Frodo, Aragorn and the rest of The Lord of the Rings crew will once again battle Sauron and his minions in Electronic Arts' upcoming action adventure game, The Lord of the Rings: Conquest. Developed by Pandemic, the creators of the successful Star Wars: Battlefront series, Conquest lets you experience all of the epic battles from the films and Tolkien's novels, both as the good guys and through an alternate campaign where evil wins and wrecks havoc across Middle-earth. It's a cool twist on some of our favorite literature and film trilogy, and playing as a murderous Nazgul sounds cool.
Conquest is similar to Battlefront in that you take part in these large skirmishes, except instead of killing enemies with blasters, you stab them with swords and arrows. All of the major heroes are present, including Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas and Gandalf, among others; each possesses unique abilities and brandishes specific weapons. In addition, you have the option of playing as a Warrior, Archer, Mage or Scout, and again, they all come with their own signature attacks and weapons, allowing players to experience the battles in several different ways.
Throughout the course of your hero's journey, you'll attack Sauron's forces across numerous and historic moments, such as Helm's Deep, Isengard and at the Black Gate. Hundreds of orcs and trolls will pour onto the battlefields, as well as Nazgul and the mighty Balrog. There's no blood, and you won't chop off heads and limbs, but the frantic button mashing should leave plenty of bodies in your wake. You'll also get a chance to take down those humongous Oliphaunts from The Return of the King, climbing up their legs and completing a series of Quick Time Events that'll eventually bring you to its head, where you'll vanquish your foe by plunging a blade through its skull.
If the forces of good make you gag, don a black cloak and step into the evil campaign in which Frodo fails to destroy the ring and Sauron remains in power. In fact, your first mission (as the Witch King), is to kill Frodo before he drops it into the fires of Mount Doom. After completing that task, you'll move on to play as the Nazgul, the sweet looking Balrog and Sauron, who takes it upon himself to visit the shire and kill those dirty hobbits.
Complementing the story campaign is a 16-person online multiplayer mode (eight on eight), where both good and evil will fight for control of Middle-earth. EA hasn't shown it yet, but expect things to play out similar to the Battlefront video games. With Capture the Flag, Conquest and Deathmatch, there should be enough to keep you busy.
With access to both the films and the books, it appears that EA and Pandemic are onto something special, though during our playtime, it was clear that the hack and slashing needs tweaking. Although decent, Conquest doesn't control nearly as well as EA's previous The Lord of the Rings games, The Two Towers and Return of the King, respectively. It just lacks that visceral feel of connecting sharp steel with flesh, and we hope the development team continues to evolve the game so that it's just as brutal as its game and the movie predecessors.
That issue notwithstanding, the concept of playing the bad guys intrigues us, and we can't wait to raid the shire and slaughter elves, dwarves and hobbits. The battle for Middle-earth rages on when The Lord of the Rings: Conquest hits Xbox 360 and PS3 this fall.
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