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Some say it's great, some say it stinks, well......they're both right.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: July 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Con: the campaign mode is very short.

Pro: the war of ring mode gives the game great and almost unlimited replayability.

Con: the graphics are not much improved from the BFME

Pro: you can create your own hero to use in war of the ring. you can choose from men of the west, wizards, dwarfs, elves, uruks, etc.

Con: You still can't put a large amount of soldiers on the map at one time which is a big part of what made the movies so great. you can't duplicate the epic battles of the movies...it comes close but not quite.

Showtime's review: Very good but falls just short of greatness. If the Cons I listed above are things you can't live with then either wait until the price drops or don't get it. I say the replayability outweighs the cons and I do not regret the purchase.

Statistics show I'm always right.
- Showtime Mike

Well-received

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game for my younger brother, aged 16, for Christmas and he played it non-stop for the entire week afterwards. He has since bought the expansion pack (Rise of the Witch King) on his own, so overall I would say he was very pleased with it. I had the chance to play the game myself for a bit and found it fairly easy to pick up, especially with my experience with Blizzard's Real-time Strategy games (WarCraft, StarCraft, etc). With my limited experience, I can't say for sure the quality of the game, but while not blown away, I enjoyed it.

not an avid gamer - but i love this game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This was my first RTS game in years. I'm not an avid gamer and so it took a couple of years for me to wear out my older RTS games (Warcraft III, C&C:Generals) enough to justify opening the wallet for a new one. Also, I just got a new computer that can finally handle newer games.

In all, I have quite enjoyed the game for the first three weeks and I'm very excited about the future. It seems to combine/include all the best elements from all the RTS games i've played. some don't like it, but I like the fact that you have to upgrade each unit individually. It allows for more strategy and makes the upgraded/experienced battalions/units much better than those that aren't. The hero element is also good (as it was in Warcraft III) but very-well balanced with non-hero units. Heros can do tons of damage, but they will still get destroyed if you send them into battle alone. Also, the experienced hero's have significant advantages so it is well worth your while to build them early and level them up as much/fast as you can.

The resource gathering mechanism is cumbersome, difficult and challenging. Other games allow you bunch all resource gathering in a concentrated area, but this game forces you to sprawl your base if you want to collect resources faster. this is compensated by the fact that resources never run out. All of these things introduce new elements and therefore alter the strategies needed to overcome them.

This was consistent throughout the game. It takes a little bit to get used to it, but one can play it fairly soon. But the more you play, the more you see the depth of the game and realize the extent to which various strategies can be employed.

Strongly recommended. my best friend is considering buying a pc just so he can play this game because i've raved about it so much.

75 out of a 100 Due to mechanicle and AI flaws.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: October 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

To begin with, this game has some excellent potential which the right patches could easily fix. The first problem with the game is the AI, both friendly and hostile. To begin with, the AI is much too hard on easy settings. For instance, even on Medium, it is quite possible to get swarmed by the AI five minutes into the game. Seriously, as the Goblins, for instance, by the time I got a single Cave and Mine up and running, with two groups of warriors built, I find myself fighting off six to seven groups of enemies, who are followed by back up.

The second thing with the AI is the unit AI, I watch my warriors getting shot by archers, and yet they wont respond or counter untill i tell them too. While not a major issue, it can be very annoying to know your troops will do NOTHING unless you tell them to. There is also no "Attack-Move" option.

There is no pause button. Therefore you msut issue all oreders in real time, and manage the game without pausing.

Now for a summary,

Graphics- I am quite honestly not sure why this game is so highly rated for graphics. It really dosnt look any better than most other recent RTS games. The unit textures are simply pathetic.

Sound- Music is nice, the voices could be better.

Control- Some options could be better fleshed out, such as the resource gathering as it is very hard to know exactly how much you have coming in, that is, you never actually are told WHAT is coming in, for instance if you build three mines, all you is THERE IS income coming in, but how much is coming in, you are never told.

Bottomline, it can be fun, at times, but I find it a tad too hard and without pause button I am utterly hopeless at this game.

Weak single player game for very high end systems only

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 20
Date: March 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have yet to see this game played smoothly on any box. I have two high end systems that both slow to a crawl a key parts of the game--same with my friends' systems. Maybe if you've got an SLI setup with multicore you'll see good framerates otherwise it's a bigtime jerkfest. The minimum requirements posted on the box are a joke and are bound to lead to people buying this game who simply can't play it. It would really be good to see some game companies called on the carpet for their bogus system requirements. On any other product this would be called bait-and-switch false advertising, but game developers just get a pass.

The single player campaigns, which is why I bought the game, are pretty thin compared to other games of this type. They sure don't hold a candle to any of the Warcraft titles. They are very brief and the actual control options are nowhere as near detailed as games released years ago. I wouldn't bother with this one unless you're an avid online gamer.

