Lord of the Rings: Conquest Review - Xbox Gaming in South Africa

Lord of the Rings (LOTR) was one of the most successful movie franchises of all time and managed to bridge the gap between the original literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien and the silver screen like never before. The expected slew of tie-in games rushed onto the scene with many of them falling short of the mark in terms of gameplay and failing to match the films' grandiose setting. Several years down the line EA has decided to release Lord of the Rings: Conquest to satiate fans' appetite for more adventures in Tolkien's Middle Earth. Have they managed to topple the stigma of average games based on movies or have they fallen at the feet of the mighty beast known as CashIn?

Pandemic studios chose the same route as Star Wars Battlefront by focussing on large scale objective battles with various classes forming the basis of most of the missions. Of course the main drawcard here is that you'll get to play as many of the heroes from the films for portions of the game, and in many of the same settings. So expect to throw magic as Gandalf while valiantly defending Minas Tirith or reclaiming the Mines of Moria as Gimli. The single player campaign follows the journey of the ring as Frodo Baggins takes it to Mount Doom to destroy it before the dark lord Sauron can reclaim it and take over all of Middle Earth. There are some departures from the films as you also try to reclaim the Mines of Moria after the Fellowship of the Ring has passed through it. After completing the campaign as the heroes you can then carry on the story as Sauron's forces; with the game taking off as you intercept and kill Frodo just as he is about to destroy the ring. Some highlights include slaughtering the inhabitants of the shire as well as fighting as Sauron himself in Rivendell. Both campaigns are short lived though and can be completed in 2 or 3 hours. There is some longevity to be had in the co-op as you take on the campaigns with the aid of a friend, but you'll soon have exhausted the offline portion of the game. LOTR Conquest online is a bit more fun than the single player with the online modes consisting of conquest, capture the ring, team deathmatch and hero deathmatch. An impressive sixteen players can join in a game and there is some fun to be had traipsing around Middle Earth with a group of friends. Unfortunately the lag for us South Africans might turn away many local gamers from even trying it out.

The four playable classes are the Warrior who focusses primarily on melee attacks; the Mage whose strength is magic attacks as well as the ability to heal his compatriots; the Archer whose bow can take out enemies from a distance; and the Scout who can use stealth to make use of one hit kills on unsuspecting victims. The classes play the same in that they have a selection of standard moves they can use to take down Orcs and Uruk-hai as well as more powerful moves that depend on a special ability meter that is filled up by defeating enemies. While on the surface this system seems to have plenty of depth, after a hour or two of slaughtering enemies you'll soon come to realise that this is just another button masher game and that your basic moves will work just as well to take enemies down as the special attacks. Taking this in mind, it must be said that some of the larger enemies are a pleasure to take down as they rely on QTE prompts to successfully kill them. A prime example of this is the battle of Pelennor Fields from the third LOTR movie where you are tasked with destroying multiple siege engines and oliphaunts, each of which requires you to fight your way through hordes of grunts and officers untill reaching your target, whereupon you follow a series of prompts to take them down. It's at these points where the game excels. You can almost believe you're fighting an important battle set in the LOTR universe as you hear the screams of your enemies and fellow combatants locked in combat.

What lets it down though is that the visuals accompanying you on your journey are sub-par and do the environments no justice whatsoever. My first thought on seeing the game was whether we hadn't received a Playstation 2 copy be mistake. Now I can understand that Pandemic might have chosen to sacrifice some visual fidelity in hopes of showing larger hordes of characters on screen but given the repetitive nature of the combat system this is a poor trade off and I would have rather seen the world of Middle Earth portrayed a little bit better than this. Your characters also suffer the same fate with their features toned down. The hero characters do look slightly better, resembling their movie counterparts, but still a far cry from good looking. The one area where Conquest manages to make you raise an eyebrow is with its presentation. The menu screens and mission briefings take a good helping of eye candy from the films and wrap it all up in a beautiful package. Unfortunately games aren't made solely of menu screens so this does little to redeem it from the doldrums of mediocre looks.

In stark contrast to the graphics is the amazing sound-work done on the game with Howard Shore's wonderful soundtrack from the film making an appearance and lending a sense of grandiosity to proceedings. The missions are made even better by its inclusion and manages to add that bit more to the game. Hugo Weaving is the only member of the film trilogy to reprise his role as Elrond but he only appears between missions as a narrator for the story. All the other characters and heroes are done competently enough without sounding too far off from their original actors. One aspect of the sound design that does grate on one's ears is the omnipotent voice of your teamates who constantly scream out your current objective. After the hundredth time hearing them shout out, “We must hold here!” you might just resort to turning sides and helping Sauron destroy all of Middle Earth.

Overall Pandemic have given us a game that will fail to find much of an audience. Die hard fans of Lord of the Rings will purchase this regardless but most other gamers that are cost conscious will be hard pressed to find reasons to buy this. Conquest doesn't do Tolkien's books or Peter Jackson's films the justice they deserve. If you have a craving to journey with Frodo and his fellowship, rather whip out the DVDs and grab a box of popcorn.

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