Battle For Middle Earth II

So, I'm sure you're thinking.  Why am I bringing up BFMEII?  It came out about 4 years ago or so, what's the point?

Well first of all I wasn't blogging 4 months never mind 4 years ago, and secondly I just rediscovered this game.  I was playing a bunch of Dawn of War and remembering just how much I love to play a good RTS when there was a Lord of the Rings movie marathon on TV at the same time.

Naturally my brain put the two together and reminded me of these games.  BFME II is a great game, not perfect, but a lot of fun.

I rememeber I didn't really like the campaign.  It was alright, but not quite as engrossing as the campaign of BFME I.  Sure BFME I was just the same story as the movies (and mostly the books), but you felt like you were a hero from the get go.  You felt like you were an epic part of what was going on.  On top of that you got access to special powers as they came around in the books more or less (like you hit 10th level and got access to the Paths of the Dead summoning power just as you got to the siege of Minas Tirith).

However I did like some of the new features of BFME II like the War of the Ring mode, and the free form layout of the base.  Now to be fair I actually liked the restricted base layout that you had to follow in BFME I.  It made you really think about what you wanted your capabilities to be since you had a limited number of buildings.

One thing that BFME II made better was the walls were flimsier than in BFME II.  All you had to do in BFME I was get your walls up, make a slew of archers and your base was pretty much impregnable.  BFME II's paper walls broke that strategy, but you can still build a bunch of towers instead and turtle that way so its not perfect.

Overall BFME II is a great game.  THe sound is good, the graphics are cool, and nothing beats a good cavalry charge.  Seeing them wheel around and smash into their enemies, and seeing those enemies get blasted out of the way when it hits them is just good old fashioned fun!