Lord of the Rings: Conquest for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

This game is almost exactly like Star Wars Battlefront. You play through several levels trying to capture points. The single player campaign will last around 8 hours at most. Once you copmlete the "good" story you can play as the "evil." Both sides have the exact same character classes so it gets a little repetitive. The game is made to be played with friends. It supports 4 player split screen and xbox live. Online you can play a capture the flag type match called "capture the ring"...team deathmatch...and conquest.

My biggest problem with the game is there is no targeting system. I got very frustrated playing as a warrior and starting an attack on one guy and then mid-combo it would switch to another. After switching I would then get hit by the enemy I was originally hitting. Your enemies also love to hit you when your down or right when you stand up. If your playing on the harder difficulties this will probably kill you. Another issue I have is that when you do die or fail an objective you have to completely restart the level. When your 15 minutes into one of the longer levels and you get killed and have to start over, it is a little frustrating.

I'm not saying the game isn't fun, but it could use a little extra work. Playing with a friend is fun and online play will keep some people coming back, but I don't think it has the lasting appeal of most games. It's worth renting if you like the Battlefront games or are a fan of LOTR.

LOTR: Conquest brings the Battlefront style to Middle Earth. This game sticks very closely to the old Battlefront formula, a little too closely.

I'll break down the pro's and con's before going into some detail.

Goods:

- Many characters from LOTR are available to play
- Levels are decent sized
- Evil campaign gives an interesting change of fate for Middle Earth
- Multiplayer is fun (gee, really?)

Bads:

- Graphics aren't as good as they could be
- Campaigns are short
- Lack of replay value
- Way too easy (cheap ways) to die in certain spots of the campaign

More often than not I find myself playing a sequel, or a game made to emulate a different title, and thinking that "they should have stuck with what worked", or, "why did they change that?". With LOTR: Conquest, I found myself thinking "why didn't they change anything?!".

This game feels very much like Battlefront for the Xbox, too much infact. The graphics are nothing to write home about, there is no character development of any kind. Other than mindless killing (which I am a fan of) and achievements, there isn't really any reason to replay levels. A play through each campaign will net you roughly 60% of the gamer points, which can easily be done in one sitting (on an easy difficulty that is).

One redeeming point to this title is the "evil" campaign, which takes on the story as if the ring was not destroyed, and instead was returned to Sauron. I'm not going to lie, I really enjoyed pillaging the Shire. I killed a lot of hobbits.

I gave the game a 6 rating based on the fact it is fun for a while, but I regret paying $60 the day it came out. I am ready to sell it.

Worth a rental, but don't pay more than $20 - $25 for this title.