fantasy

War of the Ring is a great game but there are some problems.

Graphics: Very good graphics but not as good as Warcraft III.
The landscape looks nice but the units look a little
bad compared to games like Warcraft 3 fortunately you
can build larger armies and thats a positive aspect.

Performance: This is the tough part. I played the game in a
Pentium 4 2Ghz processor with 712mb ram and a
Gforce 4 128mb graphics card and it wasnt running
as smoothly as I expected, I was disapointed. i do
not know about how the game will run with ATI graphics cards but I tell you, if you have nVIDIA this game is just not for you.

Sides: Of course you will be playing either as the Good guys or
as the minions of Sauron but reducing the game
in only 2 races sucks.

Conclusion: The game is good but if I were you I would
wait for the Battle of Middle Earth from EA
games and enjoy something more elegant than
this or go and buy Warcraft 3, Cossacks etc.
I certainly cant stop you from buying it but
it is not the kind of lord of the rings game
you want to play. If it runs of course because of its extreme proccesor requirements and believe me it is not 300 mhz that the box says.

This is a killer game. I've been playing almost nonstop for two days and this is the most fun I've had in a long long time. The art is rich and the environments lush. The units are full of character and each of the heroes are unique. I was really surprised, I was expecting a more-of-the-same Warcraft III, but this thing blew me away. Warcraft III came off as a big bloated over budget yawnfest. This game is a lean mean, hit and run, "screw them before they screw you" kind of game with some of the smartest AI I've seen yet.

I didn't know what to expect because I didn't want to play a game with the visuals that the movies have. I like the movies alot, but I don't want to look at a mishmash of browns and grays on my monitor. This game's art style is not that at all, it's just simply really cool. The colors are rich and it looks like you're in a painted graphic novel. The special effects are wild and the voice acting is great. The single player missions are awesome with scenarios behind the scenes and including the main storyline. The campaigns that take place in cities are cool with rich details like damaged buildings, rubble, and a bridge you have to demolish to hinder the enemy. Helm's Deep and Osgiliath are simply amazing.

This game really shines in multiplayer too. For the good side, you have Gondor Swordsmen, Rohan Riders, Elven Archers, Elven Lightbringers, Dwarven Axethrowers, Dwarven Shieldbreakers, Huorns (Ents) and Beorning (wildmen that turn into Bears) For the evil side you have Orc Slashers, Orc Archers, Uruk-hai, Wraiths, Haradrim, Troll Stone-hurlers, and Troll Bone-cleavers, Warg Riders, and Spiders. Also, each of the heroes are designed so that you have to adapt your strategy according to which heroes the enemy has in play. Gimli can steal your towers and temporarily stun melee units near him, Frodo and Gollum have stealth capabilities, the Witch King can convert Wraiths into Nazgul, Legolas can increase allies mobility and protection from ranged attacks, Saruman and Gandolf are just killer wizards that can turn the battle and Aragorn, man, Aragorn is the KING. He just becomes the melee unit of all melee units the more he gains levels.

In addition to all this are the Fate Powers, which you can use by accumulating Fate Points, which are acquired based on how much damage you inflict on your opponent. The Fate Powers are unique spells that can easily shift the tide in a battle. With Fate Powers, the Evil side can summon spells that can do things like slow enemy units down, or a giant cloud of crows that protect the evil side's units, etc. There's an evil Fate Power that summons a giant obelisk that bursts through the ground and absorbs damage for the Evil side. The ultimate evil Fate Power is summoning a Balrog with a flaming sword that just makes mince meat out of anything in its path. The Balrog's fire effects are just stunning! On the Good side, there are Fate Powers like Blind, and a spell that creates a field of brambles that damages enemies running through it. The ultimate Good side Fate Power summons a giant Ent (Treebeard) and he attacks by throwing a massive boulder at enemies.

I would really recommend this game to the experienced or novice game player. Have fun!

You need the latest hardware for this game. I've P4 1.4 GHz with 256M of memory - it is not enough. Motions are jerky - 20 frames per second. Graphics are lacking in details and appears to be 2D animated figures. I expected this game to be like Age of Mythology or AOE.

The software piracy routine sometimes prevents the game from booting. Takes a while to boot up not sure if it's buffering the startup movies or something.