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A true real-time strategy game.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 181 / 189
Date: March 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

(I deduct one "overall" star because the game's launch had a lot of multiplayer tournament problems. Those appear to have been resolved in the recent v1.02 patch which you will download automatically the first time you sign on.)

Gameplay:
BFME2 is what I would call a "true real-time strategy game". In most RTS games (e.g. Starcraft, Age of Empires) you are really playing a "real-time tactical game". You must focus a lot of effort on directing your troops at a micromanagement level, telling them who, exactly, they are supposed to shoot at, one guy at a time.

The BFME series has simplified this by creating "batallions". Instead of building archers 1 at a time, you'll build them 15 at a time and they come out as an organized batallion. You cannot tell your 15 archers to focus fire on 1 enemy unit, you can only tell them to fire on another batallion. The details of how they direct their fire is up to them. The time you aren't spending directing fire can now be spent on executing a bigger plan.

Consequently, BFME2 is one of the very few RTS games that rewards multi-pronged attacks and flanking. Units get a flanking bonus for attacking enemies from behind and the fact that you don't need to babysit every single fight means you can leave one battle to go start up a second front somewhere else and not worry so much about the fight you aren't watching.

BFME2 also introduces a new resource model which greatly rewards map ownership. Rather than fighting over piles of resources and ignoring the other 90% of the map like most RTS games, BFME2 has resource collection spread across the entire map. The more you control, the more money you get. Factions have been completely re-balanced to accomodate this -- in BFME1, the human teams could not match Mordor in an open land war but in BFME2, they can. They need to, if they want any money!

Singleplayer:
BFME2 covers portions of the war that were not covered by the movies. The first mission of the Good Campaign has you fighting off Goblins around Rivendell, for example.

Single player has 4 options:
- Skirmish, the usual you-vs-computer battle mode.
- Good Campaign.
- Evil Campaign.
- War of the Ring. This is a new and improved version of the "living world map" they had in the first game. They fleshed it out and now it's more like a free-form game of LOTR Risk. You and the other players start off in various sections of middle earth and conquer the map any way you choose. Battles can be resolved RTS style or automatically (Civilization style) and this mode also has multiplayer support (one War of the Ring game could take a very long time if you resolve every battle in RTS mode!)

Playable sides:
- Dwarves. Dwarven units tend to be slow but tough. They aren't big on cavalry but their infantry is very good. They gather resources with mines and they can also use these mines for travelling -- enter one mine and pop out at any other mine, anywhere on the map! This gives dwarves a good ability to hold ground once they've taken it.

- Goblins. Similar to dwarves in that they can build mines and use them for travel. Goblins are a "spamarific" species, though, with a lot of large batallions of inexpensive but brittle troops. They do, however, have some very, very fast units and are excellent for hit-and-runs.

- Mordor. Not entirely unlike the Mordor from BFME1, but minus the free troops. Mordor has poor defenses and plays best as a very aggressive team. As Mordor, you need to push your opponet early and keep pushing while you upgrade to better units and work on more resources. Mordor lacks the mobility of the goblins and dwarves and lacks the speed of the elves but they do have a great ability to flood the map with orcs.

- Isengard. Similar to the Isengard from the first game, you rely more on strong infantry with strong upgrades. Similar to Mordor, this is a good team for someone who likes to take a strong offensive. Warg Riders give Isengard some good cavalry but it's usually the Uruks that form the real destructive force of any army.

- Elves. Elves are fast on their feet with especially good archers. They can be played offensively or defensively with pretty good effectiveness. Try to use your fast feet to keep the enemy pinned in while you build up for the kill, or play defensive and work on leveling up some of your powerful archer heroes.

- Men of the West. This team is basically Gondor + Rohan from the original game. Human infantry is pretty strong, especially in shield-wall mode and they can do a good job of soaking up damage while your archers do the real hurting. Humans also have pretty much the best cavalry in the game, making them quite lethal at either hit-and-runs, or for backing up a strong infantry army.

