Lord of the Rings: Conquest

[The Might]

Hullo thar, just bringing in some fresh news here to the Downs. Now I know the thread will be of no interest to the majority of the Downers who are past the age of playing games on a computer or Xbox, but for all other gamers in here this may be of interest.

EA is bringing out a new game called Lord of the Rings: Conquest. From what I have seen it is similar to Star Wars: Battlefront as far as the gameplay is concerned.

Meaning that what you have is basically a huge battle waging and you are just one of many fighting it out. You can choose different clases ranging from warrior to archer or mage. Basically as in Battlefront you probably have a certain number of reinforcements and if they die out before you achieve your goal, game over.

There are several nice battles starting with the Good Campaign. You start at Helm's Deep, battle your way through the Pelennor Fields and Minas Morgul (yes, you get to see how it would have been if they had attacked Minas Morgul on the way to the Black Gate) and then finally the Black Gate.

What is different from all other LotR games is the presence of an Evil campaign starting pretty much where the Good one stops. And it represents pretty much what would have happened if Eru had not decided to be such a deus ex machina and save M-e by giving Gollum a push.
You start off by getting rid of Frodo as a Nazgul and finish by attacking Rivendell and the Shire and thus enslaving all the free people under Sauron. Mwahahaha!

Of course, as in Battlefront during the campaigns you will get to play different heroes depending on the battle including the big man Sauron himself.

What I am also looking forward to is the multiplayer mode, it's always been lots of fun on Battlefront and I hope the same goes for LotR: Conquest.

By the way, if you are uncertain about it read some more reviews about it, furthermore I shall be updating this thread very soon with my own opinions after I buy and play it.

Game has been released on January 16th, so get it while it's still hot!


PS: unsure about the forum area to post in, thought it's not really that mirthy and also not that movieish, but rather general stuff. Correct me if I am wrong, of course!

[FeRaL sHaDoW]

Forgot one thing.

As some people might know, star wars battle front had vehicles, Lord of the rings conquest has rideable beasts to frolic around on. Not quite as impressive, but they are less likely to explode.

[Durelin]

Looks like it could be fun - I thought Star Wars Battlefront was quite fun the one time I played it anyway.

The only 'major' complaint I have heard so far is demonstrated here.

[The Might]

Well, I'll be buying it tomorrow so once I play it I'll tell you what I thought of it. And yes, indeed you get to ride horses and wargs in the game.

Also, you get to play some special units in some missions, for example a mumakil in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, or a troll or the Balrog himself in Moria. Actually wondering if he will have wings, pretty sure he will.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

I liked SW Battlefront, though I am not sure if it will be as interesting to be in the battles in M-E (as that's now what M-E is about, in contrary to SW, where the battles really mean a lot). Is it done according to the movies? Or is it independant from the movies? (If it is the first case, with all what I read about it till now from the first post, I call it a blasphemy of the worst caliber and I am going to burn the CDs with that game whenever I find them Related to it, I hope, TM, that the possibility of playing "a mage", as you said, meant just the possibility to play Gandalf... and not some mage like a regular unit alongside the common soldier, the archer etc. That would be really bad...)

[Mister Underhill]

I played the demo. Yeah, if you're expecting any serious link to the tone and feel of the books, you're bound to be sorely disappointed. Elven archers have various arrow options, including explosive and poison gas. Wizards shoot lightning and so forth. And the Gondorian knight character can activate a flaming sword for extra damage. You get the picture.

It seems like Battlefront in LotR Movie dress. If you liked one, you might like the other. The thing with Conquest is that it seems like to really maximize your effectiveness you need to memorize attack combo button-pushing sequences, which I'm not really a fan of.

I'll be interested to see The Might's review.

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

Elven archers have various arrow options, including explosive and poison gas. Wizards shoot lightning and so forth. And the Gondorian knight character can activate a flaming sword for extra damage. You get the picture.

It looks like a familiar one - even for one who is forty...

I have been imagining a game where you could download a stupendously magnificient looking and feeling game with some kind of a boot-camp possibility after which you could enter the real scenarios (PC Medal of Honour -style eg. alone but believably - I mean those squad based games are just frustrating as your mates are so stupid all the time and have to be taken care of all the time so as not to allow yourself to fight your own war). And there you'd have a realistic possibility of staying alive eg. you'd be killed from behind or facing a superior fighter or tough luck with a random factor soon enough.

If it's an online game then the same point goes to your vulnerability and non-reloadability but one can sure forget about the stupid mates - as when your RL team-mates are stupid then you just have to bear with it...

But the actual clue would be that downloading the game would cost you only something like 1 Euro/Dollar but everytime you die you'd have to load up a license to play again. (The game would kind of shut down after you die - no re-downloadings should be needed, it just wouldn't work again before you pay again) That would really make a difference! And while you pay and play one time after another you'd start playing it like you were actually in danger; trying to avoid bad fights and trying to sneak your way through - which is much more realistic than this "run on and reload the game" -stuff one is adviced to do in the normal games...

Now someone says I'm on the side of the game industry. No I'm not. There should be a player-rewarding way to get through the game playing it "realistically" and only the foolhardiness would be sanctioned... Surely there are enough people who would pay 50 Euros/Dollars to make it through the few first fights but witty players might get through the whole game - with all the adrenaline rushes - with just a few Euros / Dollars.

The thing with Conquest is that it seems like to really maximize your effectiveness you need to memorize attack combo button-pushing sequences, which I'm not really a fan of.

