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[updated 04.02.06]: I won’t recap the game’s features or settings–others have done a fine job of that. As a baseline, here’s what I’ve played so far (after several days): all 20 2-player skirmishes to victory[*], the Good Campaign to victory, the Evil Campaign to victory, and a War of the Ring game to victory. I’ve also done some on-line playing, and I’m currently working my way through the skirmishes again with the difficulty level set higher.

Here’s why BFME-2 got a 4/4 rating (fun/overall) from me:

– It’s easy to pick up. True, I had played through BFME-1, but that was long enough ago, and BFME-2 has changed enough, that it wasn’t a given. The built-in tutorials were great, and, yes, since I don’t have a lot of free time, I bought the PRIMA game guide.

– It’s addictive. Not quite the electronic crack that Civ4 is, but I’ve spent far more time playing it during the last several days than I than I thought I would.

– I know other reviews here have complaints about installation and system compatibility, but for me it’s worked fine out of the box + the 1.01 patch on a system that I was never able to get Civ4 completely stable on.

– I enjoy the music + graphics + voice work + cut scenes. Of course, BFME -2 has the advantage of all the LOTR movie music, art design, etc.

– The user interface does what it needs to do and otherwise gets out of the way.

– The difficulty in skirmishes is almost infinitely tweakable, due to the handicap system. For example, my main profile was at level 2 after finishing my first set of skirmishes, but the Medium difficulty level puts your opponent at level 4. No worries: I started out by putting my opponent’s handicap at -50% and have lowered it by 5% each time I’ve won (my profile is now up to level 3, and I’m giving my opponent a handicap of -15%).

– I can play through a skirmish (or a Campaign mission) on ‘Easy’ level in 15-30 minutes; maybe an hour, tops.

– There’s a nice balance among the six factions; each feels different, each requires slightly different tactics. I tend to favor the Good factions, but I must confess to having fun with the Evil campaign, especially using Mountain Giants to level most of Fornost.

– I enjoyed the focus on the War in the North. It’s a nice change from the classic LOTR books (and I speak as one who has been reading LOTR for nearly 40 years).

– Having completed one War of the Ring game, I’ve found that I like it better than I did at first–mostly because the ability to do “real time” (skirmish) resolution allows me to win battles even when the odds are heavily against me.

Here’s why BFME-2 _didn’t_ get a 5 in either fun or overall:

– The skirmish maps are too small. Or, better put, there should be larger maps available in addition to the existing ones. I’d like to see a 4x map (twice as high, twice as wide) so that each side can really establish an infrastructure and then manuever with large armies over large fields. Likewise, a lot of the movement plotting and formation capabilities of the game are largely wasted because space is too cramped and everything moves too quickly to do a whole lot with them.

– I’d also like to zoom out farther _and_ I’d like to see support for 1280×1024. However, I suspect that these two limitations, as well as the small map sizes, are all for the same reason: system resources. I’m running BFME-2 on a 3.6 GHz P4 with 1GB RAM and a RADEON X600 graphics cards w/256MB of memory–and the game still gets sluggish when too many units are on the screen. I’ve had a few crashes, but very few compared to the number of hours I’ve played.

– EA put all this work into the fortress building aspects of BFME-2, but you seldom get a chance to do much with them–at least, in skirmishes–because conflict starts too soon and either drains your resources in replacing destroyed units/buildings or simply ends before you can do much with your fortress(es). The main exceptions are in campaign missions where the main wave of attack is delayed for some period of time (e.g., Erebor and Rivendell in the Evil campaign).

– Fortress walls are too easily destroyed and are too hard to repair. It takes most of the fun out of building in those cases when you have the time to do so.

– Neither the manual nor the PRIMA game guide explains exactly (or even generally) what changes as the different difficulty levels, nor what the numeric level(s) mean for a given profile and how that affects gameplay. For that matter, some of the summary values after skirmishes/missions (e.g., ‘tactical rating’) are likewise unexplained.

– In fact, there’s a fair amount that the manual never really explains–and it’s not the most readable manual in the world, either in content or in presentation.

In sum, I’ve just had a lot of fun building armies, defending (or conquering) territory, and trying out different tactics, all within a slighly mutated version of Tolkien’s world with great music in the background. My complaints with BFME-2 mostly have to do with it been a bit too cramped, fast moving, obscure and self-limiting–though that may just reflect why I don’t like real-time strategy (RTS) games quite as much as 4X games such as Civ4.

All said, I consider myself as having gotten my money’s worth for having bought BFME-2 ([*]the collector’s edition, no less, which is why I had a few more skirmish maps than the regular release) plus the PRIMA game guiide. My enjoyment of (and semi-addiction to) BFME-2 has been a stark contrast to my experience with Star Wars: Empire at War (see my review here on Amazon).

Your mileage may vary. ..bruce..

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A few random tips for those of you just starting out:

– Your (computer) opponents will rush you, that is, starting sending battalions at you as fast as it can generate them. The best defenses is often a good offense–build up several battalions as fast as you can, chew up the forces that come at you, then send your forces at the enemy’s fortress while building replacements.