Other new stuff:
This game adds "stances" and some new unit powers. Stances allow all units in the game to decide if they want extra damage at the expense of lower armor, or higher armor at the expense of lower damage, or a balance. Human Swordsmen in the defensive stance with shield wall activated are extremely tough. If an enemy is banging on your buildings and ignoring your units, set your units to aggressive stance and teach them a lesson.

Conclusion:
All of this adds up to become what is, I suggest, possibly the best RTS game ever made and I've played a lot of them.

Just a bit shy of five stars

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 78 / 84
Date: March 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

[updated 04.02.06]: I won't recap the game's features or settings--others have done a fine job of that. As a baseline, here's what I've played so far (after several days): all 20 2-player skirmishes to victory[*], the Good Campaign to victory, the Evil Campaign to victory, and a War of the Ring game to victory. I've also done some on-line playing, and I'm currently working my way through the skirmishes again with the difficulty level set higher.

Here's why BFME-2 got a 4/4 rating (fun/overall) from me:

-- It's easy to pick up. True, I had played through BFME-1, but that was long enough ago, and BFME-2 has changed enough, that it wasn't a given. The built-in tutorials were great, and, yes, since I don't have a lot of free time, I bought the PRIMA game guide.

-- It's addictive. Not quite the electronic crack that Civ4 is, but I've spent far more time playing it during the last several days than I than I thought I would.

-- I know other reviews here have complaints about installation and system compatibility, but for me it's worked fine out of the box + the 1.01 patch on a system that I was never able to get Civ4 completely stable on.

-- I enjoy the music + graphics + voice work + cut scenes. Of course, BFME -2 has the advantage of all the LOTR movie music, art design, etc.

-- The user interface does what it needs to do and otherwise gets out of the way.

-- The difficulty in skirmishes is almost infinitely tweakable, due to the handicap system. For example, my main profile was at level 2 after finishing my first set of skirmishes, but the Medium difficulty level puts your opponent at level 4. No worries: I started out by putting my opponent's handicap at -50% and have lowered it by 5% each time I've won (my profile is now up to level 3, and I'm giving my opponent a handicap of -15%).

-- I can play through a skirmish (or a Campaign mission) on 'Easy' level in 15-30 minutes; maybe an hour, tops.

-- There's a nice balance among the six factions; each feels different, each requires slightly different tactics. I tend to favor the Good factions, but I must confess to having fun with the Evil campaign, especially using Mountain Giants to level most of Fornost.

-- I enjoyed the focus on the War in the North. It's a nice change from the classic LOTR books (and I speak as one who has been reading LOTR for nearly 40 years).

-- Having completed one War of the Ring game, I've found that I like it better than I did at first--mostly because the ability to do "real time" (skirmish) resolution allows me to win battles even when the odds are heavily against me.

Here's why BFME-2 _didn't_ get a 5 in either fun or overall:

-- The skirmish maps are too small. Or, better put, there should be larger maps available in addition to the existing ones. I'd like to see a 4x map (twice as high, twice as wide) so that each side can really establish an infrastructure and then manuever with large armies over large fields. Likewise, a lot of the movement plotting and formation capabilities of the game are largely wasted because space is too cramped and everything moves too quickly to do a whole lot with them.

-- I'd also like to zoom out farther _and_ I'd like to see support for 1280x1024. However, I suspect that these two limitations, as well as the small map sizes, are all for the same reason: system resources. I'm running BFME-2 on a 3.6 GHz P4 with 1GB RAM and a RADEON X600 graphics cards w/256MB of memory--and the game still gets sluggish when too many units are on the screen. I've had a few crashes, but very few compared to the number of hours I've played.

-- EA put all this work into the fortress building aspects of BFME-2, but you seldom get a chance to do much with them--at least, in skirmishes--because conflict starts too soon and either drains your resources in replacing destroyed units/buildings or simply ends before you can do much with your fortress(es). The main exceptions are in campaign missions where the main wave of attack is delayed for some period of time (e.g., Erebor and Rivendell in the Evil campaign).

-- Fortress walls are too easily destroyed and are too hard to repair. It takes most of the fun out of building in those cases when you have the time to do so.

