The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Ring Demo

Middle-earth is crawling with evil forces that have nothing better to do than plot the demise of the other races and take control of the realm in the meanwhile. The good always finds a way, though, as the story of Frodo illustrated both in the books and in the movie trilogy. In this RTS, you have to play both parts and see the war from every perspective, in case you are curios what would have happened if Sauron accomplished his plan.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Ring is a real-time strategy game that gives you control over Middle-earth's most feared warriors from both sides of the barricade and allows you to go through two different campaigns. Naturally, one of them features the struggle of the elves and humans, who are fighting to save their lands and species from the invading armies of Mordor, while the other puts you at the helm of the orcs and encourages you to recover the ring.

Since the campaigns are so different from each other, it means that the gameplay mechanics change as well, since the units fighting for each side have different strengths and powers. Thus, although the underlying idea of base-building might be the same, you must employ different tactics if you want to get the most out of each faction.

Although the armies are quite numerous on both sides, they need to follow a worthy leader in order to be properly organized and inspired. Thus, the heroes from the books make a return in this title as well, using their legendary skills to fight in the vanguard of their respective armies. To take as an example, Legolas is the most important character in the elven forces and his survival is of capital importance throughout the campaign, meaning that the mission fails if he dies.

Since this is a pretty standard RTS game, the mechanics are all there and you quickly get accustomed to the gameplay style. The units can be selected and ordered in the classical way, using your mouse to do so and various keyboard shortcuts to perform special actions. Things become a bit more difficult whenever you happen to engage in large scale battles, although micromanagement is not nearly as important here as it is in other titles.

In the end, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Ring may not be a revelation to its genre, but the captivating tale of good and evil is enough to keep you glued to the screen for a few hours. Moreover, the fact that you get to witness the power of Middle-earth's greatest heroes from a first hand perspective is also a plus.