| Author | Review |
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K0mrade
119,871
TA Score for this game: 958
Posted on 18 May 09 at 01:48 |
This review has 23 positive votes and 3 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
It's 2002, back in the day before games like Call of Duty have started to come out. Battlefield 1942 has just been released and there's a palpable tension as you fight tooth and nail to hold onto that last trench on Tobruk against the onslaught of other people, sitting across the internet fighting just as hard to take it. This is not that feeling.
LOTR: Conquest feels like it's trying to reinvent the Battlefield style genre, but doesn't do it all that well. Granted, over the shoulder hack and slash games have never been a big market, not nearly as big as their top down cousins or more conventional shooter kin. Still, there have been diamonds in the rough. Prince of Persia is arguably the most popular, though more a hybrid hack and slash and puzzle game. Thinking back on the overall architecture of Battlefield games they do seem like they would lend themselves quite well to close quarters, frenetic action. Somewhere along the line something has been lost in translation.
I'll briefly begin by touching on the plot of the game. It's Lord of the Rings so if you're familiar with the series you already know the plot. There is an evil campaign that actually takes the game in another direction from the side of evil, unfortunately it's not nearly deep enough to actually feel like it adds much of a story. If you're a huge LotR fan then that may have the namebrand appeal to make this game fun. I'll admit I've bought every Silent Hill game, and will always buy every Silent Hill game because it's Silent Hill. If mere LotR association isn't enough for you this game may not be a good idea.
The actual game itself is really short. It took me about 6 hours of play time to beat both campaigns. While not in the spirit of the game some missions can be greatly shortened by playing as the scout(stealth) class and simply sprinting to the next objective or as the archer when defending and simply ripping apart your enemies without having to move a step. The game is not terribly difficult. While playing as a melee character may prove a bit challenging, if you take the long range approach you'll have a pretty easy time simply taking out enemies as they blindly rush you.
Blind rushing happens far more often than it should in the single player game. While Conquest tries to give off the feel of being a foot soldier in a far larger force, one thing that really breaks that feeling is the fact that you're always the center of enemy attention. It's hard to feel like part of a multitude when the enemy is keenly trained on you, even if you're standing at the back of the pack doing nothing. Bosses will concentrate on you while your NPC allies pathetically attempt to attack him, enemy melee soldiers will rush you, archers will more often than not seem to target you specifically. It can really break the spirit the game is aiming to give off.
Like I mentioned earlier the game isn't terribly difficult, except at occasional points of total helplesness. Much like your foot soldier enemies you can be knocked down and thrown about by strong blows, which doesn't bother me because of the way the game seems to be put together. Where this falls apart is that since all the enemies are focused on you they will continue to keep you pinned on the ground as three or four enemies simply bash you. This can lead to moments where you are literally helpless to fight back and have no choice but to simply wait to die. It definitely detracts from the game. There are other similar annoyances in the game, such as how enemy warriors will simply block and sit there in block seemingly indefinitely. If you lack enough energy to break the block, you simply have to leave the enemy for a different one. There are just small AI problems like these that really detract from the feeling of a battle.
The classes aren't unbalanced, though depending on the situation some will trump others. There are four basic classes. Warriors are close range, heavy fighters. They can take and give a beating with ease. They are probably the most susceptible to being knocked down like I mentioned before since they are constantly in the thick of the action. Scouts are the other melee class. They are weaker, with a lower attack that is faster and the ability to stealth which is very useful if you simply need to move from point A to point B. Simply stealth, run, and avoid all combat. They can do sneak attacks, and in my opinion their most useful feature is throwing grenades which can take down most enemies in a shot. Archers feel like the most powerful class to me. You simply hold down the trigger and you have what feels like a slow firing automatic weapon. Combined with the special shots the archer has this class can hold off whole waves of enemies by themself without having to move an inch. The last, and most support oriented, is the mage. They are a caster/healer class. They have the ability to heal nearby allies and themself, cast a firewall spell that puts up a wall of fire that kills enemies who stand in it, and cast a chain lightning spell that will jump from enemy to enemy if you hold down trigger for a moment to let it charge. They are another powerful class for the same reason as the archer. Simply stand back and cast at range and you can decimate enemies as they attempt to reach you.
There are heroes in the game, which are fun. Though, it doesn't take long to realize they are basically buffed up versions of the regular classes. They do add a level of enjoyment as they give you the ability to rampage like a superhero through the enemy, which gives brief appeal to the game. The Balrog, though only in the game for a very short bit, was particularly fun to play as.
The thing that really hurts the game is it's replay value, or lack thereof. That was the key featuer of Battlefield games. You can play the game again and again because the pitched battles would be different each time you played them. Conquest lacks that feel of a pitched battle, where progress will wax and wane. There isn't the tension, the feeling of being part of a war. There isn't even anything thrown into to tempt you to go back and play again. There are no real unlockables that I've seen, no class upgrades, nothing. The game is pretty basic.
With Battlefield 1943 coming out soon, and the sheer advances in multiplayer games in general, I'd say this would probably be a game to pass on. If you're a LotR fan, and that's enough for you, then go nuts. But if not this game probably won't appeal to you with its dated graphics, shallow gameplay and lack of replayability.
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