-- Neither the manual nor the PRIMA game guide explains exactly (or even generally) what changes as the different difficulty levels, nor what the numeric level(s) mean for a given profile and how that affects gameplay. For that matter, some of the summary values after skirmishes/missions (e.g., 'tactical rating') are likewise unexplained.

-- In fact, there's a fair amount that the manual never really explains--and it's not the most readable manual in the world, either in content or in presentation.

In sum, I've just had a lot of fun building armies, defending (or conquering) territory, and trying out different tactics, all within a slighly mutated version of Tolkien's world with great music in the background. My complaints with BFME-2 mostly have to do with it been a bit too cramped, fast moving, obscure and self-limiting--though that may just reflect why I don't like real-time strategy (RTS) games quite as much as 4X games such as Civ4.

All said, I consider myself as having gotten my money's worth for having bought BFME-2 ([*]the collector's edition, no less, which is why I had a few more skirmish maps than the regular release) plus the PRIMA game guiide. My enjoyment of (and semi-addiction to) BFME-2 has been a stark contrast to my experience with Star Wars: Empire at War (see my review here on Amazon).

Your mileage may vary. ..bruce..

==================================
A few random tips for those of you just starting out:

-- Your (computer) opponents will rush you, that is, starting sending battalions at you as fast as it can generate them. The best defenses is often a good offense--build up several battalions as fast as you can, chew up the forces that come at you, then send your forces at the enemy's fortress while building replacements.

-- If you are playing a Good faction (Elves, Men, Dwarves), Battle Towers are your friends. A close set of three to five Battle Towers can render a given approach impassible--at least, until your opponent starts bringing up siege engines and/or Mountain Giants. And a few strategically placed Battle Towers back by your barracks/stables can take care of those pesky units that make it past your main forces. I frankly prefer Battle Towers to walls.

-- Geography matters. Look for choke points where you can block enemy advances. On one skirmish map, I found such a narrow choke point much closer to the enemy fortress than to my own. I rushed my first three (Elven) archer battalions into the trees there, then built a 'Mirror of Galadriel' to heal them. The enemy kept trying to send forces through that point, but they all got ground up--not a single enemy unit ever got past, and I never had to replace any of my three archer battalions. In the meantime, I was able to take my time to build up for my own invasion.

-- Technology advances also matter. Elven archers with Silverthorn arrows and Elven armor are incredibly deadly; a few such battalions can take down anything very quickly.

A game that encircles the crest of real-time strategy

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: June 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

There are many issues about this game that needs to be said, speaking both for it as well as in its defense: 1) I have never played a game that hooked me so easily, for so long, like this one has. I don't play videogames very often but when I can, I'd like them to either fill me time wondrously rather than waste it, and playing this game always comes with its own surprises. Granted, I usually play the online mode more than anything else, but the campaign missions have their own merit that needs to be praised. If I were more of an Elven player, perhaps I'd enjoy it more, but alas, I'm not; I'm a man of the West, that's all. Let's get over that and move on. And 2) while this game is one of the greatest, if not the unsurpassed motion, of real-time strategy gaming, I've come to realize of late that it's quite unwise to send in a load of units against another army, because if that were to be done, you'd pretty much be setting yourself up for a world of what the avid gamers refer to as "lag city." Maybe it's just my computer, but that's one of the worst moments in gaming, when you're trying to fight another army and the bloody soldiers are running like it would on Atari. Like I said, that can't really be blamed on EA, as it likely is just my computer, but it's aggravating and many not-so-friendly obscenities have been uttered profusely because of it.

Moving on, I want to comment on the music. I think it was a great idea on their [EA] part for having the soundtrack to the game be almost exactly to the game (I say almost because there are a few moments where the team issues their own music, but hardly any at all when you boil it down). It was done greatly because for ones who really desire to be amidst the aspects of the movie (e.g., the Helms Deep scene, the Pelennor Fields scene or the Black Gate and so forth) can do so while still appreciate the phenomenal works of Howard Shore (secretly Peter Jackson, if you ask me, but that's another story). For me, there's nothing superior to having a row of Rohirrim trampling down thrice as many Uruk-hai while the Rohan theme is playing to the scene. It just adds to the enjoyment and I'm glad they kept the original soundtracks to all three movies rather than conjuring up their own work, which quite undoubtedly would have been terrible. So thank you, EA.

