Pandemic, the team behind the popular Star Wars Battlefront games, is back with The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, which hits stores this week for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Before running through Middle-earth for the final review, we went hands-on with a new demo for the game, now available for download on all formats.
There's only one single-player mission in the demo, the Training mission. Here, you learn the tactics of battle with four separate characters: the warrior, the mage, the archer and the scout. Each one has unique abilities that prove useful in combat. The scout, for example, has a cloaking ability. He sneaks up behind powerful enemies and takes them out with one quick stab. Each character also has up-close and distant attacks, though some are better than others. The archer has weak ranged moves, but behind a bow, he easily snipes Orcs with arrows.
Conquest also gives you the option of working with the dark lord Sauron. Orc soldiers prove to be just as useful as human ones in multiplayer combat, supported through Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. Up to 16 players can annihilate each other in capture the flag, team deathmatch and hero deathmatch, all of which appear in the Battlefront games. Single-player campaign modes are also available, both good and evil. The War of the Ring lets you fight with elves, hobbits and dwarves; while The Rise of Sauron lets you harness the evil one's evil power.
Thus far, Pandemic has captured the look of the Peter Jackson film trilogy, with plenty of locales from Middle-earth and impressive character design. Conquest's audio is equally impressive, with music ripped straight from the films and sword-clanging battle effects. That said, the voice work grows repetitive. We were constantly reminded how tough Sauron was during our battle with him. At least Hugo Weaving, the actor who portray the dark lord in the movies, does a great job narrating.
Gameplay is similar to the Battlefront games. If you somehow end up dead in the heat of battle, you return to it by selecting a new soldier (from the four available) and picking up where you left off. Each warrior handles well, thanks to the game's refined controls. Familiar characters from The Lord of the Rings lexicon also show up, including Gandalf, Aragorn and Legalos.
Since Star Wars: Battlefront III is MIA, Lord of the Rings: Conquest will have to do. Fortunately, Pandemic and Electronic Arts took what worked with the Star Wars games and applied it to this enjoyable fantasy adventure. We'll post a review as soon we get our Hobbit mitts on it.
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