Product Details
 | The Lord of the Rings: Conquest |
| List Price: | $19.99 |
| Price: | $5.59 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
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Product Description
Lord of the Rings: Conquest PCProduct Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #2552 in Video Games
- Brand: Electronic Arts
- Model: 014633153828
- Released on: 2009-01-13
- ESRB Rating: Teen
- Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
- Format: DVD-ROM
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: .25 pounds
Features
- Choose Your Side in the War of the Ring - Play through all the battles from the films and fight through an all-new story in the Evil campaign
- Play How You Want - Wield a sword, shoot a bow, use stealth, or conjure magic. Take control of Trolls, Oliphaunts, horses, catapults, heroes, and villains - the choice is yours
- Epic Online Battles - Featuring 16-player clashes in a wide variety of different modes
Customer Reviews
Finally a game I actually like...
So, I've been playing for a
while, and I actually think this is a pretty good game. I haven't
finished it yet, but am on my way. I think the whole interface is pretty
good, makes good use of the keyboard/mouse combo...definitely not a
game you'd want to use a controller for...at least me. So far it's been
plenty fun, and pretty challenging actually. I mean, once you get the
hang of it you won't have any problems progressing through the game.
Graphics are also pretty good, and runs quite well on my 1680x1050
monitor with all settings set to high...that's more than I can say for
some games I've recently purchased. This is actually probably one of the
best game's I've played on my PC for a while now...at least a few
month's or so. Most of the game's I've been trying out were just
failures. I also like how they incorporate scenes from the movie into
the game as to show you what's going on. I've never personally played a
Lord of The Rings game before, but after playing this I'm thinking I
need to go back and get some of them. This is a great game to have fun
and pass time, and it definitely gives you the Lord of The Rings feel.
Many different characters to choose from, whether you want to be a
Warrior, Mage, Scout, Archer, etc, and each have their own special
attacks/moves. If I had to compare it to a game I'd have to say it's
quite like Warrior's Orochi, which was another game I really enjoyed on
PC.
You also get to play as Heroes, and Villian's throughout the
game, such as, Aragon, Frodo, Gandolf, Saruman, Sauron, and Wormtongue.
It's really quite fun to play as all the different characters. The
online multiplayer, though I haven't played too much, is also pretty
fun. I'd give it a 4/5. Has a few different modes, so surely everyone
will find one they like.
If you like these kind of games, it's
really quite fun, and I definitely recommend it. Also, this is
definitely one of those games you need to get for PC over console's. At
least that's the way I feel about game's like these. Same way with
Command and Conquer...it's a great game on PC, but only so so on
console's. I personally haven't tried the console version of this game,
so maybe it's just as good, but I definitely recommend it on PC.
Immersive world, wheres the Balrog (singleplayer
conquest)?
When Lord of the Rings Return
of the King game was released a few years ago, I was impressed and
immersed in its visuals. However, the game was so difficult; I was
unable to complete most of the levels and gave up. At the same time, I
wished I could depart from the goals of each mission and just spend some
time running around the map either watching the fight or sniping at
some orcs.
What I REALLY wanted was Lord of the Rings battlefield
42 as I enjoyed the way one could move freely about and engage / not
engage the enemy and die and be respawn again without having to start
over each time.
Lord of the Rings Conquest follows in that
tradition and I certainly felt as part of that imaginary Tolkien world
of the Jackson movies. The blue skies of the crushed Osgiliath, the dark
mines of Moria with its vertigo crevasses and steep staircases sans
guardrail plus other locations thrusts one deep into the movies'
landscape. Oliphants lumber through the landscape of the Pelennor Fields
map, and arrayed armies stand ready for deployment on the peripherals
of other levels. One cannot venture in to attack the oliphants , though,
as they are JUST a stage trick, designed to complete the atmosphere of a
large, active battlefield of which the player is just a small part of.
Now,
as a casual gamer who does singleplayer, I will only relate the
experience from that point of view.
One selects and spawns in as
either an archer, Mage, scout and warrior type character. I found the
archer to be the easiest and friendliest for my relaxed gameplay style,
followed by the mage.
Archery requires no knowledge of physics
adjustments for windage, distance or any of that junk. Point at the
target and the arrow hits it instantly at flat, sniper rifle speed
trajectories. Fire arrows set nothing aflame that I can see, but instead
explode on contact; knocking over its target. Stick an arrow in an
enemy mage and he will probably lift up his shield barrier. The AI bots
do pretty well at protecting themselves in this fashion.
The
scout and warrior require a mad combination of right, left and middle
clickings combined with the deft use of the shift and control keys in
order to make the best use of them. If heped up on sugarbabies, caffine
and maybe something else purchased furtively from skeevy individuals
wearing dark overcoats in poorly lit alleyways, I might be able to get
those classes to work right. Otherwise it's a topsy turvey screen of
flying bodies, flailing arms and legs and wondering what just happened.
With
their selected class, the player spawns in and just starts attacking
any which way possible. Unlike most other battlefield style games, where
I the best way find the enemy is to follow the friendly bots, in most
cases, glance right or left and opponents are already RIGHT THERE
wailing away on your hide. Great fun while it lasts.