I suppose now is a good time to tell all those who are unfamiliar with this game about the bloody formation maneuvers. Keep in mind, I was thrilled to see that you can assign your units to form however you please, and even more thrilled that when you highlight more than one, it automatically sorts the units for you, from soldiers to archers, without you having to deal with more of a headache . . . but . . . what they seemingly forgot to do was figure out a way to make the aforementioned units . . . STICK TO BLOODY FORMATION! You order them to do one act, and they go and pretty much do the opposite; you send them to one area on the map and they'll go, but more often than not they're get something malfunctioning and end up unorganized or the other way around, or ofttimes even both. So, just keep an eye on them. I suggest when it's vital to keep your units in place, select the battle formation to be on "Hold Ground Stance," and they'll stay where you put them no matter what; the only downside to this suggestion is they won't always auto-acquire enemies. The information listed before you select this choice entails that they're not supposed to auto-acquire, but half the time I've seen them near the enemy, I haven't had to assign them to attack at all . . . they just magically started attacking on their own. And I like that. Not only does it show initiative, but it fills me with the hope that not all my soldiers are half-witted buffoons.

Let's see, what else? Ah, Worldbuilder. This is a program that allows you to build your own maps for such gameplay as skirmishing and online mode, where you play against pretty much every other gamer who has it and is presently online. Upon first starting to create your own map, you might feel overwhelmed, in which case you might want to find one or two tutorials to help you, because once you figure out how to build your own maps, I promise you'll be hooked . . . or at least I was. I'd give you a link or two to some great tutorials, but I'm unaware of Amazon's policies, so I don't want to break the rules and have this review deleted, so sorry; you're on your own. Try googling it.

Campaigning: the missions are fun but ultimately dissatisfying for me. Primary reasons include not being an Elf man too much. Sure, I enjoy fighting with them and occasionally, through very rarely, I'll even decide to fight as one, but when it's all said and done, I prefer the Men of the West. The Rohirrim and Éomer and Aragorn, it's just me. Regardless, that's what the Good campaign is mostly about: the Elves defending their own territory against the sides of evil. The great thing is Glorfindel, who admirers of the books might recognize as the graceful character truly responsible for rescuing Frodo from the Nazgûl, as well as play a considerable part in the "council of Elrond." Even though he, along with Legolas and Elrond himself, is one of my favorite of the Elves, I couldn't bring myself to completely enjoy the Good campaigns because I never fully got into `em; in fact, I don't even think they were finished.
The Evil campaigns, however, were a delight. Along with pretty much annihilating the side of good, I get to use the Goblins, who I've never been while online, were awesome because they could climb walls. It's just great fun doing that, and it'll never get old. Apart from that, even the Evil side wasn't as enjoyable for campaigning. I thought EA could have done a better job with them but oh, well. I never enjoyed the Evil side too much, anyway, because I felt as though I was betraying all that I love. Call me a "geek," so what? I am; sue me . . . I'M ENJOYING THE GAMES! And I love Tolkien's work, so get over it.

Finally, let's discuss the Hero mode, where you can create and use your own heroes in anything but the campaigns. The tools they allow you to use to create the hero are useful, but ultimately even they weren't as they could be. The powers were marvelous, but limited, and the attire (swords, shields, helmets, etc.) was rather slim. I understand they couldn't have a load of features, but surely they could have had more than just a few items for each selection. Not everyone wishes to look either like Aragorn or Boromir, when they create their own "hero of Gondor," so next time - if there is a next time - show us a little more thought, hm? Other than that, the mode is great. You can send your own hero against the powers of either good or evil, and almost every time - so long as you're a decent battle practitioner - you can destroy the opposing forces into dust (not literally).

Yes, I suppose that's it. For the record, apart from a few minor defects, I have enjoyed this game and would very much like a third, but speaking solely for campaigning, I don't think EA really has much left, unless they choose to re-enact scenes from the movie this time, and not partly from the book. In either case, the game is amazing. Whether you're a fan of RTS gaming or The Lord of the Rings, or even both, I think you should give it a chance because "The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II" is a game that encircles the crest of real-time strategy.

