Ea games lotr battle for middle earth 2

The newly introduced War of the Ring mode combines turn-based strategy elements with real-time skirmishes. Middle-earth is divided into territories; players can construct buildings to produce troops only in a claimed territory. During each turn, the player can move their armies into neutral and enemy territories to take control of them.

While neutral territories are conquered by simply entering them, enemy territories must be wrested from the other player by defeating them in a skirmish. Troops can be garrisoned in conquered territories to defend against enemy attacks. When the player chooses to attack another territory, or one of their territories is being invaded by an enemy, they can either simulate the match and let the computer determine the outcome, or play the match by commanding the units in real time.

The winner of the skirmish gains the territory, and all surviving units gain experience points. To win the game, players must either control the enemy's capital territory, or take over a given number of territories in Middle-earth. Rohan and Gondor are combined into one faction called Men of the West. Along with Mordor and Isengard from the first game, there are six playable factions. The troops of Gondor provide a solid offense and defense with standard infantry and archers, and the Rohirrim of Rohan act as elite cavalry.

The Elven archers are effective at inflicting damage from a distance, and their support units, the Ents, can perform a combination of melee and siege attacks. Although slow and expensive, Dwarven infantry, pikemen, and axe-throwers are very powerful and well-armored.

A collection of wild creatures and beasts of Middle-earth make up the Goblin faction, including Goblins, Trolls, spiders, and dragons, which are effective in large numbers. Isengard troops are highly-trained Uruk-hai under Saruman's command. Berserkers are used by Isengard as one-man armies that move extremely fast and deal significant damage.

Additionally, Isengard is the only Evil faction that can build walls. Thankfully, you can save a game's progress and pick it up at a later time. EA has also done some good work in terms of making games easy to find online--the server browser is nicely organized, and the game persistently tracks performance so you can easily gauge your chances against a potential opponent by examining his or her experience level.

Visually, Battle for Middle-earth II packs a few graphical improvements over the original. For instance, there seem to be a few more shader effects at work, so surfaces such as ice have a nice sheen to them.

There's also some improved lighting and shadowing at work. But in general, the graphics haven't evolved much from the first game. That's not a bad thing, though, as the original game still captured the look and feel of Middle-earth quite well. Though the battles are nowhere near as large as those seen in the movies or in the game's own cutscenes, for that matter , you still get a sense of the clash of arms as companies of human soldiers clash with hordes of goblins and orcs.

And, once again, the biggest units in the game are some of the best looking--you can send impressively rendered dragons and fellbeasts into battle or watch the noble eagles swoop down from the sky and rip apart an enemy building with their talons. It's interesting to note that the in-game cutscenes taken directly from The Lord of the Rings have disappeared in the sequel, probably because the developers would have had to recycle the same cutscenes over again given that there has been no new movie footage since the first game.

The build-a-hero mode isn't as powerful as it should be, but at least you can still create your own avatar in the game. The sound effects also remain strong, and Howard Shore's memorable music from the movies echoes throughout the game. Meanwhile, some of the voice work from the original carries over to the sequel, and die-hard Lord of the Rings fans may feel a chill down their spines whenever they hear Ian McKellen's Gandalf or Christopher Lee's Saruman declare victory after a battle.

And EA managed to find decent substitutes for the other big-name roles. The Battle for Middle-earth II is certainly a better version of 's great strategy game. With that said, for all the things it does new or differently than before, some aspects feel a bit undercooked. Still, this is probably the best Lord of the Rings RTS available, and by encompassing the whole of Tolkien's mythology, it really lets you battle for all of Middle-earth this time around.

New races, heroes, and battlegrounds let you command battle in all-new ways. You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos. Click To Unmute.

Start at: End at: Autoplay Loop. Want us to remember this setting for all your devices? Sign up or Sign in now! Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos. This video has an invalid file format. Auto HD High Low. Report a problem. Fun to a degree? Sure, but it left many fans disappointed in the midst of the flourishing movie franchise.

Battle for Middle-earth II , unlike its predecessor, does most everything right. It takes a beloved franchise rife with potentially great videogames moments and transforms it into a fleshed out, fully formed RTS experience. Half of what makes for a solid RTS, for example, is a rich world to draw upon, and that's something Battle for Middle-earth II certainly doesn't want for.

The missions are well crafted both objective-wise and setting-wise, utilizing the vast lore of The Lord of the Rings books to make more some really memorable experiences.

The logistics of the game are all pretty sharp, too. Battles feel truly epic, with hundreds of characters on screen at once, and better yet, the chaos feels controlled though always intense.

The emphasis is squarely on the action, with a plethora of units and heroes similar to the Warcraft series at your command. But, with such an emphasis on action, the strategic element of the game runs in the shallow end. For RTS purists, that can be a bit of a downer, but for the more mainstream audience that doesn't usually delve into heavy strategic games, this is a pretty big boon.

Strategy enthusiasts aren't left completely in the dark, however. It's a bit rough around the edges, but if you prefer a little bit more depth mingled with your action, it's definitely a fun diversion from the main game. And, if nothing else, Battle for Middle-earth II sure does look nice.

The scope of the game is pretty huge, and with battles fielding a huge number of units, it'll induce a few moments of nerdish awe. But, like most RTS titles, it looks really nice far away, but when you start zooming in, all the flaws shine through. This would be a negligible if it weren't for the fact that a majority of the cinematic use in-game graphics, highlighting many of the game's imperfections.

It helps all the more if you can recognize the subtle genius in zerging an enemy base with a battalion of LothlA? Browse games Game Portals. Install Game. Click the "Install Game" button to initiate the file download and get compact download launcher. Locate the executable file in your local folder and begin the launcher to install your desired game.

Game review Downloads Screenshots The Books or The Movies? Overall rating: 9. XBox Elves And Dwarves The two story-driven campaigns good and evil take place in the north of Middle-earth, where dwarves and elves battle the forces of Sauron. There's Still Hope What's more, you can also harness the power of the One Ring or the Evenstar depending on your allegiances , with a multitude of defensive and offensive spells available to you, including meteor showers that turn enemy units into paste and humorous yet deadly appearances from Tom Bombadil.

Your Turn Everyone else is doing it, maybe we should too With Rome: Total War and Star Wars: Empire At War proving just how effective a marriage between turn-based campaign and real-time battles can be, EA LA obviously thought it'd better try its hand at doing something similar.

People say: 8. Players will find that this new battle between good and evil takes place on a much grander scale with six different factions combining to against the forces of Mordor. Players can also combine forces in multiplayer mode to get the most out of the fights.