Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Not bad . . . Not Bad at all September 11, 2006
Morbid Matt (Shropshire, UK)
39 out of 45 found this review helpful
So, i loaded this game up - started it, thought aha! plenty of graphics options, so i customised it, tweaked it some more ( i like the get the balance just right, acceptable FPS v Graphics, yes, slightly nerdy but hey, i play computer games .. . ) and played a skirmish, then another, and another, marvelled at how the witch king gracefully tore through battalions at a time, how my Half Trolls tore through cavalry of the rohirrim, how drogoth effortlessly torched entire bases, and most of all, how Souron effortlessly destroyed an entire army. All this power, so little time. And here comes my one main complaint really, the AI is really very pants. Pants. Paaaaaants. Just to emphasise it some more - PAAAAANTS! Once you've played it a few times you've played it all. Don't get me wrong, its still a lot of fun, i mean a lot of fun, but it could do with tweaking somewhat, to make it less brain dead.
My other couple of complaints - Walls. Walls did not crumble when an uruk hai poked them with his eyebrow tweasers, did they? Well, in this game, walls serve only one purpose - to slow the enemy down so you can move troops to counter the attack.
Another is skinning, some of the skins have not been updated since BFME I, and although they still look good, they could have been polished that little be extra in my opinion, although, i am not a programmer nor a skinner, and this may be a highly arrogant point of view.
My last is realism - when could 1 battalion run through another without being hurt in some way - i.e. a battalion of pikemen are run at my swordsmen, my reaction would be to form a phalanx.
That said, BFME II is a fantastic game - dispite my griping - perfectly capturing the LOTR's Battle Universe, and, while it cannot compete on the scale of something like the Total War series for numbers of units, it is certainly a game worth playing. It is imaginative, creative and a thouroughly enjoyable experience - I reccomend getting this game.
Just some things to note - space requirements - over 5 gig, it also requires a decent graphics card, a fair amount of RAM and a good processor to run well. Although it has done fairly well on my old AGP graphics card, i would like to experience the game at its best.
Preview January 9, 2006
James Andrews
54 out of 66 found this review helpful
At its core, The Battle for Middle-Earth II will remain the same, but the unified license has allowed the focus to shift to the war in the north and Sauron's battle with the Dwarves and the Elves. Only hardcore Tolkien fans know that Sauron sent an army to the north that … er, dwarfed … the massive epic battle at Minas Tirith. This new game hopes to recreate that battleground.The single-player campaign will revolve around these battles that ran roughly parallel to the battles depicted in the Peter Jackson film trilogy. In the "good" campaign, an alliance is formed between the Elves and Dwarves to keep Sauron from destroying their homeland. In the "evil" campaign, the forces of Mordor set out from Dol Gurdur, with the help of Isengard and the goblins. New battlegrounds will include Mirkwood, the Grey Havens, Withered Heath, Goblin cities in the Misty Mountains and key strongholds of the Elves and Dwarves, as well as The Shire. There will be 16 missions, eight for each side. (To add to the immersive nature of the game, EA has recruited actor Hugo Weaving, who played Lord Elrond of the Elves in the Jackson films, to do the voiceover for the game.)
The playable sides have been expanded from four to six. Gondor and Rohan have been combined into the Men of the West, and added to the race of Dwarves and Elves. Isengard and Mordor are still fighting for Sauron, but they have been joined by the race of Goblins. The EALA dev team said they plan on keeping the best of Gondor and Rohan when combining the sides, although our limited play time with the build gave no indication of what those units might be. Each new side will have different things they are good at, with dwarves being master craftsmen and goblins being fast and good at tunneling.
Brilliant March 27, 2006
joseph amel
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
Well I thought this game was brilliant. It has alot of new features such as being able to be elves dwarves and goblins and the fact that you do not have to build on foundations, i'm also glad that you do not have to work too hard to get the powers because I could never get the balrog on the first game. The only setbacks are that the worldbuilder is still too hard to use and that it is a bit too similar to the first game. All in all I think it is worth the price. I recommend this to first time roleplaying gamers.
Better than the first... January 18, 2006
17 out of 42 found this review helpful
I too believed the first installment of BFME was brilliant and the news that they have corrected all the faults with the other game makes my further opinion of this game better. Regarding the 'build anywhere' tactic, some may be thinking this means players who 'turtle' themselves in their base (stay inside, very defensive) can just gather tonnes of resources and attack when ready, WRONG, they have introduced a radius around each resource collecting building, if another building that gathers resources penetrates this the efficiency of the gathering goes down which means it forces players to expand.
The new teams (elves, goblins and dwarves) sound brilliant. The goblins having the cool ability to build an underround tunnel network to transport troops wihout disturbances and the introduction dragons and spiders shouild spice things up. Elves and dwarves possessing (all elven infantry has stealth capabilities)their own unique abilities. In other words this game is going to rock...Dont havea clue what the requirements are for the game (specifications). If anyone has a clue it would be helpful. Looks great, buy it..
this game rules August 7, 2008
Mrs. L. Blake (essex)
this game is very good especially if you like lord of the rings because it is parts of the films that have been edited that you wouldnt have seen before. the graphics are excellent and you can play as a variety of armys and heroes.
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