deadline, eating dohnuts. The thing is, the guys at EA are SO DAMN STUPID they haven't thought of putting in a peice of paper that says "best game ever" along with a genre. silly people.

 

[Tinneth]

Well I think its a bloody good game.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

The only way an expansion would work is if they did the samarilian (for those of you tolkien illiterate, it's a huge bunch of notes, collected and put into a "prequel" if you like). But i can't see that happening, as EA have no inspiration

First, let's get the irony of "tolkien illiterate" out of the way - it's Silmarillion

Next point - EA only have the license to do LOTR games based on the films, not Tolkien's books. So they're pretty much hamstrung on that point.

 

[Sui]

First, let's get the irony of "tolkien illiterate" out of the way - it's Silmarillion

oh come on, you know me. i can't spell my way out of a paper baag. bog. bag.

 

[HunterSeeker]

For gameplays sake they should comeout with an expensionpack, they dont need to add units that where in the movies, just units that makes sense realistically.

A standard solider for Rohan, drafted peasants just dosent cut it as melee infantry. Make archers do less damage against cavalry and add pikemen for all sides.

Just some exemples.

Also another hero for mordor would be good, Grichnack maybe?

 

[B.Calhoun]

Wow. I just started playing multiplayer and its a whole lot better now. This game is acually good...when you have good teamates.

 

[MiccyNarc]

There's plenty of ex-pac potential here:
Can you say Elves?
There's many other regions in middle earth that have yet to be explored.

 

[HunterSeeker]

There's plenty of ex-pac potential here:
Can you say Elves?
There's many other regions in middle earth that have yet to be explored.

Elves!

Those are actually in and fighting for Rohan. We need more dwarves then gimli though, I mean Liquid got away with adding them in War of the Ring.

 

[The Dark Elf]

There's plenty of ex-pac potential here:
Can you say Elves?
There's many other regions in middle earth that have yet to be explored.

In other words, milking it

 

[MiccyNarc]

Those are actually in and fighting for Rohan.

Yeah, I know, and I think it's stupid, quite frankly.
Meh, it's based off the films, so it's to be expected.

In other words, milking it

You're ruining my fun.