Reviews// Lord of the Rings: Conquest

Graphically, it's fine. Conquest sticks close to the art style of the films and does an adequate job of capturing it. It falls down a little, however, when you come across glitches such as floating characters. They're not fatal errors, but they niggle.

Another niggle is the scale of the battles. You know they're epic – Peter Jackson showed you so. They just don't feel that epic. You feel like you're in a bit of a skirmish and there's never the volume of enemies on-screen that would make you feel like you're in a pitched, frenetic and frightening battle. I don't know how Pandemic could have got more enemies on screen without making playing the game nigh-impossible, but... I don't get paid to make videogames.

I've been pretty down on the whole thing so far, haven't I? Despite the faults – and there are many – there's fun to be had here. There's nothing wrong with a bit of button-mashing from time to time, and doing it in Middle Earth is good fun. There's enough variation to keep things interesting, if not to bowl you over.

It's also pretty enjoyable playing through the campaign in split screen mode. The different character classes start to come into their own a bit more, and it's useful to have a mage or archer to take potshots at a troll while another players stops them from being hacked down by grunts.

Aside from the campaign mode, there are four other multi-player modes to choose from – conquest (take and hold an area), capture the ring(/flag), team deathmatch and hero deathmatch (team deathmatch with heroes!) Once again, there's a bit more to be said for the classes in these modes, with tactics coming into play a bit more than when you're getting stuck in with your dumb-ass AI pals. (Which just goes to show it's better to be friends with people than with computer programs!) The hero deathmatch mode, though, does feel a bit weird. How many Frodos can you have running around before it becomes too camp?



Conclusion
For all its flaws (and there are a good few) there's fun to be had with Lord of the Rings: Conquest. It's not the kind of fun that will leave your life feeling enriched and warm – it's the kind of fun that might just stop you from gazing at your naval for long, lonely evenings as you contemplate the End of the World. If you're a big Lord of the Rings fan, get it. If you're a rich bastard who bought and completed every game of note that came out in the run up to Christmas and have more money that you want – nay, need – to fritter away on games, get it. Otherwise, spend your money on tools, or something that can be traded in the new agro-sexual bartering system that will emerge following the pending apocalypse.
SPOnG Score: 69%

(PS: Check back shortly for more on online multi-player.)