The one good thing I gave to say is that the evil campaign's storyline is pretty cool. You get to play out an alternate Lord of the Rings where everything goes very wrong for the good guys. Who hasn't wanted to smack a hobit.

A brief review

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: April 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is quite good. I have the DVD collector's edition, which works perfectly, by the way, so ignore the user's comment below.

Also, regarding the comment below about needing a high-end system or SLI. Umm, no. I have a single 6600GT card, and it runs great. It's not liquid smooth, but it's very fast and there's no choppiness unless I have hundreds of units on the screen. And I have anti-aliasing turned on, too. My system stats: AMD Athlon64 3500+, 2GB RAM, WinXP Pro, MSI GeForce 6600GT 128MB.

The AI is a bit odd. It's very true that "Easy" is easy, and the next level up gets significantly tougher. Enemies started swarming out of nowhere, and I kept wondering how they built up their armies so quickly when I was just getting started!! I hope EA can rebalance the difficulties a bit in future patches. I haven't played online yet, so I can't comment on that, other than that I avoid online play with most people because they'd probably kick my ass :)

Create-a-hero is very cool, it's nice to be able to pick and choose your favorite powers.

Overall, a very entertaining game. If you liked BFME1, then get BFME2.. there are significant improvements in gameplay as well as graphics.

EDIT: I wanted to make a comment about the difficulty level jump from Easy to Medium. I forgot all about the handicap option in skirmish mode. That might be a good way to tone down the difficulty of "Medium".

details on game play lacking

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: February 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I liked the game but if you want to fully understand how to play the game you need to buy the guide for $20.
I'm yet to understand how to use all the things I've unlocked. I'm unable to access that area unless I win a level and only sometimes it shows it. could be unlocking the skirmish modes. I have no idea. The Damn book doesn't say anything about it.

Tips for beginers on the elven faction

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: February 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you are haveing trouble in the game and are just not getting the swing then read this review and it'll give you all the info you need.

Elves: Send a builder and have him build a malorn tree at an area of 100% behind your fortress. Next have the other builder construct a barracks at the side of the fortress. Then train your custom made hero. If you don't have a custom hero to train, train Haldir instead. Now once your barracks is finished train four battalions of Lorien archer and place them were the enemy is most likely to attack from. Keep building malorn trees at as mant 100% areas possible. DO NOT place malorn trees to far from your fortress. When you have enough malorn trees and resources build a forge and ugrade it as soon as possible to level 3 and purchase the silver thorn arrows. Put them on your archers and when you have enough resources train Legolas. This shold give you a strong and sturdy defense. For the counter attack train 8 battalions of Mirkwood archers(note: you must first upgrade your barracks to level 3) and give them the banner carrier upgrade and silver thorn arrows. Make sure you have the ent allies spell when you attack. Use the archers to pick off infantry and other buildings while your ent allies take down the enemy's fortress.

You need a good set of gears to enjoy the game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 14
Date: March 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

My pc:
CPU = P4 3.2MHz
RAM = 1 GB. Upgraded to 3GB.
Graphic Card = ATI XT800
Sound Card = X-Fi

I set the resolution to 1320x1024 with High quality in all the video setting which is same as BFME1. However, the frame rate suffers, below 30fps, when the command points are > 600( a lot of units you can command as well as the opposition usually) and the battles are hitting up(calvary, infantry, monsters, flying dragon, spell casting, etc. all moving and fighting about the same time but in different battle grounds). In addition, the EAX enabled sound makes the game play really immersive. The voices are not too annoy like others but stressful(inform me what enemy is attacking, approaching, etc). The background musics are similar to its predecessor and nicer.

Updated:
I have spent many hrs playing the game and realized that the amount of system RAM is important in both performance and reliability. Initially, my pc had 1GB. The game stalled for a few seconds whenever battle hitting up and even crashed sometime. So I upgraded to 3GB. Then all the problems has disappeared ever since. However, the game never stalled again but it became slow motion whenever I switched my camera to a new battle ground which had been never shown before, such as attacking my enemy base first time.

Overall Fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Overall, I found this game to be highly addicting. However, if you play it for too long you start to get bored with it. I appreciate the new "build anywhere you want to" ability, but the missions are starting to run together. It seems like the same thing every time I skirmish.

I originally favored the Elves but have since moved on to the goblins. Every time I tried to build my city and army, I saw some goblin battalions marching over the nearest hill. This can become incredibly frustrating, especially if you aren't quick to go on the offensive. I usually prefer to build up for a while and then take the enemy all at once, but this game hinders that strategy.

Overall, I gave this game a four out of five because it is so addicting and takes you to so many locations that were not covered in the movies, but the quick aggressiveness of the enemy and the brittleness of almost all of the buildings (they seem to just fall apart with every attack) are both annoying.

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