Not great, but very good

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: April 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As a big fan of real-time strategy (RTS) games, I found this game to be a bit more than the average base-building, resource-collecting fare. To be sure, there is a lot of this kind of activity required in the game, but it is presented in a way that does not seem bland or too conventional. The game does not break a lot of new ground for the genre like, say, Dawn of War or Rise of Nations, but it does offer an interesting spin.

Gameplay: There are a few options here that should keep most players preoccupied for a while. First, there is the campaign mode that allows for play as either the good or evil side. Each of the campaigns have eight scenarios which for the most part are your standard base-building, land-conquering variety. Overall, the missions are well done and are a great introduction to the other gameplay options. Another gameplay mode is the War of the Ring. This is a mix of turn-based and real-time gaming in which factions try to take over a map of Middle Earth by moving armies around. It is a very well-done gaming mode that should allow for a lot of replayability. Thirdly, there is a skirmish mode as well as online play. The game comes with several maps, but unfortunately there is an overabundance of 2-player maps and a shortage of larger maps (only one 8-player map).

Each of the six playable races (men, elves, dwarves, Mordor, Isengard, and goblins) feels unique enough to offer a range of gameplay options. Each has several units, many upgrades, unique powers, various heroes, and other perks. Also, the game ships with a "create-a-hero" template that allows you to create your own in-game hero. This options, while a good idea, is rather limited in regard to the appearance of your hero. Heroes are better implemented in this game than in other RTS games (like Warcraft 3) and can level up without having to hunt down "creeps" or perform other distracting tasks. I assume that a future patch will adjust some of the heroes so that they are better balanced against each other.

The gameplay itself is very frenetic and engaging, and on medium and higher difficulties, the fighting starts early. The game's AI is generally good and will make it a point to destroy your buildings at every opportunity, along with your units. Occasionally, I've witnessed a few lapses with the AI, such as cases in which enemy units were not immediately noticed and attacked. Otherwise, the AI holds its own in most fights. I've only noticed a few flaws in the game, but they are worth commenting upon. First, buildings and walls are far too weak and easily destroyed. Since games are won or lost based on your resource and unit output, it's a shame that a few infantry units can destroy an upgraded fortress in seconds. Of course, lesser structures like farms go down even quicker. Also, the game is not really geared toward epic siege warfare, which was one of the great things about the movies. Walls are not only weak but they are far to expensive to be practical and are difficult (perhaps impossible?) to repair. Additionally, the resource model encourages you to spread your farms apart for maximum benefit, so there is little possibility of having a compact, well-fortified, walled-in base. A patch could correct much of this (such as the strength and cost of buildings and walls), which would allow for more strategic and tactical possibilities such as siege warfare (requiring actual siege weapons) and turtling. There is naval warfare in the game, which is generally done well. However, very few maps allow it.

Graphics: This is a great-looking game. Lots of attention to detail in the environment as well as in the models. Unit animations, explosions, magical effects, weather, and other visuals are very convincing. The cutscenes for the campaigns are based on the game models and some wonderful paintings. The animations are not quite as dramatic and visceral as those of Dawn of War, but they are nonetheless quite good. And there are a lot of them. It never gets old seeing Tom Bombadil punching foes in the face or summoning the terrible wrath of a Balrog. Even common occurrences, such as Roharrim cavalry mowing down infantry, are always good for a smile. The game does require a decent computer to get the most out of the visuals. I have a mid-range machine (P4 3.0ghz, 1GB of RAM, Geforce 6600GT) and still get a bit of lag when there are a lot of units fighting on screen. However, EA went the extra mile on graphics, and it really paid off.

Sound: Everything is in order in this department. There are a lot of spoken sound-bites for each of the races, along with appropriate sounds for monsters, weapons, building construction, explosions, magical effects, and so on. The epic music from the movies plays in the background to set the atmosphere. All of the auditory elements of the game serve their purpose well.

