Rohan must make its last stand in the Hornburg by defeating the invading orcs, and then riding out at dawn to crush the remaining forces. Playable Heroes: Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Boromir, Frodo, SamĪs a Rohirrim patrol led by Éomer, the player must destroy Isengard's forces in the area, and rescue Merry and Pippin from their captors In this alternate storyline, Boromir can actually survive and continue to accompany the fellowship in their quest to save Merry and Pippin. They meet up with the elves of Lorien, who help drive off the invasion from the goblins of Moria, and demolish nearby lumber camps that are violating the forests of Lorien.Īmbushed by Uruk-hai raiders, the Fellowship must rally to the aid of their friend Boromir and escort Frodo and Sam safely to the boats so they can continue the Ring Quest. Having escaped Moria, the Fellowship is still being pursued by vicious orcs. Playable Heroes: Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Boromir, Gimli, Frodo, Sam, Merry, PippinĮnemy Heroes: Durin's Bane, Balrog of Morgoth This mission takes the alternate storyline of Gandalf to meet up with the rest of the Fellowship outside. The Fellowship makes the dangerous trek through the ancient halls, surviving orc attacks, the ambush at the chamber of Mazarbul, and even Balrog of Morgoth. There are few canonical missions in the game, and until a major event happens, the player's armies wander around conquering other territories. While the game authentically follows the story in proper order with special events like the Battle of Helm's Deep, Isengard, Moria and Minas Tirith the in-between game play rests, as said, upon the regions of Middle-earth encompassing in the West from the Shire to Mirkwood, eastmost to Rhûn and all the way south to Mordor and the far reaches of Near Harad. On the other hand, the Forces of Darkness (Mordor and Isengard) depend mainly on their hordes of Orcs and Uruk-Hai.Įach of these maps is throughout the campaign accessed by selecting well-known and lesser-known regions of Middle-earth such as the Westfold, Eastern Rohan, Mirkwood and even to the far-eastern locales of Rhûn and Harad.
The Free Peoples (Gondor and Rohan) focus on their numerous heroes, like Gandalf, Aragorn, Théoden, Éomer, etc. As many other RTS-games this feature two opposite endings dependent on which side the player join. This RTS features an Evil and Good campaign set in the War of the Ring-timeline as directed in the trilogy by Peter Jackson with a few game adaptations. In line with the trend in recent RTS games, units train in squads ( Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is a recent example of this).
These range from an outpost (three building points) to a full fledged castle.
The game functions much like other RTS games: the player must manage an army taking control of economy and unit production, where BFME differs from other RTS titles is in that buildings canet points, and camp sites already exist and are scattered around the map. The powers that can be earned range from summoning elven allies, calling Eagles, all the way to bringing out the Army of the Dead or the Balrog. This game plays very similar to Command & Conquer: Generals even down to the power point system which allows players to earn special powers as you destroy more enemies. However, some people were disappointed by EA's promotional videos promoting the game as a Rome: Total War-style game, commanding thousands of troops at once, while the actual in game unit count and variety are actually quite low relative to other RTS titles. It allows players to control units from 4 major "factions" of Middle-earth: Gondor, Rohan, Isengard, and Mordor, as well as members of the Fellowship. The game was still well received by many Lord of the Rings and RTS fans. Though lauded for its graphics, it did not make a major impact with critics.
Tolkien and the films, The Battle for Middle-earth is unique in the fact that the developers intended to bring the feel of a "living" Middle-earth to the PC through impressive graphics and special effects, as well as to push the genre beyond the RTS niche market by introducing a more intuitive system. While there have been numerous other games based on The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R.
The sequel, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, was announced in July 2005. It uses the Sage engine from Command & Conquer: Generals and was released on December 6, 2004.
Tolkien and also features a number of the voice actors, including all the hobbits and wizards. It was inspired and licensed from Peter Jackson's recent adaptations of the famous books by J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth is a strategy game for the PC developed by EALA.