Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2 Collector's Edition

List Price: $29.99 Discount Price: $25.95

Features:

• Master next-gen unit control with smart formations, battle lines, and planning mode
• Build anywhere
• Control the entire war with a high level "Risk" style meta-game on the Living World Map with all new strategic AI
• Extend your battlefield with larger than life navy battles at sea

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

Good, but could have been Better... [Posted on 2006-10-09]
Without going into into great detail as has already been done, 1st the things I don't like about it:

1. Single player campaign is too simplistic, small scale, feels like it was designed for grade schoolers...

2. In multiplayer even after a few patches worth of balancing it's still pretty much a base rush fest with too much focus on gathering silly resources and upgrades to win games rather than tactics.

3. Heros are overpowered. A hero can take out your base and your buildings single handedly, coupled with a few good units it makes siege weapons obsolete, as a side note don't waste too much time or money on walls they just get torn down if not by units then by powers.

I don't want to be too critical, it does have a lot of life to it just like the first game. The graphics are great, animations good, sound effects awesome, voice acting excellent. All in all if you take it for what it is, the latest and probably one of the greatest in the long traddition of top down cam, click happy RTS games you should enjoy it. Otherwise if you haven't bought it yet and you're runnin a pretty heavy rig, you might just save your dollars for something on a much grander scale such as Medieval II: Total War or WarHammer: Mark of Chaos.

By the way the collectors edition comes with some nice extras like interviews and art plus a dragon you can call on in game.

Awesome Game [Posted on 2006-11-03]
If you love Command and Conquer: Generals, you will love this game. In addition, the musical scoring, visual effects, and overall game play is bar-none one of the best RTS games.

wicked fun [Posted on 2006-11-05]
this game is wicked fun and the AI is very interesting because it makes you think on your feet and makes sure that you don't get too used to how it plays.

Greatest Game Eva [Posted on 2006-11-08]
best game since war craft endless possibilties and no cheating that i have found yet. online is a blast meet heaps of LoTR junkies and gamers who just love they game. make sure you update to get rid of thoese nasty bugs. again 5 stars great game

You have to be a huge fan of Tolkien to get this [Posted on 2007-09-05]
The collector's edition comes packed full of goodness, I really liked the map specially so if you compare the regular with the collector's edition and you're a huge fan of the Tolkien world, then I recommend the collector's version over the other one.
BUT the game itself (either regular or collector) is really a basic level RTS, nothing out of the ordinary. I can tell you right now that this game is way worse than any Blizzard RTS you can find, the missions are way to easy, the armies are just clones, some heroes level up way faster than others and the cinematics are just HIDEOUS !!!
I'm really desapointed by this game I expected a huge change since all the complains from BFME I but I guess EA never listens (NFSU anyone ?).
So, if you're a huge Tolkien fan consider this game, if you're a serious RTS fan the buy Medieval II and the expansion and finally if you're a cinematic fan then try Command and Conquer 3 (which has some nice movie-like cinematics).

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