Replayability/Technical Issues: The game should have a decent shelf life for RTS gamers, assuming that EA supports it with patches and an occasional bonus map. A map editor is available for download at the official website (www.bfme2.ea.com). The manual that comes with the game is decent, but the in-game tutorials are better. The game has been pretty stable for me with no installation issues. It did crash twice between turns in the War of the Ring mode. However, this was no big deal since I had been playing for several hours and had recently saved the game.

Overall, if you like RTS games, this is a good purchase.

Rating: 4.25 stars

Will not run

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 19 / 32
Date: March 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Bought two copies for two different computers. We get a game.dat error on both of them. Have appropriate drivers and everything that is needed. Check out the EAForum and see how many others have had this problem. Save your money until they get this problem fixed.

To War!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 14
Date: March 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm a big Lord of the Rings fan and let me just say up front that I did not buy the first game mainly because I am skeptical about any game that is based off a movie/book because 9 times out of 10 it ends up being a waste of time and money.

This is one of those 1 times of 10. The developers did a great job giving the player control over Middle-Earth Armies. The game plays in Skirmish mode, Two Campaigns or War of the Ring Mode. War of the Ring mode was the most satisfying and will give you the most replay value.

The Campaigns were highly entertaining as well as the movies and story mainly because it dealt with the lands in the North during the War of the Ring. A lot of this was taken from Tolkien's unfinished tales and the appendixes of Lord of the Rings. Some creative license was used as in the movies but for the most part it followed Tolkien writings. Galadriel really did knock down the walls of Don Morguth with her voice and Glorfindel was a key figure in the fighting. He is a lot more powerful in the books and somewhat wimpy in the game, however. He is one of the few people that killed a Balrog solo (Thus his honorific title of BalrogSlayer). Shelob was taken out of the pass into Mordor and placed as a General for the Goblin Armies when in fact she wanted nothing to do with anyone. The rest of the spiders actually fled from her because she was always eating them. That is mostly nit-picking on specific points but overall it brings you back into Middle-Earth and more entertainment, but focused on the North Lands.

All the maps were very well done and depicted pretty accurately the different locations and even giving some vision to places only mentioned briefly in Tolkien's works like the Iron Hills, Grey Haven, etc. One thing I really liked about the maps is they were big, allowing manuevering and flanking against enemy forces and putting strategy into the mix. Having just finished playing Star Wars: Empire at War where the maps were extremly cramped this was a nice change of pace.

There are six factions to play; Elves, Dwarves, Men, Isengard, Goblins and Mordor. As said previously, the War of the Ring mode is probably the best part of this game which is more akin to Medeival: Total War controlling territories and building structures to conquer the map. However, one thing I think could have been improved is...well, like say two armies face each other. One is Mordor with Two Orc Battalions and the other is Men with Two Gondor Soldier Battalions. Once the game is fought in real-time you play on the map and start with two builders to get up your fortresses and can recruit additional men. So you could build a vast nest of farms, barracks, archery ranges and towers with 10 battalions of calvary, foot soldiers etc..and if you win it shoots you out to the campaign map where you are left with only two gondor battalions. I would have liked if what you placed on the map remained there and more freedom to move your men around ala Rome: Total War style. Perhaps there will be a third game, who knows!

Another engrossing point in the game is the sound. Oh wow the sound! All the sounds from the heroes and monsters are in here and there is nothing more cool than recruiting 10 Attack Trolls as Mordor and unleashing them. They roar and toss people left and right. The Felbeasts (The winged monsters that the Ring Wraiths rode in the movies) are particularly cool as they can swoop in and pickup men tossing them all over the place and yes...making all the sounds from the movies.

The graphics are superb. One of the more memorable moments is the cutscene movies between the campaigns and the good/evil megahero in the War of the Ring mode. For example, Gollum will periodically show up sometimes in battle and if you kill him then the ring is yours. You bring the one ring back to your fortress and if you spend a staggering 10000 resources you can summon either Sauron or Galadriel. The first time I summoned Sauron he was very slow and I said to myself, "Ugh he sucks." Then he encountered a battalion of Gondor Foot Soldiers. He slowly swung is weapon and WEEEEEE! They went flying so high in the map it looked like they were going to pop out of the monitor and hit me in the face! I'm pretty sure I actually squealed like a lil girl.

