Just so you know, the review title stands for Lord of the Rings: Conquest, Destroy my Hopes. Why, you ask? Please, peruse the review below.

The Lord of the Rings being one of my favorite book series of all time, and the Star Wars Battlefront series being among my favorite Star Wars video games, when I heard they were coming together in what sounded like the bestest video game combination since Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (I jest), I could hardly wait to buy Conquest. I could barely contain myself. Looking back, I now wish I had found some way to contain myself. Such as locking myself in a chest. Or nailing my thumbs to the floor.

Ok, ok, so it's not that bad. It's probably better than a lot of the drivel that passes for modern games nowadays. But it had such wonderful potential that falling short the way Conquest does makes it hurt all the more. I'll explain what could have been, what I had envisioned in my head before that vision was destroyed in the fires of Mt. Doom. I am Melee Unit #7. Not Aragorn, not Legolas. Just one grunt amidst an endless sea of grunts, ready to throw our grunt bodies against each other until one side overpowers the other. The battle begins, and I sprint forward with my fellow swordsmen, arrows flying at us from the enemy archers. We reach their ranks and we engage, with dozens of enemies and friends around me. Eventually I fall, but not before I rack up an impressive 10 kills. 10 for 1 ain't bad! I respawn as an archer, raining death from afar. But before I can cause much damage, an enemy scout materializes behind me and stabs me in the back, killing me instantly. Such is the life of an average grunt: short life span, terrible pay, and zero benefits. After a few other lives as a melee unit, I finally unlock the ability to control Gimli for a short (tee hee) while, and with him I lay waste to the enemy ranks, feeling just as powerful as I should when playing this bearded powerhouse. After a prolonged battle, my side emerges victorious, but only by a handful of men. It was close, but we survived. Sounds epic, right? It sounds like it should have been able to capture the grand scale of the large battles seen in the LOTR movies. But it doesn't. Instead it feels like a few fights that ultimately have no impact on the war as a whole which, in a game meant to convey the idea that a single soldier can influence a war, is a big strike against the game.

The combat and gameplay mechanics are pretty solid, which surprising considering that melee combat can be tough to get right. But the scale is lost when you are running over large open spaces with no enemies only to engage four or five enemies on your own (because your team does not follow you consistently). There are no large scale battles like you would expect. And when you die, which you will do a lot, you respawn back at a control point and have to cover all that empty space again to reach the action.

And the AI is incredibly terrible. It felt like I was playing with a bunch of LOTR zombies, shambling along and using the same tactics as a zombie horde: step one swarm, step two repeat step one. It was a little effective at first when the computer immediately told every enemy within sight of you to attack simultaneously, but after the fourth or fifth time it happens, it begins to just feel obnoxious and predictable. Despite the premise that I was fighting against an army, I never felt like I was facing this insurmountable horde of Mordor in a titanic struggle for Middle Earth. It felt more like I was taking out the weaklings of Sauron's army, the ones he no longer wanted around and so sent to the frontlines.

Actually, I take that back. I did feel like I was fighting against an insurmountable, unbeatable force during the game. Unfortunately it was not the computer controlled AI, it was the scoring system itself. In typical Conquest mode, you have a tally of troops, which gradually diminish, supposedly as you and your troops die, and also as a penalty for losing control points. The first team to lose their whole tally also loses the game. Most games I would perform well myself, easily outpacing the AI, having way more kills than deaths, etc. But it seemed like more of a toss up whether I would win the game or not. Not a fifty/fifty toss up, but come on, if I attained 40 kills when the highest enemy kill count is 10, I think I should win the game, don't you? I felt as though too much of the victory was decided by some arbitrary force, as if by my doing well, the game would punish me by making my AI teammates worse, or the opposing team take over a control point. It hinged too much on those aspects and not as much on my prowess as a player. I play a game because I want to influence the game world in which I find myself, and when that is taken away from me (unless that is a deliberate gameplay choice by the designer, I feel cheated.

This is not to say that LOTR:C is without shining spots. As I said, the combat is actually solid and genuinely fun, and of course online play alleviates the majority of the horrible AI issues previously described. It is quite a sight to see a well coordinated team of wizards and archers providing long range support to a squad of fighters and scouts working in synchronized attacks. Unfortunately, at least at the time I was playing, there wasn't a significant community behind the game, and it was difficult to find a full game, much less one populated with players who could actually work together. Curse you XBox Live!!!

Another point in Conquest's favor, playing as the heroes is a wonderful treat, used often enough to never be boring, but sparingly enough to not be taken for granted or be too overpowered. As time progresses in a match, you will be granted the ability to play as a hero from the series, such as Aragorn or Legolas. Or the Balrog. Yeah, you read that right. The Balrog. Some of the heroes felt like slightly more powerful versions of existing classes, like Aragorn. Sorry Viggo. But the Balrog! Nothing can compare with taking to the field of battle as that fiery tauron and creating havoc like the flaming bull in a china shop you are.

All in all, I would say this game would appeal more to the Lord of the Rings fan than to a hardcore gamer, as most gamers wouldn't be able to forgive the pitiful AI and somewhat arbitrary scoring system. But if Lord of the Rings fans can forgive Peter Jackson for taking this long to make the Hobbit, they can forgive anything.