| Average Rating: 86 out of 100
Owned by 42 users
On 74 wishlists
81
I had rented this game a month ago, and a few weeks ago decided to buy it. This is suprising considering that I finished the game on both campaigns while renting it.
Lord of the Rings: Tactics is a turn-based strategy game. Essentially, you play with one or more 'main' characters (ie. Aragorn), combined with one or more 'auxillary' characters (ie. Baromir) in an 'arena' (ie. Helm's Deep). The forces of good and evil square off, each with their own goals for victory. When a stage is completed, all your characters get experience and you get some gold which you can use to buy items or skills.
The gameplay consists of two modes: Movement and Combat phase. Both are pretty self-explanatory. You run through each of your characters, giving them instructions, and then you finalize everything and watch them all spur into action.
The game actually adds quite a bit of extra principles into this mix however, by having different terrain movement penalties, Zones of Control, High-Ground bonuses, Criticals and of course the variety of special moves and items each character can have.
As I stated, I had already rented and beat the game, yet it was appealing enough to purchase. Here is why:
The graphics were very good. There was a lot of movie clips in the game; very typical of Lord of the Rings games. The characters and terrain were well done, and I did not notice any anomalies or defects in the graphics.
The camera movements were good for the most part, allow the analog stick to zoom and pan around your selected character. It did get annoying while showing movement or combat sequences however - it is not uncommon to see an attack with a large wall in front of the camera, but to me this did not happen enough to be a big issue, and it definately did not obstruct gameplay which is the big problem with camera movements in the first place.
The sound was excellent. In addition to having the familiar movie music, there are quite a bit of ambient sounds that really add to the various stages.
Being a turn-based strategy there was not a big deal of control issues involved. My only real complaint was that the O button was the "accept" button and the X button was the "cancel", something opposite of what the default PSP controls are. For example, you use O to select "Save Campaign", and then it throughs you into a PSP Save Game File selection screen, which uses X to confirm and O to cancel. Little annoying but again it does not affect gameplay so its not a biggie.
I will admit that the game is fairly short. You run through all the stages of light and then start over with the forces of shadow. Once you are done you want to put the game down and not touch it for a while. For me however, I loved the gameplay so much that I found myself going back and retrying the game to see if I could do better. For instance, I must have played the Amon Hen level about 100 times. The first time I managed to complete it in 14 turns, losing 3 guys. Now I've been able to complete it in 3 turns, losing no guys. Lastly, changing the difficulty can really prolong the experience. Thie game keeps calling me back even though I have finished it 3 times already.
So in the end, I'll give the following scores:
Game Artistry and use of PSP hardware: 80
Camera Movement and Placements: 75
Control Usability and Logic: 85
Interest and Replayability: 75
Fun and Overall Experience: 90
95
A 3D tactics game, that can be also thought of as an RPG. You will be able to play as either the Legions of Mordor of of the Fellowship, which brings about the question, Are you Evil or Good?
The graphics of this game are pretty good, they are above those of UL:BotB. There is no infra-structure to the game which is a setback, but there is AD-HOC which will allow local players to issue commands to their troops simultaneously.
The campaign mode can get repetetive as with any stategy game, and gameplay can get slow and tiresome. So this game is not for those who do not have patience and/or love stategy games. I for one love strategy games, and therefore think this game is a must have.
Another drawback is one that will only be noticed by true LotR fans, that is the story of the game makes no sense. The movie scenes shown in between the missions jump back and forth between scenes that have nothing to do with the current mission. If you are not a fan of LotR, this will not upset you as much as others, but even a person who has never seen a LotR movie or read a book will be able to tell that there is a lack of a story line to this game.
In conclusion, this game is a fantastic strategy game. If you are in to strategy games then this is the game for you, and you should go buy it today. However if you are looking for a story line to help out the game, instead of just random battles against the enemy, then you might not enjoy this game too much.
82
This game is by far the best RPG available right now. Being able to choose sides and straight-up battle for Middle-Earth is very appealing as well as fun! The load times are no issue, and the graphics are sound, if not fantastic. The only issue I have with the game is the length (could have been longer), I managed to finish the game in 15 hrs., but the replay value is high. This game is truely a must have!
82
So I have had my way with LOR Tactics and wanted to give you my two cents. This is an excellent strategy RPG. Typical elements we look for in rpgs like leveling up, buying upgrades, magic abilities, etc.. What you can't do is buy armor or weapons but you'll find the gold you win from battles is quickly spent on other things anyway. One thing I noticed about the "upgrades" are that many of them don't seem practical. For instance, Frodo and Sam have the optional ability to go into stealth mode which hides them from enemy fire. This would make sense if the missions would end with Frodo's demise as you would expect, but outside of one or two missions where he is required to stay alive, this is not the case. So, its easy to pump up his rock throw ability and strength and use him as a dispendable fighter in most cases.
