Battle for Middle Earth 2 Beta Preview
Gimli held his trusted axe tight in his hands while he jumped up to deliver a lethal blow to the Goblin archers. The ground trembled beneath his feet upon landing, and with one mighty swing the few goblins who were still standing were sent back to the Darkness they had come from! Unfortunately for me, my opponent had managed to revive his level 10 Drogoth the Dragon Lord and managed to fend off my assault. That turned the tide and soon the foul Goblins aided by the Dragon Lord razed my base and I was defeated.
 The beta for Lord of the Rings:
Battle for Middle Earth II features a few multiplayer maps and two of the
new races: Dwarves and Goblins. Let me first say something about the two
major changes to this sequel to Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle
Earth before continuing with the less drastic changes.
The two most notable differences are the completely overhauled fortress system and the new factions. One might say that it would be hard not to notice the new factions, but it's actually the fact that they combined Rohan and Gondor that makes me curious. In the first Battle for Middle Earth, Rohan's strength was their cavalry while Gondor's strength was much more focussed on infantry. That leads me to believe that the new Men of the West will actually be a whole new faction; jack of all trades, master of none. If the Men of the West will feature both Rohan's and Gondor's units as they appeared in the first Battle for Middle Earth, the Men of the West will be an insanely powerful race to play with. |
The Dwarves really fit their stereotype in Battle for Middle Earth: sturdy, powerful warriors, excellent miners and masters of smithing. Of course Tolkien can be held responsible for creating this stereotype himself, but nonetheless it has almost become a universal fact that Dwarves are not ballet dancers! Indeed, the Dwarven infantry is a tough nut to crack when faced in battle, and if well equipped they can be used very effectively against both enemy infantry as well as buildings. The Dwarves, however, feature more than just strong infantry. They also have access to Axe Throwers and Men of Dale, who are archers. Combine that with their ability to create siege weapons and cavalry and I do feel that the Dwarves may have become a bit generic. The Dwarven heroes are Gimli, Gimli's father Glóin and King Dáin. All three heroes are focussed on physical destruction; whether they are destroying enemy units or buildings, their powers are very "down to earth," literally!
The Elves remain a mystery so far, but that does fit them. Elves are close with nature, ancient and wise, and I assume that the Elves will focus much more on magic and ranged damage than the Dwarves and Men of the West.
 On the Evil side, things seem to
have been changed less drastically with only the addition of the Goblin
faction. As of yet we don't know what changes were made to Mordor and
Isengard, if any at all. The Goblins do seem to be a very good addition.
Their fast moving units, powerful heroes and awesome wall jump ability
look balanced. Shelob, Gorkil the Goblin King and Drogoth the Dragon Lord
are the Goblin heroes, and the Dragon Lord is especially adept at taking
down enemy infantry. The Goblins have ways to summon more Dragons, which
cost a lot, but are also very, very powerful when defended and used
properly. The powers you gain access to by slaying your opponent are not
just cool to see, but also very useful when it's time to let your enemy
know who the boss is. The one game where half of my army was literally
wiped away by the Watcher, a Hydra-like creature, made me realise that
spreading out my units against Goblins may be a very good idea! It's a
good thing when you can't just rush in and hope you win by numbers and
upgrades, but of course I expect nothing less than a solid tactical game
anyway! |
 The fortress system received a
complete overhaul in this new game. The Evil forces, or at least the
Goblins, still cannot build walls and presumably all Good forces, Elves
included, still can. The major difference is that there are no longer
fixed walls or building positions as you know them from the first Battle
for Middle Earth. Your fortress will still have six building hubs, on
which you can add defences or wall hubs, but you're free to build any
building wherever you want. This doesn't mean you can now build an
unlimited number of farms (or other income generating buildings). These
buildings will have a certain efficiency, which is based on the terrain
they are built upon. If a second farm is built close to an existing one,
the efficiency will drastically decrease. This new feature leads to many
interesting possibilities, of course, but by allowing the Good forces to
build walls far away from their fortress the defensive power they gain is
massive. The Goblin's counter to this is that they can jump over these
walls without having to destroy them. I will be curious to see how
Isengard and Mordor will counter the walls. Another addition is that you
can now buy upgrades for your buildings! No longer will your barracks and
archery ranges, stables and blacksmiths automatically upgrade after a
certain amount of units have been made. No, if you have the gold, press
the upgrade button and the building will be upgraded. |
 Other improvements include naval
combat, new regions to explore, and of course the updated graphics.
Although the first Battle for Middle Earth looked great, the second
instalment does look slightly better and on my no more than average
system the game runs very smoothly on high settings. I can't tell you
anything about the new regions yet as I have no idea what the campaign
will look like, but naval combat does seem like a welcome addition. I
always feel that in most RTS games navies are very generic, and since
I've only seen the navies of two factions I can't really comment on this
aspect very well yet. Even if naval combat is limited, however, I think
that increasing the ways in which you can harm your opponent is never a
bad thing!
Overall, Battle for Middle Earth II seems to be a worthy successor to Battle for Middle Earth. The changes are not so drastic that the game feels entirely different, but the game has changed enough to count as a new game rather than an expansion. The new factions and fortress system should bring more variety to both the single player campaign and the multiplayer battles, and the numerous smaller additions make this real time strategy game very complete. |
By EJay