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

EMAIL PRINT pc

6.7 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 36 critic reviews
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Based on 176 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: Electronic Arts LA

Genre(s): Real-Time Strategy

Players: 8

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Release Date: March 2, 2006

Summary

Given a new agreement with The Saul Zaentz Company d/b/a Tolkien Enterprises that grants EA the rights to develop games based on the books, in addition to a separate agreement that allows for games based on the New Line Cinema films The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II will introduce players to depths of the fiction never before explored by EA. With all new content from J.R.R. Tolkien's original fiction, delve deeper than ever before and engage in new battles that go beyond the award-winning movie trilogy. Wage war in the North and assume command of the most storied civilizations in all of Middle-earth history -- the Elven and Dwarven armies -- or fight on the side of Evil with heroes and creatures that have never been seen in The Lord of the Rings films. Defend or overtake never before seen lands such as Dol Guldur, The Misty Mountains, and Mirkwood as you unleash powerful new weapons and abilities - summon dragons, cause volcanoes to erupt, or bring down a cataclysmic lightning strike. But beware, with greater power comes greater adversity. Your enemies, commanded by a powerful new AI system, possess a greater tactical edge and more powerful spells. Will your armies have the fortitude to persevere? [Electronic Arts]

Also On Metacritic

GAMES: Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II - The Rise of the Witch-king

Cheat Codes & Hints: GameSpot Guide

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Pelit (Finland)

Innovative, fun to play and a joy to watch. A breath of fresh air in the stale real-time strategy genre. [Mar 2006]

GameShark

This doesn't feel like a knock-off Lord of the Rings game, rather it comes off as a true labor of love from designers that have a very good understanding of the material from which they are working and the finished product is much better because of it.

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Computer Games Magazine

All that said, Battle for Middle-Earth II is undeniably a labor of love, a grand work of art, and easily the best-looking game of 2006 so far. [Jun 2006, p.65]

PC Gamer

It's hard to find much fault in this fun and well-balanced game. It's set in arguably the best fantasy universe ever and its production values are sky-high. [May 2006, p.68]

AceGamez

Ultimately, playing games should always be about fun and that's why I absolutely loved playing this game.

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Gamezilla!

It helps all the more if you can recognize the subtle genius in zerging an enemy base with a battalion of Lothlórien elves, but even if you can’t, it’s still worth a long look.

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IGN

Battle for Middle-earth II is proof that EA was serious about getting back into the good graces of serious RTS fans.

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GamePro

Improves upon the original in several fundamental ways. Most importantly, it allows you to build your fortresses and buildings anywhere on the map, rather than pre-set building zones, opening your strategy up and allowing for a lot more variation in gameplay.

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Gamer 2.0

Ounce for ounce, this sequel improves upon its predecessor in every imaginable way, and as a result, is even more delightful. It’s fun, exciting, and beautiful to see and hear.

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Games Radar (in-house)

It's not often you come across an RTS with production values this high; every part seems to be polished till it shines.

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Game Over Online

If you think you’d be up for a fantasy RTS title that takes its combat halfway seriously, you owe it to yourself to at least try the demo. If you like that small taste, you can be sure that the retail version is a full course.

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Just RPG

A solid RTS experience. With beautiful graphics and sound, balanced gameplay, and six different factions to play as, RTS fans won’t want to miss this one!

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GameZone

What self-respecting Tolkien fan can be without this title? While the game does have a few stumbling points, this is a well-done RTS that enables players to experience the turmoil of the fantasy world, or just to create their own legacy within this fantastic realm.

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1UP

It's hard not to say something dull like "fans can't afford to miss it," but, you know, it's possibly the first time anyone's been able to say that about any Middle-earth game. Ever.

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Game Informer

Fusing the content from the recently-acquired license to the Lord of teh Rings books with its existing movie-based assets has resulted in another winner for Electronic Arts. [Apr 2006, p.130]

ActionTrip

Regarding graphics, it's really hard not to drool over this game. Seriously. The design and art team did a fabulous job on every single location that appears in the single-player campaign.

