The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II

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Description

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II brings extensive changes compared to the original.

The storyline follows the lesser known story of the War of the North, which took place at the same time as the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The game makes use of the book license in addition to the existing license of Peter Jackson's film trilogy, which also results in some characters which were not seen in the films being present in this game. Also included are some original characters, like Gorkil and Drogoth. The campaigns are once again split to the Good and Evil, but instead of taking place on a meta-map, they are entirely linear in nature.

The game features six playable factions: Men of the West (combination of Gondor and Rohan from the first game), Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, Isengard, and Mordor. The base system has been completely overhauled, allowing for free-form construction around the map. Resources are still primarily gathered by farm-type structures, but they have to be built far from each other and on suitable terrain for optimal income. Some neutral buildings like beacons, taverns and shipyards can be captured by infantrymen, much like tech structures in the later Command & Conquer games. In addition to this, production structures (unlike farm-type ones) have to be manually upgraded to be able to train higher-tier units. More units are available per faction, new support powers can be selected in the Palantir, and custom heroes can be designed and trained in skirmish and multiplayer. Taking the One Ring (from a killed Gollum unit which can occasionally appear on a map) to a fortress will allow the player to train a Ring Hero - Galadriel for the Good factions or Sauron for the Evil factions, both heroes being more powerful than any other unit in the game.

A new game mode is introduced - the War of the Ring, which is available in singleplayer and multiplayer. The player chooses a meta-map scenario and the armies which will be present on it, after which the game is played in a turn-based fashion over the regions of Middle-earth, where players establish bases and task forces. Battles between opposing factions can be resolved automatically or by loading a usual real-time mode map and playing a modified skirmish match with starting units and/or structures which match the state on the turn-based map.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Trailer

Alternate Titles

• "魔戒：中土戰爭Ⅱ" -- Traditional Chinese spelling
• "指环王: 中土战争 II" -- Simplified Chinese spelling
• "Властелин колец: Битва за Средиземье II" -- Russian spelling
• "Władca Pierścieni: Bitwa o Śródziemie II" -- Polish title
• "Ringenes Herre: Kampen om Midgard II" -- Norwegian title
• "Ringarnas Herre: Slaget om Midgård II" -- Swedish title
• "Pán Prstenů: Bitva o Středozem II" -- Czech title
• "O Senhor dos Anéis: A Batalha pela Terra Média II" -- Portuguese title
• "Le Seigneur des Anneaux: La Bataille pour la Terre du Milieu II" -- French title
• "Il Signore degli Anelli: La Battaglia per la Terra di Mezzo II" -- Italian title
• "เดอะลอร์ดออฟเดอะริงส์: แบทเทิลฟอร์มิดเดิลเอิร์ธ II" -- Thai spelling
• "Der Herr der Ringe: Die Schlacht um Mittelerde II" -- German title
• "A Gyűrűk Ura: Harc Középföldéért II" -- Hungarian title

Part of the Following Groups

• 3D Engine: SAGE
• EA Classics releases
• Fantasy Creatures: Dwarves
• Fantasy Creatures: Elves
• Fantasy Creatures: Orcs
• Fantasy Creatures: Trolls
• Gameplay feature: Recordable replays
• Games that include map/level editor
• Games with game altering copy protection
• Inspiration: Author - J. R. R. Tolkien
• Scripting language: Lua
• Technology: amBX
• The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth series

User Reviews

There are no reviews for this game.

Critic Reviews

JustPressPlay	Windows	Mar 16, 2006	8.9 out of 10	89
Game Informer Magazine	Windows	Apr, 2006	8.5 out of 10	85
ActionTrip	Windows	Mar 06, 2006	85 out of 100	85
GameSpot	Windows	Mar 02, 2006	8.3 out of 10	83
GameStar (Germany)	Windows	Mar, 2006	82 out of 100	82
IGN	Xbox 360	Jul 05, 2006	8.2 out of 10	82
Eurogamer.net (UK)	Windows	Mar 03, 2006	8 out of 10	80
JeuxVideoPC.com	Windows	Mar 13, 2006	16 out of 20	80
Gameslave UK	Windows	Apr 21, 2006	7.5 out of 10	75
TTGamer	Xbox 360	Aug 16, 2006	6 out of 10	60

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Trivia

Online Servers

Electronic Arts closed the game's online servers for the Windows version on 31st December 2010 and for Xbox 360 version on 11th January 2011.

Awards

• Computer Games Magazine
  • March 2007 - #3 Game of the Year
• Games for Windows Magazine
  • March 2007 - #7 Game of the Year
• PC Powerplay (Germany)
  • Issue 03/2007 – #2 Strategy Game in 2006 (Readers' Vote)

Related Web Sites

• The Lord of the Rings: The Battle For Middle Earth II (Game website for EA's The Lord of the Rings games)
• Wikipedia: The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II (Article in the open encyclopedia about the game.)
• X360A achievement guide (X360A's achievement guide for The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II)