The Lord of the Rings: Conquest

The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien’s epic adventure, was one of the most popular novels of the 20th century, and the film Trilogy won almost every possible award. The game developers, therefore, faced the monumental task of emulating greatness. Did they succeed? Having been mesmerized by the book and bowled over by the films, I have to admit to a degree of disappointment: but perhaps my expectations were too high. The Lord of the Rings: Conquest is brought to you by the same developers who made the very successful Star Wars series. The Lord of The Rings: Conquest was launched in January 2009, published by Electronics Arts and developed by the Pandemic Studios.

The game allows you to play through two campaigns. The War of the Ring campaign, eight levels in all, is based on the film’s great battles, together with a couple of additions. The seven levels of the Rise of Sauron campaign allows you to control the forces of Sauron, in a version that takes huge liberties with the original storyline. Have you ever wondered what would have happened if Frodo had failed to destroy the One Ring? Well now you can find out!

Multiplayer modes on offer include Capture the Ring, Conquest and Team Death match. In Hero Death match you control the well-known Lord of the Rings hero’s. A mode I particularly liked was Conquest, where you have to hold key locations spread across the map. You can play online in two teams, with up to eight in each team, or you can instead play offline (split screen) with up to four friends. The cooperative mode is playable online and offline with another player. The game has also seen downloadable content including new maps.

The class-based character system offers a choice of playable classes, the main ones being: Warrior, Archer, Scout and Mage. A Warrior uses a sword together with a throwing axe, and needs to increase strength by defeating enemies. As an Archer you will be playing like a third-person shooter. A Scout is a dagger carrying silent assassin. A Mage can tap into supernatural powers, which include the ability to destroy the enemy with a bolt of lightning or to cast a protective shield around himself and his friends.

The game’s story is narrated by Hugo Weaving, who played Elrond in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, while the soundtrack borrows Howard Shore’s original film score.

The graphics are good in parts, sometimes brilliantly capturing the extravagant landscape; the character models, however, are a little disappointing. Although the frame-rate can generally cope with a lot of action, in places it can stutter slightly. The audio blends very well with the graphical elements creating an intense atmosphere.

Lord of the Rings Conquest is a bit of a curate’s egg – good in parts. The multiplayer mode is the main aspect of the game with some good modes. It’s a third-person action fantasy game set in Tolkien’s world, which probably suffers by comparison to the book and film Trilogy. However it might be worth checking out if you are a Lord of the Rings fan.