Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2

Recently, this game has been the only game I've been playing. I even bought Starwars: Empire at War the same day I bought Lotr, but I have only played Starwars for like 5 minutes. This game to me is unique and very fun, I've got tired of all those other RTS i guess and this just brought me something special. I think the reason I find this game so entertaining is because its unpredictable, it's not like a standard RTS, you can have a 300 archer battle vs 4 trolls, and if you use the trolls correctly you can win. In a standard RTS you could use 300 sword man to destroy a tank with ease!

I will write up a short review for this

Gameplay:
The game play takes the same elements from a standard RTS but it is a little different. In this game you build objects that generate gold for you (which is the ONLY resource in the game) depending where you put the building that generates the gold, it will determine how much gold that makes per every few seconds. The more opened-location the place is where you place the gold generator, the more gold it'll generate. Gold is the only resource in this game, so you basically need this to build everything and anything you need including abilities, to units. There are also special units in this game called Heroes. This game has a built-in feature that even allows you to build and customize your own Hero! Basically, every time you summon a hero they are on level 1. Heroes are way stronger then the average unit and have special abilities. If you build a hero you attach the special abilities you want it to have during battle, and when you kill enemy units you gain exp and levels. Some skills require you to be a certain level (like level 5 to use whirlwind for ex) and you can get your hero to be that certain level by killing enemy structures, units, NPC lairs, etc. Now when you think of levels, you think of MMORPG's, but it isn't time consuming level gaining, just fight a few monsters and you'll soon see your off to your way to level 10 (the highest level in the game). Now if your hero dies, you can resummon it, and it'll still be on the last level you left off. Unit groups have levels to, but it doesn't do anything significant besides making them "stronger". By unit groups I mean each unit group you make have their own separate level (all starting at level 1) it's not shared. Also when you fight you get ability points, in which when you have enough AP you can choose a bunch of abilities you want to from a tree-diagram. I think I covered up the game play pretty well

Sound:
The sounds in this game are terrific, including the roars from the trolls, do the squeal of an elven bird. I also like the music.

Online Play:
In online-play you can have up to 8 player games. There is also a map editor which you can create your own scenarios. The online play is a little choppy, but I hope EA fixes that in the future (and they did start working on it). I use to have a lot of out-of-synch problems (and it was an EA problem, everyone had it) where in the middle of the game it'll say out-of-synch and just end. EA almost eliminated this problem, as I don't receive this message very often anymore. There was also a problem where the game would just crash when you were in the lobby, and I think they fixed that to. Regular matches are like what any standard RTS would offer, you build units to try to destroy your enemies. EA also has a ladder mode in the system where you can auto-play levels similar in your skill-level, and if you win you raise your skill. This is the online play in short.

Conclusion:
I never played the original Battle for Middle Earth so I really can't compare it to this game. When I was about to buy this game I was skeptical because I had no past knowledge of Lord of the Rings, never read the books, only saw the 1st movie (before I feel asleep in the middle of it), etc. This doesn't take the fun out of the game! I don't know anything about Lord of the Rings and this game allows you to have a great time playing it (at a equal level) without knowing anything about the game. When I say equal level, I mean like only uber crazy fans would know Gandalf would have the WizardOWand super power omega, this game eliminates the fan knowledge and makes it an enjoyable game for everyone!