The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring Preview

How many of you have craved to take command of a legion of orc troops or a host of well-armed Gondor soldiers? I, for one, am looking forward to doing just that. Ever since I read "The Hobbit" when I was kid, I wondered just what the armies of Sauron looked like, or what a phalanx of Elvish archers would do to a horde of Uruk-hai. Countless Tolkien fans all over the world will get the opportunity to see another rebirth of Middle-earth in the upcoming PC real-time strategy, The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring. Black Label Games (a sub-division of Vivendi Universal Games), a well-established and eminent publisher in the gaming industry made the announcement that this game was under development, and the gaming world has been abuzz ever since. Last year, Black Label Games published the fast-paced medieval combat action "Enclave" for the Xbox platform and the action/survival horror game "The Thing," a sequel to John Carpenter's 1982 cult classic movie of the same name. In their recent announcement, Black Label Games unveiled that Liquid Entertainment was selected for developing this complex RTS - thanks to their renowned strategy Battle Realms.

The Haradrim sure know their fashion.

I hate little Middle-earthish ants, aarrghhh! Splat!

The development of The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring is still quite far from its finishing point, so we cannot comment anything on the game's specifics just yet. The developers still have to unveil more details about the storyline and how they plan to portray some of the crucial characters from the books. For example, characters like Gandalf, Aragorn, Saruman, Theoden, Faramir, Lurtz, and others, would be perfect for hero-units. But, for the moment, all we can do is speculate on the subject. A couple of things are certain though. The game will be taking place in the land of Middle-earth, during the early years of the Third Age, where you are able to endeavor two huge single-player campaigns. Players are offered choice between good and evil - presumably, a choice between the forces of Mordor (or Saruman's Uruk-hai warriors) and the armies of Rohan and Gondor. By the way, most of the units in the game will be gifted with their own fighting abilities, which the player can use during combat. Presently, we don't know how magic abilities will jump into the picture, but we were informed that they are an important part of the gameplay. Besides magic and fighting abilities, it is known that players can advance their units' experience throughout the campaigns (exp. level 2, level 3, etc.). Anyhow, the massive scope and complexity of Tolkien's Middle-earth creates a fabulous foundation for diverse units. Just think of it: players could assail the walls of the White City with trolls and catapults leading the Black Captain to glory. Or, perhaps leading Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli through the Paths of the Dead, eventually joining the soldiers of Gondor and Rohan to protect Minas Tirith... Sweet! Whichever way you imagine it, the scope of the story simply cannot fail.

Also, you shouldn't be concerned about any slip ups in terms of the storyline and a faithful depiction of Middle-earth's characters and races. It was nice to hear that blokes at Liquid Entertainment are sincere Lord of the Ring fans and that they are working closely with Tolkien Enterprises to create a real-time strategy that holds true to Tolkien's descriptions. "Our love and respect for the works of Tolkien will not allow us to willingly put out a game that does not honor Middle-earth. The loyalty that people at Liquid feel toward the Tolkien world will guarantee our best efforts." - says Ed del Castillo, the lead designer of War of the Ring and co-founder of Liquid Entertainment in a recent chat with GameSpy.

Another comforting thought is that the makers of Battle Realms are behind the project. One of the most enjoyable things in Battle Realms was the straightforward interface system and exceedingly simple unit and resource management. This means that they could very well be using the same pattern in The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring, which is obviously a good thing. While making Battle Realms the developers have employed an easy-to-use combat system and a well-balanced AI (which was a tad tough at times, but otherwise very good).

Apart from having amazing gameplay depth, Battle Realms had superb character animation. Visually, the game a graphical peer of (if not better than) Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Also, if we consider how much attention was given to character development in Battle Realms, it would be logical to assume that a similar approach will be taken in War of the Ring. When it comes to characters in Battle Realms, Liquid Entertainment took extreme precision in animating them and making their moves smooth and life-like. Let us hope that they do the same thing with the characters in War of the Ring. For the present, what specific animation technique is to be utilized in War of the Ring, as well as what kind of graphics engine will power the whole thing. All in all, Liquid Entertainment revealed that they are working hard to deliver an ultimate RTS experience, in terms of visuals as well as gameplay.

We are also anxious to find out how the multiplayer will be handled. For the present, we know that the game designers plan to incorporate online support, which is logical and understandable move since the game has enormous potential in terms of community growth.

Black Label and Liquid left a lot of details undisclosed at this time. How Frodo, the ring, and the quest of Mount Doom will be added into the story? What races will be making an appearance (will we see any Elf, Dwarf, or Ent units)? Is the game's engine all-new or proprietary? Since we lack more media and specific details regarding the game there's not much we can say about any of these issues, but it is our firm belief that the team at Liquid Entertainment has the skill and talent to see this project through. There's no doubt that this will be one of the top-selling RTS titles next winter.