PlayExclusive: Lord of the Rings: Conquest

Pandemic Studios takes their popular Star Wars Battlefront © series gameplay mechanics and incorporates them into the Lord of the Rings franchise, to make an addictive slash-em-up that will please many.



Story
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, LotR: Conquest follows the major battles of all three books and movies, and a few hypothetical scenarios, creating 2 storylines to choose from.

While the “War of the Ring” storyline is available from the start following the main story of the movies, whereas “The Rise of Sauron”, a “What if?” storyline following what would have happened if the war for the ring had been lost, is unlocked after finishing the first campaign.

Graphics
On the X-box 360, the graphics are quite adequate, but they seem to be lacking on the PS3. Thankfully this is one of those games that relies on gameplay more than it does on flashy looking characters. Using clips from the movies instead of rendered or in-game cinematics to illustrate major scenes comes off as lazy, but does bring some eye candy to an otherwise plain looking game. Overall, it shouldn't bother most of the gamers attracted to online gaming.

Gameplay
Mimicking the same system of the Star Wars: Battlefront series, players are able to choose from 4 classes; The warrior, scout, wizard, or archer, available to both sides of the war.

Each one has their advantages, weaknesses, and tactics to counteract enemy forces in different classes with special abilities unique to each. Archers and the overpowered wizards pelt enemies from afar with poison or flaming arrows and bolts of lightning or a ring of flames, respectively, fearing the close range attacks of invisible, backstabbing scouts, or the literally flaming swordplay of warriors.


Main story characters like Legolas, Frodo and even evil ones, like Sauron and The Witch King make appearances as playable “Heroes. They fall under the same classes mentioned above, with tweaked abilities and upgraded stats, making them a formidable challenge to any enemy unfortunate enough to run into them on the battlefield.

Other playable creatures can appear on larger maps, like 20 foot Trolls (my personal fave), or Treefolk, able to crush anything in their way, though some classes have special attacks that can bring them to their knees in seconds.

As for the various game modes, Conquest, Capture the Ring, Team Deathmatch and the downloadable Hero Deathmatch make for some interesting variety in gameplay. Conquest requires players to capture zones while fending off the enemy, Capture the ring is an ovbious capture the Flag variant, which forces players to bring the ring to the enemy base for victory, and the ever popular team Deathmatch throws players into heated conflict with each other to see which group fights better.

Overall
If you're just looking for fast action without any lengthy story to drag you down, this, is the online game for you. With plenty of replay value, and even the new Hero Team Deathmatch Add-on DLC (now available online for free), this may be the start of another very enjoyable franchise from Pandemic Studios.


Review by Johar Aston, TheLAG

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Copyright 2009 Johar Aston, TheLAG