LOTR Conquest: Multiplayer Rant (This Game Is Horrible) - rabbit221

So I was finally able to pull myself away from the multiplayer of this demo to sit down and write about it. I know, I know, we talked about how awful the game is and how awful the voices are and how it looks like the PSX shit and then pitched it to EA and Pandemic. Thankfully, you don't have to deal with the voices as much while playing the multiplayer portion. But that's where it stops. The awful, unbalanced gameplay is still there and so are the awful, AWFUL graphics that belong the PS2. But. BUT. For some reason, playing this with other humans while bitching about how terrible the game is while being complete assholes to everyone else is quite entertaining. Clearly though, that's not what the game was made for.

The multiplayer portion lets you play on two maps; one is some sort of castle/keep deal and the other is a hobbit village of sorts (I'm not a huge LOTR fan so if those are important places or have names, I apologize). The maps are decent but nothing spectacular. Clearly, though, nothing in this game is all that great to look at. A major issue for me is that on these maps, Ents and Trolls are supposedly placed in certain spawn points, and all you have to do is walk up to them and it prompt you to take over. Too bad that the game doesn't tell you ANYTHING about this and you have to figure it out yourself, usually in the way of getting stomped or having your face smashed in by one or the other. Once you find them and learn how to use them, you realize that they are far, FAR overpowered. While they have two powerful hit attacks, the A button will heal yourself, and if used correctly, these things become practically invincible. You best bet at taking them down is with 2 or 3 scouts climbing onto its back in quick succession, that is if you don't get taken out by one of the Ents/Trolls massive arcing swings. That can possibly kill you in one hit if you have anything but full health.

On to the actual multiplayer game play. Running around acting like an asshole is always fun. But, I did actually try to play the game the way it's meant to be played. It's not that great. The game's biggest problem is that the classes are WAY unbalanced. A warrior can run into any fight and pretty much be guaranteed a kill or two. It's an extremely overpowered class and if you find yourself fighting one, there IS no hope. The mage is another unbalanced class. You can put up a shield that deflects any ranged attacks, and you can heal yourself and others. The archer is a fairly decent class. With a mix of ranged attacks, you can deal a fair amount of damage, but your close range combat is limited to a puny ass kick. The last class that's available is the Scout. This is possibly the worst class to play, but the most fun to be an asshole with. You have the ability to cloak, although it's extremely limited and for a very short amount of time. Your only attack worth a shit is the one hit kill from behind while cloaked. That is if you can find the millimeter of space behind an enemy where the attack actually WORKS. Your other pro is that you're the only person that can climb atop an Ent or Troll and deal some serious damage to it.

Another thing that makes the game almost unplayable are the ridiculous camera angles and the positions the camera will take sometimes, making it impossible to see your enemy and 9 times out of 10 resulting in your death. And it's been discussed plenty of times before but the graphics. . . . Why can't people HARNESS the power of the 360 and PS3? It would seem like an easy enough task. This is another game that will go down the shitter and hopefully be forgotten by anyone who's ever played it and will teach EA and Pandemic a lesson. Throwing the name of something popular on a game does not make up for a shitty and lackluster experience. If they intend to charge $60 for this game, I'll be very, VERY surprised.