– If you are playing a Good faction (Elves, Men, Dwarves), Battle Towers are your friends. A close set of three to five Battle Towers can render a given approach impassible–at least, until your opponent starts bringing up siege engines and/or Mountain Giants. And a few strategically placed Battle Towers back by your barracks/stables can take care of those pesky units that make it past your main forces. I frankly prefer Battle Towers to walls.

– Geography matters. Look for choke points where you can block enemy advances. On one skirmish map, I found such a narrow choke point much closer to the enemy fortress than to my own. I rushed my first three (Elven) archer battalions into the trees there, then built a ‘Mirror of Galadriel’ to heal them. The enemy kept trying to send forces through that point, but they all got ground up–not a single enemy unit ever got past, and I never had to replace any of my three archer battalions. In the meantime, I was able to take my time to build up for my own invasion.

– Technology advances also matter. Elven archers with Silverthorn arrows and Elven armor are incredibly deadly; a few such battalions can take down anything very quickly.

Rating: 4 / 5

As a big fan of real-time strategy (RTS) games, I found this game to be a bit more than the average base-building, resource-collecting fare. To be sure, there is a lot of this kind of activity required in the game, but it is presented in a way that does not seem bland or too conventional. The game does not break a lot of new ground for the genre like, say, Dawn of War or Rise of Nations, but it does offer an interesting spin.

Gameplay: There are a few options here that should keep most players preoccupied for a while. First, there is the campaign mode that allows for play as either the good or evil side. Each of the campaigns have eight scenarios which for the most part are your standard base-building, land-conquering variety. Overall, the missions are well done and are a great introduction to the other gameplay options. Another gameplay mode is the War of the Ring. This is a mix of turn-based and real-time gaming in which factions try to take over a map of Middle Earth by moving armies around. It is a very well-done gaming mode that should allow for a lot of replayability. Thirdly, there is a skirmish mode as well as online play. The game comes with several maps, but unfortunately there is an overabundance of 2-player maps and a shortage of larger maps (only one 8-player map).

Each of the six playable races (men, elves, dwarves, Mordor, Isengard, and goblins) feels unique enough to offer a range of gameplay options. Each has several units, many upgrades, unique powers, various heroes, and other perks. Also, the game ships with a “create-a-hero” template that allows you to create your own in-game hero. This options, while a good idea, is rather limited in regard to the appearance of your hero. Heroes are better implemented in this game than in other RTS games (like Warcraft 3) and can level up without having to hunt down “creeps” or perform other distracting tasks. I assume that a future patch will adjust some of the heroes so that they are better balanced against each other.

The gameplay itself is very frenetic and engaging, and on medium and higher difficulties, the fighting starts early. The game’s AI is generally good and will make it a point to destroy your buildings at every opportunity, along with your units. Occasionally, I’ve witnessed a few lapses with the AI, such as cases in which enemy units were not immediately noticed and attacked. Otherwise, the AI holds its own in most fights. I’ve only noticed a few flaws in the game, but they are worth commenting upon. First, buildings and walls are far too weak and easily destroyed. Since games are won or lost based on your resource and unit output, it’s a shame that a few infantry units can destroy an upgraded fortress in seconds. Of course, lesser structures like farms go down even quicker. Also, the game is not really geared toward epic siege warfare, which was one of the great things about the movies. Walls are not only weak but they are far to expensive to be practical and are difficult (perhaps impossible?) to repair. Additionally, the resource model encourages you to spread your farms apart for maximum benefit, so there is little possibility of having a compact, well-fortified, walled-in base. A patch could correct much of this (such as the strength and cost of buildings and walls), which would allow for more strategic and tactical possibilities such as siege warfare (requiring actual siege weapons) and turtling. There is naval warfare in the game, which is generally done well. However, very few maps allow it.

Graphics: This is a great-looking game. Lots of attention to detail in the environment as well as in the models. Unit animations, explosions, magical effects, weather, and other visuals are very convincing. The cutscenes for the campaigns are based on the game models and some wonderful paintings. The animations are not quite as dramatic and visceral as those of Dawn of War, but they are nonetheless quite good. And there are a lot of them. It never gets old seeing Tom Bombadil punching foes in the face or summoning the terrible wrath of a Balrog. Even common occurrences, such as Roharrim cavalry mowing down infantry, are always good for a smile. The game does require a decent computer to get the most out of the visuals. I have a mid-range machine (P4 3.0ghz, 1GB of RAM, Geforce 6600GT) and still get a bit of lag when there are a lot of units fighting on screen. However, EA went the extra mile on graphics, and it really paid off.

Sound: Everything is in order in this department. There are a lot of spoken sound-bites for each of the races, along with appropriate sounds for monsters, weapons, building construction, explosions, magical effects, and so on. The epic music from the movies plays in the background to set the atmosphere. All of the auditory elements of the game serve their purpose well.

Replayability/Technical Issues: The game should have a decent shelf life for RTS gamers, assuming that EA supports it with patches and an occasional bonus map. A map editor is available for download at the official website (www.bfme2.ea.com). The manual that comes with the game is decent, but the in-game tutorials are better. The game has been pretty stable for me with no installation issues. It did crash twice between turns in the War of the Ring mode. However, this was no big deal since I had been playing for several hours and had recently saved the game.

Overall, if you like RTS games, this is a good purchase.

Rating: 4.25 stars

Rating: 4 / 5