The
campaigns are interesting and give a more expansive view and access to
more areas of the map than instant action. Campaigns are limiting
though, as that they require specific goals to be accomplished in a
certain way. But certain aspects can be amusing. On a sub-mission I was
required to slay Wormtongue. No problem, my pleasure. The mapguide
pointed out Wormtongue and I stalked his pasty flesh ready to stick it
full of arrows; but could not spot him. Then before I could react, he
appeared under my nose front and center and sliced into many pieces MY
noble flesh. I spawned back and as I sought revenge, I learned my men
killed Wormtongue instead.
Now this brings up another matter, why
is it unpaid kitchen modders must create those great game modifications
which allow the AI to use heroes in the instant action maps? Though the
4 classes each provide a different gaming experience, there is the
challenge of trying to bring down mighty heroes of great renown, a troll
or Balrog, or even Wormtongue and do it on the skirmish maps. However,
this simply is not possible in singleplayer at this time and this
feature awaits the emergence of a fan mod.
Pros: Freeform
battlefield / Battlefront style game allows players to spawn into an
ongoing battle. If killed, they just spawn back into the ongoing battle.
Immersive
Tolkien style world based on the recent movie series.
Wash:
Complex Scout and Warrior mouse/ keyboard combo control moves might be
too daunting for some.
Maps for conquest maybe too small and
tight.
Cons: Ai bots NEVER select any heroes, use trolls, ents or
other special characters (again we have to wait for some amateur
basement modder to create a game modification that allows this,
something that should have been programmed by professionals into the
release version to begin with. The same thing occurred with Star Wars
Battlefront 2 until somebody clever with the handle of archer01 created
an AI heroes mod where, both friendly and enemy AI used the tough Jedi
heroes).
DRM may cause problems on some systems, difficult
install and play situations and bring up issues surrounding future
installs.
Instant action / Skirmish maps do not restart
automatically after a match, one has navigate several screens to
reselect the map.
5 stars
-1 for DRM
-1 for no heroes /
trolls/ balrogs / Wormtongue / Mouth of Sauron etc in singleplayer
skirmish
3 stars total
Saving
Middle Earth has never been so...dull?
Since Lord of the Rings first
hit the silver screen as epic, three-part blockbuster, EA Games has
been attempting to give gamers the opportunity to relive the story from
both main character, commander, and now everyday Joe points of view. And
who wouldn't want to jump into the action, kill some orcs, and avoid
getting smashed by ginormous oliphants?
In the latest titles,
Lord of the Rings conquest, you get to play as one of those soldiers you
saw in the movies scurrying out of the way from balls of fire and
following studs like Faramir in combat. You even have the opportunity to
jump in the shoes of the heroes like Gandalf and Legolas when things
get hairy. Gamers have the choice of being and archer, warrior, scout,
or mage (wizard), each having their own special abilities and
complimenting other classes nicely. One critical aspect about
controlling a unit is that you are in fact dependent on the other AI
players to assist you, though this does lead to some criticisms about
the game itself.
Before getting into the negatives, let me throw
out a few kudo's. First, the environments are pretty cool. It was
awesome being around lumbering oliphants about to crush you and seeing
what exactly made Minas Morgul glow that spectacular green/blue color.
It was nice having options to ride a horse, fire a catapult, and pull
levers as well. Probably my favorite part was raining down fire arrow
death on uruks trying to siege Helms Deep. I probably could have done
that for hours alone if my team mates were more plentiful/effective.
Which
brings me into my criticism of the game. I enjoy having other players
around me and the fact that the game takes away the "one man army"
aspect of it, however, the game still relies on you doing pretty much
all of the work in order to move forward. Even if you try to play a
supporting role, such as taking out enemies around warriors as an
archer, or shielding the troops from arrows and lightening as a mage,
they still rely on you to do all of the work. This in turn begs the
question: why aren't you given a commanding ability for the troops?
While this is not the only game that suffers from the "one man army"
dilemma (see my review on Call of Duty 4), one has high expectations for
a game representing a worldwide multi-million dollar production.
Oh
yeah, and be prepared to lose/die...a lot. Sometimes, it will make no
sense at all and will take little time at all. I found it particularly
funny in the Pelennor Fields battle when I alone was responsible for
taking down three siege towers and 3 oliphants...single handedly...Oh
yeah, then I had to kill the Witch King. Oh well, all in a days work I
guess.
You will find yourself either laughing or groaning at the
voices in the game. The main command voice is very monotonous and
boring. Then you have the non-real voice of Gandalf calling out "I am
Gandalf". Besides dying for poor reasons a million times, that was
almost enough to make me regret buying this game in the first place.
Now,
the time you all have been waiting for: do you buy it or not? As much
as I have supported past EA Lord of the Rings games and never completely
regretted my purchasing decisions, I have to say save your money on
this one folks. Even if you find it in a discount bin for $20, and you
WILL see it there, hold onto your dough. There are other games that have
been released around this time which will still run on your systems
pretty decently. While the game does allure players with prospects of
being part of massive battles and cool characters, it is simply gilded:
gold on the outside, crap on the inside.
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