Lord Of The Rings: Conquest review
Developed by Pandemic Studios, Lord Of The Rings Conquest is another attempt to adapt Tolkein’s book into a Middle Earth version of Star Wars: Battlefront.
Campaign mode kicks off with you battling through the War Of The Ring, helping Frodo and his friends to destroy the ring and banish evil. As soon as you’re dropped into the action you learn about the different character classes, fighting technique and game objectives.
There are four different classes - warrior, mage, scout and archer. They all play very differently. Warrior is as you’d expect the tank, with a host of fire attacks to help wade through the enemy. The mage is a sorcerer and not too great in close combat combat, but can cast spells to pick off baddies at range. The scout has cloaking abilities to perform assassination moves and is handy with his blades in close combat. Finally, archers are masters of ranged combat, with an arsenal of flaming, poisoned and triple shot arrows. Crucially, you can switch between classes within missions, giving the gameplay more variety. Throughout the game you will also get the opportunity to play as some of the story’s heroes, such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Sauron, and the Balrog who each have their own unique and powerful, special attacks.
When you complete the eight levels of the War Of The Ring campaign by reaching Mount Doom you unlock a second campaign, Rise Of Sauron, with another eight levels to complete. It starts with the Dark Lord sending you to seize back the ring from Frodo before he destroys it. you then embark on a quest to overthrow all the fellowship’s main protagonists. Lord Of The Rings Coquest is virtually two games in one, but the most fun to be had is without doubt on the evil side, destroying everyone and everything.
Character and landscape models were taken directly from WETA and sections of the film itself are used in the cut scenes, with narrative from Hugo Weaving. The soundtrack benefits from the inclusion of Howard Shore’s orchestral theme, which adds to the atmosphere during the battle scenes. Online there’s 16-player battles - Team Deathmatch and Capture The One Ring modes, plus a flag-collecting Conquest mode - and a co-op mode.
The game’s biggest flaw is the controls. It’s a button basher with very little skill involved except a few combos to learn. Frodo fanboys will probably balk at the diversion from the original Lord Of The Rings storyline in the second part of the campaign, but this is the element which saves the game from being another dull, dreary rehash of the franchise.
7/10