Like most of the games on sale today... Simpler user interfaces, simpler moves and add the creativity to building up the mood and environment + making it feel like you really were in danger... That I'd appreciate.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

I played the demo. Yeah, if you're expecting any serious link to the tone and feel of the books, you're bound to be sorely disappointed. Elven archers have various arrow options, including explosive and poison gas. Wizards shoot lightning and so forth. And the Gondorian knight character can activate a flaming sword for extra damage. You get the picture.

Yes, I get it *shrugs* All right, nevertheless, I will wait what Miggy has to say about it... but this-is-madness.

Originally Posted by Nogrod

I have been imagining a game where you could download a stupendously magnificient looking and feeling game with some kind of a boot-camp possibility after which you could enter the real scenarios (PC Medal of Honour -style eg. alone but believably - I mean those squad based games are just frustrating as your mates are so stupid all the time and have to be taken care of all the time so as not to allow yourself to fight your own war). And there you'd have a realistic possibility of staying alive eg. you'd be killed from behind or facing a superior fighter or tough luck with a random factor soon enough.

Now, that is great. I used to have such ideas when I was... some three years younger But hey, maybe now that would be a project for the creative programmers among Downers (I am sure there would be some) - to create a game like that, with LotR setting (and keeping it to the books at that!).

Like most of the games on sale today... Simpler user interfaces, simpler moves and add the creativity to building up the mood and environment + making it feel like you really were in danger... That I'd appreciate.

You have never been playing Aliens versus Predator, have you...
...especially online and with me, have you

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

You have never been playing Aliens versus Predator, have you...
...especially online and with me, have you

We'll have to try that out one day...

[The Might]

Ok, here are my thougths on the game.

Positive:
It's ok really, if you like Battlefront it will definitely enjoy LotR: Conquest. Basically it is the same you have your control points where you spawn and you have certain tasks to take care of while you're playing the game such as holding out within a perimeter for a certain time, killing a certain unit or destroying certain constructions. What is a big difference here is this - in Battlefront you had a certain number of reinforcements that helped you out, if that number reached 0 then it's game over; in Conquest it does not matter at all how often your buddies die, it matters only how often you have died. So you have a certain ammount of lives and when this reaches 0 it's game over. It is for me a lot easier since I only have to take care of myself during the battles, my guys just keep on streaming. You only have to take care of other units at times, such as escorting Frodo in Osgiliath.
So yeah, nice game and fun missions, I enjoy them even though they often have only very little to do with the books or even with the films. For example in Isengard you end up running into Orthanc with Gandalf and "kill" Saruman with lightning bolts... what?!
But otherwise it is quite entertaining and although I have not yet tested multiplayer with friends I did a little session in it alone and it seems to be nice to play against your pals.

Negative:
My biggest concern is the price, I feel that the game is not worth what you are expected to pay for it.
Another big problem is the quite short single player campaign. In the end it's only 16 missions (8 good and 8 bad) and each of them takes about 15 minutes if you know what to do already. I don't know how the last mode is like (hero or smth like that), I guess it's hard to play, but still I already feel no urge to play any of the missions I have already played up till now.
So yeah, you get to maybe play for say 10 hours till you get everything done on moderate difficulty after you've been training a bit on easy.
Also, some of the ideas are so far-fetched and out of Arda that I really wonder who ever came up with that...

Conclusion:
If you can afford it, if you like Battlefront and if you want to play some nice Middle-earth battles in nice graphics and poor story then you've hit the jackpot! Otherwise, forget about it...

PS: I've just finished killing mumakil with catapults at the Pelennor Fields.

[davem]

Telegraph review http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sciencean...me-review.html

Lord of the Rings: Conquest doesn’t so much as bend the story to the gameplay’s whim, as drag it through a great big pile of orc dung, before setting it on fire.

Unfortunately ...er, no, fortunately I'm of the generation that has absolutely zero interest in computer games, so I won't be offering up a personal review - I just liked that quote......

[alatar]

Originally Posted by The Might

Also, some of the ideas are so far-fetched and out of Arda that I really wonder who ever came up with that...

Peter Jackson, perhaps?

[The Might]

Btw, I finished the game in the meantime on medium and I must agree that a lot of stuff makes little or even no sense at all.
And indeed how I usually played it was running into hordes of enemies with special attacks and whilst plowing my way through reloading my life by picking up the fallen "life" bottles.
And yes, I agree with the review on all those weak spots, still I find it somewhat entertaining to play.

[Eönwë]

I was tempted to get the game, but now hmm...

I just laughed at what it says in the link that Davem provided:

the game’s one redeeming feature -that evocative Howard Shore soundtrack- seems to develop a sentient intelligence at some points, deciding that it wants nothing to do with such a awful piece of work and drops out completely, leaving you to listen to the quite spectacularly irritating commanders barking the same regurgitated orders at you, over and over again.

Yes, I'm back on the Downs.

[Babidi Buu]

I would be playing it on the PC if they had Arwen, Boromir and Gothmog as playable characters for the PC. Goth darn it!

[Kent2010]

I've only played the demo, but I'll probably get it when price drops down, or buy it used. So far though, BFME II still remains the supreme LOTR game.

[Rumil]

Can you still get 'Shadowfax' for the BBC Micro?

(one of these days I've got to run The Hobbit on a Spectrum emulator too)

[Lush]

It's available on PS3 now!

Unless I'm thinking of a different one altogether... Was randomly at Virgin the other day, saw they had a new shipment (we poor souls in Jordan have a hard time obtaining games, must get them shipped from overseas all the time).

I'm just excited that whatever new LotR game is now out for my console - two-player is actually an option.

Waging great battles over the controller with Boyfriend was only fun the first 100 times or so...



P.S. Am 25 this year. Once you go gaming... you never go back.