Lord of the Rings: Conquest

It seems like a rather strange time for a Lord of the Rings game to be coming out. I hadn’t even heard about it until two days before it was released even though I check online games publications far too often. It looks like there wasn’t any hype at all for this game, probably because the films have been and gone and that there isn’t anything of major interest on the horizon in terms of LotR content. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; once hearing that the game was developed by Pandemic Studios, known for it’s Star Wars: Battlefront and Mercenaries franchises, I started to be interested.

I’m not a major Lord of the Rings fan; I’ve never read the books but I did enjoy the films and have watched them multiple times. When confronted by the game’s start-up screen I did get excited; the classic LotR music was playing with action packed film segments in the background. What more could you want? Hacking hordes of Orcs to pieces with Aragorn’s blade! And here lies the first disappointment… Upon starting the game for the first time I was given the choice of 4 generic class types, at which point I realised I wasn’t going to be playing the hero characters… No Gandalf, no Legolas and, most importantly, no Gimli… However, not all was lost!

The bulk of the game follows the Battlefront formula almost rigidly, giving you the ability to pick from 4 class types with varying skills: the warrior is the sword wielding hard man; the archer is, funnily enough, the long range attacker; the mage can also attack at distance but can heal your party and, finally, the scout can cloak himself (think Frodo with the ring) and attack from behind. The multiple classes give the game a surprising amount of depth; each class has a number of different standard attacks with around three special abilities each, so there’s plenty of room for combos and multiple strategies of engagement. There are two main campaigns: the War of the Ring, which follows the story we all know and love, and the Rise of Sauron, which twists things around, showing what could have happened if the ring had returned to Sauron rather than destroyed. Both campaigns use footage from the films as cut-scenes between levels. This works rather well, especially in the Rise of Sauron campaign, where parts of the three films are used to portray the story in a completely different manner, with a much more sinister tone. Each campaign is split into multiple levels all set in locations seen in the films; Helm’s Deep, Isengrade and Minas Tirith all make an appearance, each adding to the distinct Lord of the Rings feel. There are, essentially, only two types of objectives, capturing control points and killing certain creatures, this does lead to rather a lot of repetition, luckily near the end of each level you do get control of a hero character, which is rather fun, if a little easy.

Considering that you are fighting as a single soldier in a large army for the majority, the game does run into a few inconsistencies. For example, the story goes that only the Fellowship of the Ring (a group of about 8) travelled through the Mines of Moria but in Conquest an entire army seems to have materialised to fight of the evil within. When you start to compare the rest of the game to the LotR canon it is clear that there are some other rather glaring flaws. The most noticeable is the way in which magic is portrayed and simply that there’s the mages class at all. In the canon there is only a very limited number of people who can use magic and when they do there aren’t any blue lightening bolts or fireballs, it’s rather the opposite in Conquest! The mage class character can create a protective bubble, throw balls of fire and even electrocute enemies, Star Wars style. This really detracts from what makes Lord of the Rings what it is and makes the game feel rather generic.

Even though Conquest might be stretching its license a bit, the gameplay is solid. Saying that the quality does vary with the four different classes; the archer and warrior both play well and are fun to control; with the warrior, there’s a distinct sense of impact when cutting straight through rows of enemies, and there’s a satisfying thud when an arrow hits its target when using the archer. On the other hand, the mage and the scout feel rather limp; the mage’s magical attacks don’t have the substance they should and the scout is simply difficult to control. At various points in Conquest you can also ride horses, either when it’s necessary for an objective or just in general when on the battlefield. Although they offer a change of pace to the rest of the game, they control sluggishly, completely defeating the point of being on a horse in the first place, and feel like they could have been implemented for a far better purpose.

There is one very annoying issue with Conquest that may sound trivial but is in fact vital to how the game feels. When you are knocked to the ground, for whatever reason that might be, you roll around on the floor for a bit before getting up. This invites two problems: firstly, if you’re near a cliff edge for example, you can simply roll off it to your death, as there are no invisible boundaries. Secondly, you can still take damage on the floor! This is extremely annoying, negates any skill involved and makes the game generally frustrating. You can be ploughing through Orcs one minute, get hit to floor and you’re dead the next, even on the ‘Casual’ difficulty. This is also a testament to how uncoordinated your AI comrades are. In a game that revolves around team cooperation it’s vital that the people you are playing with can keep up with you and assist you when needed and, although the AI does attempt to do this (they are rather good as distractions), it really isn’t the same as a human counterpart. Luckily Lord of the Rings: Conquest has a fairly robust multiplayer component.

When playing online the game experience changes considerable. The four classes make for some interesting team play with each class covering for the other type’s weaknesses which makes the game far more fun to play. Considering that the game is based around the Star Wars: Battlefront formula it’s no surprise that this is the case. Up to 16 players can take part in a number of possible modes, there’s Conquest, Deathmatch and Capure the One Ring and it’s also possible to play the campaign two player over the net. The multi-player definitely adds to the overall package and works well; it makes up for some of the annoyances found when playing solo.

In terms of presentation Conquest isn’t bad but it’s not spectacular either. The character models are good, the heroes look like they should and the Orcs fit into the visual style laid down by the films. The levels have an impressive scale, the most notable of which is Pelennor Fields, and have hundreds, if not thousands, of scripted models hanging around in the background. Although adding to each level’s complexity, these models do feel like they aren’t really doing much except the same canned animation repeatedly. The majority of the edges, of the landscapes and models, are also noticeably jagged which takes a while to get use to and just doesn’t look great.

Lord of the Rings: Conquest is a bit of a mixed bag. There are some truly enjoyable moments, mostly to be found when playing online, and the basic formula is sound. It’s just the combination of one small problem after another that brings the overall experience down.