The “Break it Down” Blog

A multiplayer demo for  Lord of the Rings: Conquest released on Xbox Live today.  I spent the better part of the morning playing it and I’m surprised with how much I enjoyed it. The game’s style is very much like Star Wars: Battlefront but set in Middle Earth.  The demo has a tutorial to teach you how to play and then there are two maps available for the Conquest game mode. I thought the tutorial moved at a good pace, but explained everything pretty thoroughly.  I had no trouble jumping into a match right after the tutorial and getting my share of kills.

The Conquest game mode’s objective is to capture flags on the map and hold them.  The more your team holds the more points you get.  The first team to 1000 points wins. The two maps available in the demo were really quite different.  One is set in a farming village.  It is pretty open and seemed smaller than the second map. The second map is set inside a castle type structure with much more confined areas and lots of small hallways leading to other areas of the map.  Despite how different the maps are I enjoyed them both once I started to learn my way around.

There are 4 playable classes for both the good and evil teams.  They are the Warrior, Archer, Scout, and Mage.  In addition to these classes there are Trolls/Ents on the map that can be controlled, horses to ride, and Heroes and Villains that can be temporarily unlocked.  Despite there being limited Trolls, Ents, Heroes, and Villains I never felt like I was really overpowered when I faced one of them. Even though they are more powerful the all have weaknesses that can be exploited to kill them despite their more powerful attacks.

The Warriors main weapon is a sword which does a lot of damage but requires close combat to be used.  The Archer has a long range with a bow, but it relatively weak in close quarters.  The Scout has very little health and weaker attacks, but can go invisible to sneak behind enemies and stab them in the back for a one hit kill.  The Mage has a staff that does a decent amount of damaged when used as a weapon, but can also charge up and throw lighting from a distance.  Each class also has power attacks that use energy to wield. Energy is gained by killing enemies. I found all of the classes to be pretty well balanced.  I never felt like one of the classes was really overpowering the match and that I could use any class effectively if I played to their strengths.

Graphically the game is ok.  Not the best looking game out but not terrible.  The music and sound effects were pretty good, but I may be biased since I like the Lord of the Rings soundtracks. The one thing I did find really annoying was that before I could play online I had to sign in not only to Xbox Live but to EA’s Server as well.  I already have a EA Account so that was not a big deal, but it was annoying that the extra step is even required.

After playing a few matches I quickly found that the teams that work together have a clear advantage.  Getting a team’s Archers in position to cover your soldiers and mages while your scouts sneak around behind enemies is very effective.  LotR:  Conquest is definitely a game that requires teamwork to win. I don’t think that LotR: Conquest will be for everyone, but for people who like team based shooters this one looks to be pretty fun.  Personally, I’m really looking forward to playing the full game’s single player campaing and trying out all of themultiplayer modes.