Overall this game is worth your money to buy especially if you are a LOTR fan.

Great game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: January 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have played a lot of strategy games and this one certainly ranks among the top few. Creating Heroes and War of the Ring are two elements that don't arise is many other strategy games and certainly enhance the fun of the game. Campaigns are well-designed and follow good plotlines. Skirmish-style games are also a lot of fun.

Great game = heavy sys reqs

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: April 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The game is an awesome game except for a very few quirks. Firsly, my system is as follows: AMD 64 3500+, 2GB DDR RAM, SATAII WD HDD, 7800GTX and i play @1600x1200 on an LCD so i need the games to be playable at this native reso.

The problem is if you crank up the command unit factor more than the default, the map quikcly gets flooded with troops, this seriously Slows things to a crawl (kinda helpful in micro managing battles but seriously annoying otherwise). I don;t think it's due to graphics coz i reduced the resolution and i had the same problems, the issue is CPU bound. Again, don't get me wrong, in the default settings of skirmishes i have no slow down, this happens only when u have way more than 1000 command points and your playing on large a$$ maps.

I seriously wonder what kinda system is needed to play the game smoothly with so many units? maybe an AMD 64FX? Anywasy the game is awesome, i always play against the comp in Brutal difficulty, or else the AI is not too challenging. However, i know a lot of people who beg to differ.

The AI is overall pretty good at one thign - Rushing you, they simply intend to win on the sole concept of rushing rushing and rushing. I have held Morodor, Goblins and Isengard all at Brutal difficulty at bay for over 3 hours on the maps of Helm's Deep and in Gondor ultimately beating each faction one by one with a unit kill to death ratio of 300 something (i only lost 20 units). This seriously proves that the AI needs a lot of work, they kept coming like lamb to the slaughter towards the gates where ive placed my upgraded Ranger batalions picking them off so easily. After ive place around 7-8 ranger batalions on the walls, nothing even came close to touching the gates. I had breakfast, cofee and took a bathroom break all the time while the game was going on.. it was sad ha ha

Very good, but it could have been more convincing.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: March 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is a worthy waste of money, as games go. Its graphics are extremely good, and the gameplay is easy to learn. It has very numerous steps from beginner to hard-core gamer, being the capacity for easy armies to "brutal" armies, with handicaps of 5% between 0 to 95. In all respects, the game is the best RTS I've ever played, and is a step up from the first, in difficulty and in presentation. My only problem with the game is the amount of errors that would cause Tolkein to roll in his grave- Glorfindel, the slayer of Balrogs and the precedent for the five Istari... reduced to THAT? It doesn't quite ring true to me, but for casual fans, it's an extremely fun game. Just don't expect to become knowledgeable about Lord of the Rings off of it.

unbelievable!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 26
Date: March 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is the first day the game is available, and already there are problems! There's a patch waiting for you to download because the game doesn't load properly for many of us without the "proper" video card(?) EA does mention BFME II doesn't work with NVIDIA GeForce 4, but apparently that card is NOT the only one! I too am getting the game.dat error message and booted off. The patch did NOT fix the problem for me. The game still doesn't work. EA also says you must turn off your antivirus and firewall programs in order to run the game. I don't know about you, but being on cable, I don't do ANYTHING without those two running. Why EA thought it would be alright to demand we make our computers targets if we play BFME II I haven't a clue...but they did. So far I'd have to say this game is a disaster! IF you have NVIDIA GeForce 7, the manual says you should enjoy the graphics. I guess for the rest of us, we'll never know!!! I changed my graphics card from the Intel one that came with the computer to a NVIDIA 5200 I've had for over a year and it will run, but locks up after about an hour. Good luck!!! Actually, the manual does offer a suggestion. We're supposed to open the task manager and stop everything except explorer.exe and taskmgr.exe and any system/local service/network service processes. Okay, so the developers knew there was a problem, but thought just turning EVERYTHING OFF would do the trick. Amazing. For more fun, go to EA's website and look at the number of folks complaining about this!!!

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