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Jolt Online Gaming UK

As welcome an update as we could ever have hoped for. By expanding beyond the reach of the films, adding in the distinctive modes of play in the forms of the simple campaign and the more tactical War of the Ring and improving upon the construction elements, EA have done a splendid job of bringing an already solid RTS right up to date.

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Games Master UK

Old-fashioned RTS in modern clothing, and a definite step forward from the last. [May 2006, p.63]

Gaming Age

The only complaint that anyone could have about the game is that sometimes the battles can get so amazingly big that it is very easy to lose track of what one is doing.

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PC Format

A visceral, engrossing epic noticeably lacking in refinement. [Apr 2006, p.82]

GameSpot

The Battle for Middle-earth II improves on 2004's game with a better strategic mode and a much broader scope that encompasses the whole of Middle-earth.

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Eurogamer

There's really nothing here that truly deserves great reward. But I had legions of fun. And, for this game at least, that counts for, oooh, pretty much everything.

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Yahoo! Games

While Battle for Middle Earth 2 has taken a step back from its more avant-garde predecessor, it's a welcome one. If it wasn't for the woefully sub-par AI, this game would earn an easy, unreserved recommendation. But rolling over the AI time and time again in single-player just gets old, and if you don't have the appetite for online play, you'll end up pushing it to the back of the drawer and hoping for a patch.

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Boomtown

What we have in The Battle For Middle Earth 2 is a good title, very good at times, that could become rather great with some patching.

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PALGN

The hottest RTS game this year, and one of the most rewarding Lord of the Rings title available.

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GamerFeed

Some of the new features, like The War of the Ring mode don't play out as nicely as they should, and the single player campaigns are a bit generic, but overall this is a great, fast-paced game.

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Loaded Inc

A few bugs and a lackluster hero creation mode, however, don’t change the fact that Battle for Middle-earth II is a great real-time strategy game that is worth adding to your collection.

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PC Gamer UK

A brave and courageous publisher would have let the sublime source material dictate the design rather than reach for the nearest proven formula. [Apr 2006, p.80]

G4 TV

Overall Battle for Middle Earth II is not a drastically improved game when compared to the first, but it does deliver more high-budget and engrossing RTS gameplay.

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Worth Playing

While it does not bring anything significantly new to the genre, Battle for Middle Earth 2 is a solid RTS.

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Play.tm

A more than competent and enjoyable real-time strategy experience.

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Armchair Empire

Joins a crowded arena of decent real time strategy games. It doesn't stick out much from the crowd, except for its license.

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Game Revolution

There's no way to deny that The Battle for Middle Earth II is simply a lot of fun. The venerable mythology and frenetic battles come together in a very satisfying bundle.

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PC Zone UK

The Battle For Middle-Earth II may look impressive, and its basic, by-the-numbers RTS approach is fun in a mindless sort of way. However, in no way is it anywhere near the game we hoped for. What a waste.

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VideoGamer

They've put more than enough bells and whistles in to make Battle for Middle-Earth II seem extremely fresh and, most importantly, a lot of fun. When it comes down to it, for the LOTR strategy fan, this game is a must.

