| The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | EA Los Angeles |
| Publisher(s) | EA Games |
| Director(s) | Chris Corry Bing Gordon(creative) |
| Designer(s) | Dustin Browder |
| Artist(s) | Matt J. Britton |
| Composer(s) | Bill Brown Jamie Christopherson |
| Engine | SAGE |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single-player,multiplayer |
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth is a 2004real-time strategyvideo game developed byEA Los Angeles forMicrosoft Windows. The first part of the Middle-earth strategy game, It is based onPeter Jackson'sThe Lord of the Rings film trilogy, in turn based onJ. R. R. Tolkien'soriginal novel. The game uses short video clips from the movies and a number of the voice actors, including thehobbits andwizards. It uses theSAGE engine. The sequel,The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, was released on March 2, 2006.
The officialgame servers forThe Battle for Middle-earth were permanently closed on December 31, 2010 by EA Games, due to the expiration ofThe Lord of the Rings video game license,[3] however the players can still play it online using unofficial game servers.
The Battle for Middle-earth is areal-time strategy game. Warring factions gather resources, then use them to construct military bases and armies on-site. InThe Battle for Middle-earth, buildings may only be constructed on the building slots of predefined plots. Plots range from farmhouses to full-fledged castles, with different slot arrangements and available buildings, and plots can be purchased when they're in the sole presence of a side's forces. The only resource are the nebulous "resources," which are produced inexhaustibly in dedicated buildings. Four factions on two sides wage theWar of the Ring: Representing the Free Peoples are the horse-lords ofRohan, andGondor with its forges and battlements. The Forces of Darkness are the fightingUruk-hai ofIsengard, andMordor'sorc hordes, bolstered byHaradrim,Mûmakil, andTrolls.
Keeping with the trends of contemporary RTS titles, basic units operate in groups, significant characters are represented by "hero units", and the destruction of units gathers points for the purchase of special abilities. There is also a unit limit. Unit strengths and weaknesses form a sort ofrock-paper-scissors system. Cavalry beats archers as they do not have a lot of time to shoot and are then forced to close quarters fighting, Pikemen beat cavalry, swordsmen beat pikemen and archers beat swordsmen. Fire beatsEnts, Mûmakil, and Trolls. Units gainexperience and levels, becoming hardier and more dangerous. Squads replace lost members when rank 2 or higher without losing experience.
Most normal units have purchasable upgrades and may also have abilities such as changing formation, changing weapons, combining with other squad types, Ranger stealth and orccannibalism. Heroes are unique, far more potent units (and Hobbits andGollum) that lack upgrades but do have multiple, elaborate abilities, and can be purchased back if killed. Most hero abilities require certain experience levels. Good has the advantage in the quantity and quality of heroes;Gandalf at the peak of his strength is an anti-army device. Buildings also gain experience and may become able to build new units, research new upgrades, or bestow better passive bonuses such as a reduction in cavalry build costs.
The player's special powers are purchased from a smalltree. They can be utilitarian (Vision of thePalantír, reveals an area), supportive (Healing), or able to call in temporary units (SummonEagles,SummonBalrog). They are usable indefinitely once acquired, with recharge times but no cost. Both factions on a side share the same powers, and the tree is much larger (and slower to climb) in campaign mode than it is in skirmishes. Good has some powers that boost the ability of a single hero (Power of theIstari,Andúril). Evil receives aid in resource harvesting (Industry, Fuel the Fires).
The Heroes for Gondor arePippin,Faramir,Boromir, and Gandalf. Rohan's heroes areMerry,Éowyn,Éomer,Théoden,Gimli,Legolas,Aragorn, andTreebeard (he is bought at an Entmoot). Isengard's heroes areLurtz andSaruman.
Mordor's heroes are Gollum, two Fell Beast-riding Ringwraiths (Nazgûl), and the Fell Beast-ridingWitch-king of Angmar.Frodo,Sam andShelob are playable at various stages of the good and evil campaigns, but cannot be used in skirmish battles.
