By no means perfect, but there is some fun to be had (The Lord Of The Rings: Conquest (PS3))

Member Name: CrazyJamie

Product:	The Lord Of The Rings: Conquest (PS3)
Date:	19/02/09 (37 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Classes bring variety, well constructed campaign modes, fun multiplayer

Disadvantages: Offers little as a single player experience, too frustrating at times

Lord of the Rings games have always been a little bit hit and miss, but one thing that they tend to have in common is that they concentrate on the action sequences that the movie did so well, and Lord of the Rings Conquest is no exception to this trend.

As with past Lord of the Rings games on consoles, Conquest sees you controlling a single character and attempting to fight your way through an endless path of enemies in true heroic fashion. And like the past games, there is certainly a lot of fun to be had here. Variety is added by playing as one of four basic classes; warrior, archer, scout and mage, each with different attacks, strengths, and weaknesses. You can also play as special classes, including trolls and heroes, which offers a genuine thrill.

The single player campaign should, in theory, be fantastic. You fight in all of the major battles in the LotR world, and these really immerse you in the action sections of the books and films. You can fight in either the Good or Evil campaign, and out of the two the Evil campaign is designed particularly well. As an extra bonus, you can play co-operatively with another player (either online or off), and fight through the campaign together. And in all fairness, co-operatively is how the campaign has to be played. Why? Because the single player made displays some bad flaws. Unfortunately the enemy AI is poor, and the game mechanics often stack irritatingly hard odds against you. You never get the help you need in the heat of battle, and will all too often fall prey to a quick death that you feel is cheap. To be honest, playing the campaign is single player mode is more frustrating than fun, and you need a friend to get the most out of it.

The multiplayer mode brings the classes of the single player game to decently sized multiplayer battles, and this is without a doubt the game's highlight. There is a lot of fun to be had in the multiplayer mode, with all of the normal and special classes available, and a variety of maps to battle across. The multiplayer is frequently satisfying, whether it be sneaking up behind an enemy and instantly killing them with the scout, or crushing through three or four enemies at once as the troll. It is also frequently chaotic, which acts as a double edges sword as outcomes of fights seem a little random at time. The balance of classes is decent, but fights in hand to hand combat often come down to button mashing, which offers up frustration more often than it should when you die.

All in all there is quite a lot of fun to be had in LotR Conquest. Those looking for a game with all out action will be satisfied, especially if the LotR setting appeals to you. As with most games of this genre depth is a problem, though the varied classes do help mix things up a bit. Playing the game by yourself is not advised, but bringing in some friends for either the campaign or multiplayer livens things up considerably. Overall it is far from the best game ever, but does offer some entertainment, and for fans of LotR or action titles, or both, it might well be worth a look.

Summary: A decent title that will deliver some entertainment