PSP

The Lord of the Rings: Tactics

As a total package, Lord of the Rings: Tactics is impressive. It's a reasonably intricate strategy game in its own right, and, thanks to its slickly produced presentation, it's also one of the better video game adaptations of the films made to date.

Lord of the Rings: Tactics is definitely an interesting take on the series. The ability to play as both the Host of Mordor and the Fellowship is noble, but the lack of character customization really takes away from the charm of this franchise. Hardcore fans will more than likely be willing to overlook its mishaps, and will find an enjoyable experience. The causal fan, however, will find their share of fun as well, but it won’t be without some slight frustration first.

LOTR Tactics offers a strange blend of groovy gameplay elements and frustrating design decisions. While playing as members of the Fellowship and the host of Mordor is inherently cool, it's not so great seeing these characters limited to dull attacks and skills. The strategy, however, is engaging for the most part and benefits from a good mix of maps. And when it comes to multiplayer, LOTR Tactics offers more flexibility than most games of this type. While there's only one main multiplayer mode, it's fun and constantly surprises.

The Lord of the Rings: Tactics is definitely a thinking man’s strategy game. What it lacks in polished presentation it more than makes ups for in thoughtful gameplay that challenges you in a variety of situations, often where you have the disadvantage.

If you do, Tactics entertains in its slow-paced way. In fact, while in terms of accuracy to the world it's the least accurate LoTR licence yet, in other areas it's terribly close to the books. It's slow-paced. It's a little unwieldy. It's hardly glamorous. However, it's also something which wraps you up in its own world for hours at a time.

Tactics probably would've been a better game if it had left out the half-baked RPG elements, and focused on more varied units and capabilities. If you need a turn-based meal, and can work past the disappointments, you might find enough here to keep you fed, even if it's ultimately less filling than it should be.

EA has proven to be a wise tactician in expanding the use of The Lord of the Rings license away from action titles, whether that means the Battle for Middle-earth series or the console RPG The Third Age. Unfortunately, it has made a grave strategic error in handing this game to developer Amaze, who was responsible for Samurai Jack – a game that made little kids cry. Lacking the foundation of gameplay to offer the kind of choices that strategy fans have grown accustomed to, LOTR: Tactics is a disappointment.

It takes a very tolerant Lord of the Rings fan to appreciate this game. While the memorable battle sequences from the movie trilogy would lend themselves perfectly to a strategy game, this one just isn't put together well enough to do full justice to the source material. But you still might want to check it out if you're itching for a PSP strategy game and need a way to kill some time while on the go.

Sure, it looks better than most tactics games - but then again, most tactics games also manage to be fun.

Lasst euch vom Namen nicht täuschen: „Der Herr der Ringe“ ist eine großartige Lizenz, die dank Filmschnipseln, Originalsoundtrack und Tolkiens Figuren einen starken ersten Eindruck hinterlässt, gar keine Frage. Der Zusatz „Taktiken“ ist allerdings irreführend, denn der so angepriesene Anspruch hält sich trotz der interessanten Unterteilung in die zwei Zugphasen in Grenzen. Hirnschmalz ist hauptsächlich während der Aufstellung gefragt, ansonsten reicht es, einzelne Gegner geschlossen anzugreifen und schon gehört der Sieg euch. Wäre die fehlende Tiefe gerade noch zu verschmerzen, verwehrt vor allem die starre Inszenierung ein spannendes Erlebnis. Wie packend kann Rundenstrategie sein, wenn ihr mit aller Kraft um das Überleben eines Charakters kämpft und ihn gerade so in die nächste Mission rettet! Hier schert ihr euch um so etwas aber nicht die Bohne, denn beim nächsten Mal zeigen sich alle verlorenen Figuren wieder in alter Frische.

Si l'on peut féliciter EA de varier ses adaptations du Seigneur des Anneaux, en osant se frotter à un genre tel que le RPG tactique, on regrettera quand même que l'éditeur s'obstine à privilégier la forme sur le fond. Visuellement somptueux, le soft vaut surtout pour l'efficacité de sa réalisation, mais la simplicité de son gameplay et sa faible durée de vie ne sauraient convaincre les inconditionnels du genre.

In a multiplayer skirmish, the unpredictability factor is easily strong enough to overcome the game's lack of flair, making it the only way to go. That still leaves The Lord of the Rings Tactics as a disappointing package that seems to have received even less development time than most of the PSP launch titles. If Amaze can take this system and use it to back a polished title, we'll definitely be on board. At this stage, however, players should proceed with caution.

Tactics isn't unplayable--especially in multiplayer mode--and it has some decent play mechanics. But it's all overshadowed by the poor production value. It feels like a waste of the source material. It's a bunch of marketable characters wrapped in a mediocre game.