The good and evil forces ofMiddle-earth each have a campaign. They take place on an animated map of western Middle-earth, where each battle represents the defense/sacking of a territory. Armies and characters move on the map, and moving the cursor over them shows snippets of the movies (whereas battle cutscenes use the game engine).
Some mandatory missions represent important events. Between these the player must take enough nearby territories in skirmish battles, variations on the theme of building a base and killing everyone. Each territory provides a permanent increase of power points, the unit limit, and/or a multiplier for acquired resources. Units, their upgrades and purchased powers also persist between battles.[citation needed]
The good campaign follows the story of theLord of the Rings movies with an emphasis of traditional, scripted missions, fromMoria toLórien, the fight atAmon Hen, theBattle of the Hornburg, the Ents' conquest ofIsengard, the siege ofOsgiliath, Sam's search for Frodo inShelob's lair, theBattle of the Pelennor Fields and theBlack Gate.[citation needed]
The evil campaign begins with Isengard's betrayal and then continues withSaruman's conquest of Rohan signified by the fall ofHelm's Deep and the deaths of Théoden and Éomer. It then switches to Mordor's assault on Gondor and concludes with the successful destruction ofMinas Tirith and total victory forSauron. It provides an alternative storyline to the book and film.[citation needed]
The Battle for Middle-earth features score fromThe Lord of the Rings film trilogy composed byHoward Shore, as well as original music in Shore's image byJamie Christopherson andBill Brown.The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth (Soundtrack from the Video Game) was released via digital sellers on August 28, 2006, featuring 22 tracks of cues from the game by Christopherson & Brown spanning 44 minutes.[4]
The development environment and "extreme crunch time" forThe Battle for Middle-earth led to a high-profile laborlawsuit by programmers that was settled byElectronic Arts for US$14.9 million in 2006.[5]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | 82/100[6] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Eurogamer | 8/10[7] |
| GamePro |   [9] |
| GameRevolution |  [8] |
| GameSpot | 8.4/10[10] |
| GameSpy | [11] |
| IGN | 8.3/10[12] |
According to Electronic Arts,The Battle for Middle-earth was a commercial success, with sales above 1 million units worldwide by the end of 2004.[13] In the United States, the computer version ofThe Battle for Middle-earth sold 230,000 copies and earned $9.4 million by August 2006, after its release in December 2004. It was the country's 89th best-selling computer game during this period.[14] It received a "Gold" sales award from theEntertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA),[15] indicating sales of at least 200,000 copies in the United Kingdom.[16]
The critical response toThe Battle for Middle-earth was fairly positive. The video game review aggregator GameRankings displays an average critic score of 82.5%, with about two-thirds of the reviews in the 80%s.[17] IGN praised the game for its visual flair and impressive audio, but pointed out its lack of depth in gameplay, giving out a score of 8.3 to the "decent, if not spectacular, game.[12]GameSpot, with a score of 8.4, also commented on the visuals and sound effects as well as its focus on large-scale battles that "befits the source material".[10]GameSpy gave 4 stars out of 5, calling the game "a perfect example of a license enhancing the final product."[11]
The Battle for Middle-earth won three awards: theE3 2004Game Critics Awards award for Best Strategy Game, the 2005GIGA Games award for Best Strategy Game, and theGameSpy award for Best of E3 2004 Editors Choice.
The Battle for Middle-earth was nominated forX-Play's "Best Strategy Game" andPC Gamer US's "Best Real-Time Strategy Game 2004" awards,[18] both of which ultimately went toRome: Total War.[19][20] It also received a runner-up placement forGameSpot's annual "Best Game Based on a TV or Film Property" prize.[21] During the8th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards,The Battle for Middle-earth received a nomination for "Strategy Game of the Year",[22] which was ultimately awarded toRome: Total War.[23]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Middle-earth film franchise | |||||||||||
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| The Lord of the Rings film trilogy |
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| The Hobbit film trilogy |
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| Other films |
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