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| J. R. R. Tolkien's Riders of Rohan | |
|---|---|
 European cover art | |
| Developers | Beam Software Papyrus Design Group |
| Publishers | |
| Designers | Hank Howie Adam Levesque Phil Redmond |
| Composer | Alice Lei |
| Series | Middle-earth |
| Platform | MS-DOS |
| Release | 1991 |
| Genre | Strategy |
| Mode | Single-player |
J. R. R. Tolkien's Riders of Rohan is a video game from 1991 based upon the fictionalWar of the Ring set in theMiddle-earth world created byJ. R. R. Tolkien, centered inThe Lord of the Rings novels. The massive-scale simulation takes part in the realm ofRohan and the player controls the forces of Good during the onslaught of the forces of Evil, namely centered on the conflict withSaruman ofIsengard. It was published byKonami andMirrorsoft.
In terms of gameplay, it is very similar to the 1988War in Middle Earth, except the setting was downsized from the entire world just to the land of the Rohirrim, engulfing mostly the storyline fromThe Two Towers, and to a small extent ending inThe Return of the King. In a combination of a single-unit adventure, small-scale battlefield tactics and broadscale campaign warfare, the player must coordinate the Fellowship and Rohan's troops in order to fend off the invasion of Saruman'sOrcs and save the Rohirrim lands, as well as mounting enough forces to push the war on the fronts in the east in order to contribute toSauron's defeat.
At the beginning, the player can in the starting menu choose to start a new game, load an old one, quit, access encyclopedias dealing with featured units and characters, or practice. The practice folds down to tutorials in single-fighter combat:- Archery: the player takes control ofLegolas attempting to shoot down (18) Orcs from a wall, while crouching from their spears.- Duel: the player chooses between four Heroes:Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and Éomer, to fight either an Orc or a Dunlending in melee combat.- Magic Duel: the player takes control overGandalf fighting a Nazgûl flying mounted on a Felbeast.
The game begins just before the Battles at the Fords of Isen, with the player taking control over Rohan's western armies (an army consisted of an infantry unit [Westfold Militia], a light cavalry unit [Outriders], a horse archers unit [Harrowdale Bow] and three heave cavalry units [Helms Deep Guards and Edoras Guards, the Grimslade squadron being under Théodred's personal leadership]). The main army is led by Théodred, while there is a separate unit of heavy cavalry [Harrowdale] that is still behind on the road. The game ends when Sauron is destroyed after the Battle at the Black Gates and Frodo and Sam reach Mount Doom.
Computer Gaming World called the game's graphics "simple, yet pleasing", but described it as "a lightweight strategy game that includes several action sequences and some very limited character interaction". The magazine stated that those who had not read Tolkien's books would likely not understand the game's backstory, and that strategy players would dislike how closely they needed to follow the original story's actions to succeed in the game.Computer Gaming World only recommended it to devoted Tolkien fans.[1]
| Based on J. R. R. Tolkien's books |
| ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Based on Peter Jackson's film series | |||
| Middle-earth series by Warner Bros. Games | |||
| Parodies | |||