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GameSpy

My biggest concerns, though, rest with how multiplayer is balanced. The heroes are simply far too powerful; in one game, three heroes utterly destroyed an entire enemy army. Things get even worse when playing with One Ring enabled.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 6.7 (out of 10) based on 176 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jason gave it a7:
I have mixed feelings about this game. The free-build for the game was nice, but it ran into problems, since resources took up a HUGE portion of the map. Perhaps this was done to make the games longer, but for me, I spend a lot of early time building resource buildings so I can build (and maintain) an army and then I have to spend a lot of time defending huge tracts of land. I liked building the huge fortresses of BFME1 better. The addition of the new races makes it a bit more fun (although the Men of the West are basically Gondor and Rohan combined) but they also have some frustrating imbalance issues. For instance, a dwarven axe thrower has a longer range than any other ranged unit that I've seen (even Gondor Rangers). The lack of customization on the Create-A-Hero was a little bit of a letdown for me. You can customize the armor, but there's nothing you can do about the face, and even then, there's only about 4 or 5 armor selections to choose from. I also didn't like the fact that when I tried to attack a territory with my Create-A-Hero in the War of the Ring mode, it wouldn't do it, for whatever reason. A bug? Intentional? I have no idea, but it kind of ruined that aspect of the game for me. The War of the Ring concept is interesting, but really like the Dawn of War: Dark Crusade idea (and I think DoW did it better). However, the mythology and the scope of the game are great and you can get a lot of replayability with it. I'd say just nerf the "superheroes" (e.g. Gimli was able to take down three of my heroes, all level 2, my entire army of about 5 or 6 squads of various types, all at level 1...), patch the War of the Ring to let custom heroes invade territories, and shorten the range of the Dwarven Axe Throwers, and I say the game would get at least an 8.

Seth D. gave it a9:
Well i think some things were weird: 1. no angmar elite troops 2. not very many evil archer heroes 3. aeagorn cant use his bow 4. legolas should be able to use his swords whenever 5. nazgul custom would be nice.

Iven B. gave it a2:
The campaigns are just like every other regular RTS style campaign, unlike the original. The gameplay is flawed and every new patch released by ea still leaves troops underbalanced or leaves overbalanced troops still far too overbalanced. the multiplay aspect is full of glitches, exploits and rushers, and if you finally get a good game people will end up leaving or the game will crash for an unknown reason. Create a heroes are too powerful, you can only create them in one way as every other way leaves them vulneranble in combat, and as the game is based around fighting, you don't want your hero to die. BFME1 was a far better game to play, it had originality of base creation, the campaign was original and fun, and the online play was far better than on BFME2 or ROTWK.

Chris A. gave it a3:
The original was alot better. EA had something original. BFME2 is now just like any other RTS game. THere's nothing unique to it. BFME2 was basically BFME1 with new units and buildings. The campaign wasn't good. They brought build everywhere back which isn't original, and now the game is only about rushing. There is absolutely NO TACTIC in BFME2 or BFME2: ROTWK. On multiplayer games, the only thing that people build are archers. The graphics weren't different than the original. The music didn't fell LOTRish to me at all. There are big disbalancement issues. The forces of good are unbeattable which makes it pointless for a player to choose the forces of evil. The Create-A-Hero feature was uber crap All the heros of good had the same powers and all the heros of evil had the same powers, they are almost impossible to kill.The campaign missions were to repetitive and it seemed like you were only playing a skirmish game. This game was the biggest RTS disapointment ever. BFME1 was obviously better than BFME2 and BFME ROTWK. Mainly because of the simplicity of gameplay, you had the choice of playing a long campaign or cut through with the army of your choice. The balance was excellent and the graphics good for that time. The music was as good as the movies! It was also based on the movies which felt very familiar but different at the same time. Mark Skaggs was a much better producer then Mike Verdu. The people who gave this game 10/10 obviously are book fans who've never played an RTS game before and would give a 10/10 for any kind of game that's labelled "The Lord of the rings" Don't buy BFME2. Buy BFME1.

Alex T. gave it an8:
The game is good and it has a strategic map (similar to Total War series) and a tactical RTS map. I like graphics and the AI is good!

Ryan B. gave it a9:
Its good lots of action, not too much focus on building up heros are fun.

Leo R. gave it a1:
It is the absolute worst game of the year and the worst game on the Xbox 360 to date. It is dull boring, graphically crap and just well.....bad. No one has made one decent LOTR game yet.

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

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What The Critics Said

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