Wednesday, April 29, 2009

VIDEO GAMES: LOTR: Conquest Review

*Posted February 7, 2009*

From the makers of the very cool Star Wars: Battlefront series comes LOTR: Conquest, a game where you get to fight the biggest battles of the LOTR series. You control one soldier (either a warrior, archer, stealth assassin, or mage) and join an army of fellow good/bad guys to gain control points and win the battle. That by itself is nothing new, and pretty uninspired, but you throw in LOTR locations, Howard Shore's score, and some multiplayer action, and you're in for a treat. You can fight in the mines of Moria, the Halls of Rivendell, the top of the White City, the bowels of Orthanc, and even peaceful hills of the Shire. While you are running like mad to kill the opponents, you can also stop and appreciate landmarks like Balin's Tomb, Bag End, where the Council sat at Rivendell, and even where Gollum falls to his death in Mt. Doom. When those things lose their novelty (they don't really), you can have fun playing as Aragorn, Gaygolas, Gandalf, the Witch King, Sauron, Ents, Trolls, and other big heroes (most of which just have the abilities of regular units on steroids). In the final Evil level, when you get to unleash Sauron on the loser hobbits in the Shire, and you are mowing through them on your way to kill Gandalf, it's loads of fun. And like I said, the music keeps you pumped up. Every time the battle starts with the music from Amon Hen (the video below), it's just my natural reflex to scream out "Elendiiiiiiiiiil!!!" like Aragorn, and you would too. Of course all of this is just minor fun, but when you throw in the online multiplayer, your competiveness takes over and you can enjoy the game even longer. Overall, it's a fantastic game if you're an LOTR fan, but you probably shouldn't bother if you're not.

B

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