The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth Preview

The premiere of Peter Jackson's final chapter in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy is only a few months away. The decades-old legend created by J.R.R. Tolkien is now receiving more attention than ever. Thankfully, the gaming industry is getting its share of the franchise. Today there are exactly five games in development based on the Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Hobbit, Middle-earth Online, Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring, and, of course, two of EA's top projects The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth. It will please you all to know that this promising real-time strategy is being brought to you by the same development team that worked on Commander & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and C&C: Generals. At the very head of this ambitious project, are Mark Skaggs and Mike Verdu, who also lead the production of last year's successful RTS, C&C: Generals. Using an upgraded version of the C&C: Generals engine, EA LA aims to establish a strong presence of true-to-life physics. You can also expect to see beautiful character art, as well as impressive-looking and highly detailed structures and surroundings (which accurately match those from the movies).

I wonder if they are open to negotiations...

Be gone, vermin!

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth covers the great tale of the War of the Ring and portrays many renowned locations and characters from Tolkien's mythology. At the very beginning of the game, players have to choose between "good" and "evil" single-player campaigns. Tolkien's timeline exhaustively defines the history of Middle-earth and all its inhabitants. This game, however, is clearly set in the period when the lands of Middle-earth were engulfed in a great war between four key fractions: the fearless riders of Rohan, the valiant soldiers of Gondor, the Uruk-hai armies of Isengard, and the great legions of Mordor. During the game, players are going to get a chance to visit several locations where memorable scenes from the trilogy took place, such as: Minas Tirith, Balin's Tomb, and others. Fans will be delighted to know that the game also encompasses major events from the trilogy, like the Battle of Helm's Deep, Battle of Pelennor Fields, and so on. In addition to these in-depth single-player campaigns, EA also guaranteed to add a satisfying range of multiplayer modes. Unfortunately, they decided to keep their lips sealed on that one for the time being.

An interesting idea, contrived by the people at EA, was to allow players to change the history of Middle-earth. For example, leading the armies of Mordor into battle might eventually turn the course of war in favor of Sauron. That all depends on your skills as a military leader... Hm, military leadership, eh? And what of leaders and heroic units? Will they be in the game? That particular concept is more than likely still being discussed at EA. We do know for certain, however, that hero units are indeed an important part of the game. For instance, the riders of Rohan can sometimes rely on skills and bravery of Prince Éomer, whereas the people of Gondor might get some help from Gandalf the White in their war against Mordor. Saruman's Uruk-hai (i.e. the armies of Isengard) will most likely be led by characters like Lurtz - this one is just purely speculation on my part. If the developers decide to follow the movie plot, there's a chance Lurtz won't make an appearance (remember, his head got chopped off by Aragorn in Fellowship of the Ring *SOB*). Well, it was worth a ponder anyways.

The basics of the game clearly won't stray too much from the classic RTS style of gameplay - y'know, amassing resources, building-up your base, enlarging your army as you progress, etc. But, EA seemed rather enthusiastic about improvising on the franchise, in order to make the game a bit different from your average RTS. Corresponding to Tolkien's mythology, each fraction established a unique culture and a strong presence in Middle-earth, turning to its own way of life and warfare. Naturally, EA saw the opportunity to use this aspect and create a different economy system for each fraction. Orcs gather resources and raise structures a lot differently then men would. Also, they will mercilessly cut down trees and use them for improving their siege weaponry, leaving nothing but waste and desolation behind. Gondorians, on the other hand, turn to simple and conventional resources such as food, which is grown at farms and can be used at any time. Since Gondor was always on the very brink of war, its brave inhabitants have always stood ready to confront enemy rushes and powerful sieges. Gondor is the only faction that allows you to equip peasants and instruct them to man the walls and hold the enemy at bay. As for the riders and soldiers of Rohan, they will usually refer to the strengths of cavalry units. Those of you familiar with the movies (and Tolkien's books), probably know that the simple dwellers of Rohan have been tormented by orc raids for years. Therefore, if you side with the forces of Rohan, you'll be able to rescue citizens and protect villages from the oncoming tides of darkness, occasionally receiving various economic bonuses for your troubles.

Loose!

Leaving troll-poop on the grass is strictly forbidden!

So far, EA showed some serious intentions of bringing a variety of nice refreshments to the RTS genre, largely thanks to the enhanced capabilities of the C&C: Generals engine. You probably already noticed (take a peek at the screens) that those huge battle scenes carry an epic momentum, which clearly bares a slight resemblance to Shogun: Total War. Now just take a moment and imagine a massive battle a la Total War powered by the C&C: Generals engine... Unlike Total War, which indeed still rightfully stands as the one of the best strategy games on the market, The Battle for Middle-earth promises to deliver a hell of a lot more in terms of how these large-scale battles are presented. EA LA also took the time to focus on the combat between individual units. To begin with, players can zoom in on the action to view and control each and every one of their soldiers up close and personal. This is also why they worked hard on enhancing the AI routines of all units separately (both enemy and friendly). So, players will get to rely on individual units quite frequently during the game. Although that doesn't necessarily mean they all possess superior intelligence. Actually, every unit was endowed with specific behavior patterns that can prove extremely useful or, on the other hand, counter-productive. Take a huge troll as an example. While its bulky figure can take on several opponents at once, it may often resort to senseless violence, thereby harming your own units during the fray.

Admirable effort was also poured into making the gameplay unrestricted by giving individual units a distinctive way of moving and interacting with the environment. It's all basically accomplished with an effective combo of fine-tuned AI routines and ambitious in-game physics. You can expect to experience an extremely high level of interactivity; the mighty oliphants, for example, can march through forests, leaving only huge dusty trails behind them, orcs can collect rocks to arm their catapults, trolls can pick up orcs and throw them about or even use them as a melee weapon, etc.

According to EA, the modified C&C: Generals engine has more than enough capacity to deal with massive battle scenes, fully rendered character models, various details in the backdrop, etc. Apparently there will be close to five hundred 3D modeled units on the screen at one time. The team also went all out to improve the engine's lighting system (a brand new feature of the modified engine), which manages to achieve some splendid effects on screen (once again, take a gander at the shots) and also appears to create a similar glow we've all seen exhibited in the movies. In addition to that, the surroundings were also supplemented with lush plant life, such as trees and grass, both of which are in 3D and can respond to the movement of units through some nifty use of pixel shaders. The designing team was exceptionally determined to make the structures comparable to those we saw (and will see) in the movies. Special care was taken in conveying the sheer size of places like Minas Tirith and Helm's Deep.

EA still remains secretive regarding many issues. They aim to release the game some time during the fall of 2004. Yeah, I know, right now, that seems too far off. Still, if you're looking forward to some serious Lord of the Rings gaming, EA's Return of the King and Liquid Entertainment's strategy War of the Ring should keep you occupied until then.