I had tons of fun with this game. First I played through as the fellowship. It took about 5 hours to go through on normal difficulty and was just a great experience. There were times when the camera angles were problematic, but for the most part, it was not a problem. The story is not very linear however, but does follow the movie as you'll have clips from the film before each level. So I leveled up to 15 for almost everyone and had little problem defeating any of the levels, some seemed almost too easy, but still great fun.
Next I started playing the game as Sauron and the other hosts of Mordor. This became a bit more difficult from the start. I've pumped in 5 levels on normal difficulty and I have had to repeat some numerous times. The difficulty goes way up with Mordor as your team. So this is frustrating but very entertaining indeed. You don't get much gold from the hard fought battles so leveling up your evil characters is much much MUCH more difficult. But still having a great time.
$50 may seem like a bit much, however, for this game. I reccomend you either rent this, or try to buy it used or on eBay. $30 is a great price for this game. The graphics and animations are wonderful, sound is fantastic, and the gameplay is excellent as well.
88
When I first pulled Tactics out of the box and read the instruction manual (yes, I do actually read them), the game seemed nicely put together, with simple controls, and a couple of customization options for each character. The back of the box said that you could use twelve heroes from Middle Earth (where the game is set). It also stated that you could play as The Fellowship, the" good guys", or conquer and rule as the forces of Mordor (the "bad guys" . You pretty much follow and take control over the main characters from the popular books and movies through the plot.
This game really focuses more on the tactics, and you don't worry too much about special character powers or even customization. You really can't feel the difference of when your characters level up or you get new weapons, mostly because (as far as I know), the appearances of the characters never change. You can, however buy magic powers for each character, and they look pretty cool, and do interesting stuff. Anyway, both of the opposing forces go through the same processes at the same time, which really does separate it from a turn-based RPG (whether that's good or bad). It also means that you have to always be thinking ahead and thinking about what your enemy is thinking about (before he or she starts thinking about what your thinking about, which is what he or she should be doing).
In this way, it is slightly reminiscent of chess. There are two phases: Movement and Combat. In the movement phase, you can chose where your characters move to (at the same time as your opponent positions his or hers). Then, you push the circle button, and everyone moves at the same time. You do the same thing in the Combat phase, except you decide who attacks who. Of course, the game is played on a grid.
[header=3]Game play[b/]
I'm imagining that this game is driven by a pretty complicated engine, because when you move, everyone goes at the exact same time- step for step. If a character blocks another (non-friendly) character or gets within one vertical or horizontal space (not diagonal), then they don't finish their move and prepare to fight. In the combat phase, if you are right next to an enemy "unit", as they are called, you are in their Zone of Control, which means you aren't allowed to use ranged attacks, you must attack the one in you ZoC (as it is so elegantly abbreviated).
There is some actual variety in this game, whereas other games sometimes have a severe lack. There are different types of goals, which include things such as capture the flag, survive for X turns, kill X enemies or have X and Y still living. The actual game play is fun and interesting, if you like this sort of thing.
As for load times, this title has some for about 12 seconds (while loading a fight), except one big one that lasts for about three minutes when it's starting up. The graphics are great, I'd say above PS1, but not quite as sharp as PS2. The character models, especially on the evil side, are occasionally hard to differentiate. The scenery is just, well, beautiful. It honestly makes me want to visit Middle Earth. Even the darker levels are very nice looking. I'm glad that you can pan around with the analog stick; I spent about 5 minutes just playing around with the scenery.
Despite its aesthetics, sometimes it looks very two dimensional. For example, the leaves in the trees all appear to come together and make a shape that looks like a piece of paper from a certain angle. The sound is very good, and came directly from the movie, which should give it some instant merit. EA also managed to put in a movie clip for almost every level.
This game is medium hard, I'd say. I tried the "easy" campaign first, and I almost got beat a few times at the end. (I'm a moderately skilled casual gamer). The artificial intelligence is pretty good. I've yet to see the computer do anything stupid.
I think $50 is a little much to be asking, but if you are a fan of either tactics games or LotR, it'll be well worth it.
Pros
• Good, new game play.
• A lot of replay value, especially with the multiplayer skirmish mode.
• Good graphics and sound.
• Well created scenery (EA bought the rights to the book, so they also got to invent the looks of some new levels).
• There is a tutorial, don't worry.
Cons
• The camera snaps around during the part where you watch what you planned during combat mode, is confusing at first.
• Hard to tell the differences between characters sometimes.
• Not very deep and fun character customization.
• Not a very long game (easy with the forces of mordor only took me 8 hours).
You'll certainly have fun with this game if you want a new look at tactics games or you are a fan of the movies or books. If not, I'd wait 'til the price drops a little. I think this is a genre that you like or hate, so try it out and see.
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