If you're one of the people who was entranced by the world of Middle Earth, inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's epic story and brought to life by Peter Jackson's movies, then prepare to experience the story in a whole different way. The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth is a real-time strategy game that incorporates characters and elements found in the story in a setting that is easily recognizable to anyone who has seen the movies. Except, this game has a few twists of its own. Imagine that Gandalf did not die in his confrontation with the Balrog, but instead, kicked its butt and continued walking with the rest of the Fellowship. Boromir does not betray his comrades nor does he perish in a battle against the menacing Urikai. Instead, he lives to defend the Orcs from the walls of Helm's Deep. This real-time strategy game take a lot of creative control over the Lord of the Rings license, and does very well with it. This is a Middle Earth that you'll recognize right away, and a story that the player can actively shape.

The Battle for Middle Earth's campaign spans the entire trilogy, and players will get to choose whether they want to play as the forces of Light and combat Sauron, or be evil and churn out hordes of orcs to ravage the lands. The stunning visuals make themselves immediately apparent with the "living" world map that includes flying birds and a lush green world. The players will then select which territories they wish to play in, each offering different bonuses if won. Or else they will be automatically assigned a mission that moves the story along, like moving through the mines of Moria, and will be given a handful of units to survive with.

After selecting a territory to play in, the map zooms in and the real-time strategy element kicks in. The Battle for Middle Earth plays out in a unique fashion in that players can only build on specific locations. Circular areas, marked by ruin symbols, represent areas where towns can be built. Each area can only support a limited number of buildings, marked by the same ruin symbols, so players are forced to think strategically when taking areas and fortifying them. Units are produced in squads and are very well balanced. They also capture the look and feel of the story's creatures very nicely. The good side will have access to units like the Riders of Rohan, while the evil side will be able to produce a ton of orcish forces at a fast rate. They all gain experience from battle and will carry from mission to mission, making it important to keep track of which battalions are your most important and making sure they survive.

Heroes, including the whole Fellowship, will be available for players to command. As they progress, they will level up and gain new abilities. Gandalf, for example, will gain the ability to call down lightning on groups of opponents, while Legolas will eventually be able to shoot down multiple enemies with one shot. None of the heroes have abilities that make them far too powerful, so they act more as compliments to the main forces than armies onto themselves. Their portraits are shown at the bottom of the screen for easy access, and this method generally works when you don't have too many people to manage. It's when things get incredibly hectic, like managing a couple different battalions while keeping orcs from climbing the walls of Helm's Deep, that it becomes very easy to lose track of what your heroes are doing. The bright side is that, other than losing a powerful unit for the mission, there is no penalty for a hero dying. The game will continue without even recognizing that a pivotal character has perished. However, some heroes like Aragorn will reappear in future battles even if he perishes so that the story may continue as it should.

One of the most interesting features to be incorporated are the ring powers. The elf ring Evenstar and the One Ring offer their powers up to the player and greatly shift the tides of battle. Each battle will earn the player points which can be used to purchase powers. Some will be passive, like turning ordinary Gandalf to Gandalf the White. Others include mass healing or creating a forest to slow down the enemy. The most powerful abilities, like the Army of the Dead, require numerous prerequisites and a lot of points, but the payoff is more than worth it.

Probably one of the biggest problems with Battle for Middle Earth is the way the missions play out. On large, more complex maps, winning can be as much a matter of patience as it is actual strategy. Of course, small towns and outposts need to be built, and farms have to be taken or built to produce income, but the computer A.I. is often very predictable. It won't take long for players to figure out which paths the computer likes to take and fortify those positions. The computer will never adapt, and will instead, continually send forces through those areas. This quickly gives the defending units experience, boosting their effectiveness, and the cycle continues. Eventually, through this method, players will amass enough funds to take more outposts and push their territorial range even further. If the player leaves some forces just outside the computer's town, the computer will continually send forces straight to them to deal with the situation without trying to amass an appropriate number first. This isn't so bad when things first start out, but it can become tedious when you figure the game spans the entire Lord of the Rings storyline... and it's a pretty long story! Both the good and evil campaigns are very lengthy, ranging from 20 to 30 missions (most RTS games generally have about 12), so players should put some time aside if they expect to play all the way through.

The Battle for Middle Earth is a gorgeous game with fantastic visuals, music, voice acting, and sound effects. This is a game that is a good real-time strategy game on its own, and does great justice to the franchise it's based on. The repetitiveness of how many of the missions play out can be easily overlooked, and are generally broken up enough by pivotal story missions that it can be forgiven. Fans of the story, the movies, and RTS games owe it to themselves to give this game a try.