Lord the Rings: War of the Ring

What we have here is a textbook case of glorious buildup and shattered expectations. The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring delves deep into the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and, with great care and craft, creates a marvelous setting for real-time strategy gaming. Liquid Entertainment has mined the depths of Tolkien��s vast legendarium to create landscapes, units, and battles that reflect and amplify the novel and work ideally in an RTS context.

Right up until units actually start to fight, the game is a treat for both Middle-earth and RTS fans. Then it all goes straight to hell. As with Liquid��s colossally disappointing Battle Realms (upon which War of the Ring is built), combat is nothing more than a cluster frag: a mass of flailing limbs and slashing weapons in a tiny view screen that ultimately signifies little. It��s like buying a big, beautiful car and then using it to haul trash.

Two Towers, two stories

The game��s core is broken into two sequences of battles set into a narrative campaign: One is told from the good side (elves, humans, dwarves, etc.), the other from the evil side (orcs, trolls, nazgul, goblins, etc.). Maps of familiar places, such as Lothlorien, the Iron Hills, Minas Ithil, and Helms Deep, are ably designed from a landscape palette that offers three terrain types: grasslands (brown and plain), Mirkwood (green and marshy), and Mordor (dark and rocky). Terrain is used to great effect in mission structure and map building, with a definite focus on defendable choke points and the use of elevated terrain for tactical purposes. This, together with the game��s sensible resource distribution (wells for food and mines for ore) and places of power that impart bonuses, makes for some satisfying maps.

Unit creation and development also follow a simple but interesting pattern, requiring tactical choices in deciding which units to create and enhance for the best combined-arms fighting force. The familiar blend of ranged attackers, infantry, fast movers, and magic wielders is enhanced by heroes who are drawn from the books and impart a performance boost to nearby units while also delivering their own unique attacks.

Yet even with the expanded hero abilities and combined-force armies, combat always devolves into mass confusion. There are no complex commands, no formations, no finesse at all. Liquid left the control scheme as a click-to-attack, rush-tactics dud. Some may like this approach because it keeps things fast and simple, but after so many RTS games with complex commands (most recently Empires), it seems woefully lacking.

Verdict

3 Stars

Good use of Middle-earth elements in a sadly mundane RTS.

Publisher: Sierra

Developer: Liquid Entertainment

Genre: RTS ESRB RATING: T

Required: Pentium III 800, 256MB RAM, 2GB install, 32MB 3D card

Recommended: Pentium III 1.5GHz, 512MB RAM, 256MB 3D card Multiplayer: LAN, Internet (2-8 players)

Copyright © 2003 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Computer Gaming World.