Review of Lord of The Rings Conquest Video Game (PS3)

I was very excited when the new LOTR Conquest game came out. After playing The Two Towers and The Return Of The King, I was hoping that this would live up to its LOTR Franchise name as its predecessors did. Sadly, this was a disappointing effort by the renowned Electronic Arts who has produced much better games such as Need For Speed and could have been better with some improvements.

Im sure you would have watched the LOTR movies and have wanted to be a part of those adrenaline-pumping battles. Well, now you have a chance to do so. You play as a common  foot soldier, a warrior, archer, scout or mage, and wage a number of battles against the armies of evil and later on, the armies of good. The classes are actually quite well balanced out, allowing fair combat between them. A warrior would be able to kill a weak archer at close range, but does not stand a chance  far away. These battles would then lead to what gamers refer to as”button mashing”, where players just hit buttons on their controllers and hope for the best. This would frequently happen in online games. There are also times when you can ride a mount and just smash your way through the enemy lines, sword swinging. Controlling Giants such as Trolls and Ents can be fun, but can be defeated easily with a single Quicktime Event, which makes them lose their intimidating effect in battles. There will also be chances to play as your favourite  heroes, such as Aragorn and Legolas, but you will find their moves quite similar to the  base classes, except that they are more powerful. Therefore, there is not much in using the heroes, except when you want the game to end faster.

The graphics are quite mediocre for a PS3 system and there are constant lags and freezing. This happens, as i observed, in certain parts of the game and not at random. This can be quite frustrating at times when you try to fight an enemy. The sound, relievingly, is quite good, blaring your favourite Lord of The Rings themes throughout the game and this adds to the mood during battles. On the other hand, the commentator can be very irritating at times, telling the payer things that are obvious and keeps repeating the same lines over and over again, such as “You have turned the tide of the battle…”after you execute a move that might not even hit anything at all. You might have fun with the game the first few times, but you will find that it does not really have any depth to it after constant playing. I would recommend it as a rental just to finish the the campaign, which takes just around a few hours, and the achievements. Even if you are a true LOTR fan, you should still to try this game out before purchasing it.

Score: 2.5/5