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LOTR: Battle For Middle Earth II


Labeled With  the lord of the rings xbox360 ea
Written by Josh Lowensohn on Tuesday, August 15 2006

Controlling tons of units is made easier by using LOTR’s control module, lovingly named the “Palantir.” The Palantir serves two functions, letting users access control shortcuts, as well as opening up contextual commands to whatever units are selected on-screen. Learning how to use the Palantir quickly and efficiently takes a fair bit of time before it’s second-nature, but once you know what you’re doing, it’s exceedingly easy to skip around between units or build up a massive fortress almost instantly. It also lets you bookmark selected units for quick selection, which becomes critical in some of the later battles which require some pretty serious managerial commandment and tactical panache to avoid getting absolutely owned by the opposing forces. The amount of units you can command is limited by your command point total, a number based on how many resource-producing structures you have in your control.
While controlling units may be relatively straight-forward, getting them to attack without getting bottle-necked by the troops in front of them is no easy task. In most cases you can create formations using specialized commands, but even sending attack units battalion by battalion can become an uphill battle. Instead of swarming groups of opponents from all sides, you’ll often have a huge queue of units with only the front-most group doing the fighting.

To help you out in tough battles, you’re given two special weapons—heros and spells. Heros are characters from the books and movies that have and can give your troops special powers when used. Heros can be summoned for a price and command point value from your fortress (your army’s headquarters), and are usually your toughest and most valuable fighters. Using your heros correctly becomes an important task , and can keep many of your troops from dying in situations where they would otherwise be slaughtered.

Spells are specialized powers you can summon at any point in a battle. Each one can be purchased based on points you earn throughout the game. Spells are basically god-like powers which can completely turn the tide in a battle given the correct application. Attack spells are exceptionally helpful, as earthquakes, arrow barrages and extra units can damage enemy units or structures that might otherwise be invulnerable to your current location. Since battles can end when you destroy the enemy fortress, hitting it with repeated spells can finish a battle much sooner than you could with your basic units.




The XBOX Live component breathes some definite life and replayability into this title. Live battles let you engage one or several opponents on some pretty cool maps both casually and ranked. You can pick any side you want to play for, as well as staring resources and locations. Most of the maps give equal starting spots, so it’s not a race to get the “good” start spot. There are several game types, including king of the hill, capture and hold, hero vs. hero, resource race and versus. The ranked leaderboards are based on basic win/loss statistics, as well as how many heros you have made and lost during Live combat.

Joining games is a fairly painless experience. You’re given the “quick” option from the XBOX Live menu, which throws you in a random hosted game lobby similar to Halo 2. You can also select which types of games you’re looking for, and it will scour them out for you, although this tends to take a little more time. Likewise, hosting is simple and easily customizable, however for the newbie, there’s no explanation of the selected game type or previews of the maps beyond the square sketch posted next to the map name. This is definitely a waste of user interface, since there is already a map residing in the background of the menu that would make for a nice touch on EA’s part.

Graphically, LOTR is a mixed bag. While it’s incredible there can be so many units on the screen at one time, there is often some serious slowdown which ruins the immersion and overall playability of this title. Each unit doesn’t have high poly-counts or high-res textures, which can make this title look very last-gen when you’re just starting out and have a few groups of soldiers. While the engine handles big unit numbers with some grace when zoomed out, getting close up to a battle can render the system nearly useless as the framerate drops to the single digits and gives you controller lag.

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Lord Of The Rings: Battle For Middle Earth II


 
 
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7.5
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Player Support (1-4)

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Co-op multiplayer
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