Naturally, I'm running the 64 bit version so I'm out of luck, but glad I checked first!
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I would like to review all of the games included, but I really don't want to do each one seperately. I may. But for now, I'm reviewing them each seperately within this Anthology review, because that is how I bought them.I actually got BFME the first as a gift and then later bought the Anthology on sale.
The first BFME was a great game. I enjoyed the departure from many of my RTS experiences where I could keep units between battles, making an "army" that persisted in the world map. I also like having heroes that level up and have various powers. It could get very difficult to upgrade battalions in BFME due to the way buildings levelled up. I often would find myself with a command limit that required me to train single battalions at a time, and then send them to the enemy camp to commit suicide so I could build another battalion. After many of these I could finally purchase upgrades for my single new battalion that I wished to keep. Otherwise, you have to send your veteran battalions to their deaths and start over, which is pointless.
My other complaint of BFME is how tedious some of the battles could become. However, as a general rule, there were enough different battles that it was interesting and fun, and many of the battles were vastly different. I remember steamrolling several maps and then playing another map for 3 nights straight before I worked around the map and was able to finally defeat the enemy. Additionally, the battels such as Helm's Deep, Minis Tirith, and the Black Gate were just really fun to play.
Graphically the game is great. Sometimes the maps get a little repetative but they are well made and look good. The gameplay is amazing, and I love how cavalry can just run over archers and even swordsmen to do damage to them without actually "attacking" but suffer great damage when they charge pikemen. Likewise, arrows and especially flaming arrows can do great damage to large beasts such as mumakil and trolls, sometimes causing them to "rage". There are also nice little combinations like explosive "mines" that can be set off with flaming arrows. For instance, I once piled "mines" completely around a Gondor fortress. It took a while but was worth it when I set the first one off and the entire wall exploded along with several of the buildings inside the wall.
Battle for Middle Earth 2 had some improvements over the first game, and in my opinion left a few things out that should have been included. And I have to admit, I could be wrong on some of this because I quickly got confused about the different game modes.
If I'm not mistaken, you no longer get to keep battalions from one battle to the next in the campaign. I do NOT like that. It is much easier to upgrade however, because you simply pay resources to upgrade buildings. It is odd that I would prefer the upgrade methods to be switched between the games because in BFME2 you don't start with masses of troops so you have more command limit to use up, and in BFME1 you would have a much easier time upgrading if you just had to pay for the upgrades to level the buildings up. That is really my one major complaint about the sequel.
Also, the story seems a bit disjointed to me, but it could be because I am unfamiliar with the stories being told in the campaign of BFME2 and Rise of the Witch King.
What I like is the ability to purchase boats, although they rarely come into play (they need an island hopping map), and the ability to create your own hero. I also love War of the Ring mode, at least in RotWK (I admittedly haven't played it in BFME2).
Another great addition is the ability to build anywhere on the map. I also love being able to construct walls, at least as some factions. The walls are a bit odd because sometime the enemy can simply pass through them, but that is not normally the case. Some enemies can climb them which is cool. The resource structure system is improved as well, allowing you to build them just about anywhere but they are vulnerable and only give a proportion of their potential depending on where you place them.
War of the Ring mode gives you a world map, and allows you (in single player) to select your team and your enemies and their starting locations. You can even team up the Men with Mordor if you wish. Then it becomes a "Risk" style world map game with teams taking territories, building structures, and training troops. When you attack or defend, you can chose auto resolve or RTS. In RTS, you go into the map and play as normally, with forces persisting from the world map. It is actually very fun though it can be a bit tedious at times. I enjoyed it more than the actual campaign. My only real fault of that is that it isn't very intuitive and takes a bit to figure out how the armies are allowed to move and group up, and you can use one created hero but that hero can not lead an attack. Nor can any purchased hero. This is actually to keep it balanced and force you to only attack 4 regions in a move with your original heroes, but it can get frustrating.
Graphics: 90% all across the board
Gameplay/Physics: 100% (I'm combining them because there isn't much in the way of physics other than what is included in the gameplay)
Maps: 85%
Replay Potential: 85% (you can play as different factions, or set up War of the Ring with different starting rules)
Artificial Intelligence: 65% (they can get very stupid at times)
Detail: 90% (not much to detail but they do it well, I would rate the first game slightly lower than the second if I seperated them)
Story: 85% (a little light, but if you know the story prior to playing it is fine)
Interface: 80% (can get confusing but not bad).
Total Rating: 85%....not bad.
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Expands on LOTR Battle For Middle Earth by expanding the capabilities of the original, including the ability to create Heroes from a variety of races with a large variety of powers. Battle For Middle Earth 2 is pretty difficult compared to the original, but my 13 year old has mastered it and loves it for it's creating capabilities. The last episode is Rise Of The Witch King which is exciting, has great graphics, and a cast of characters new and a few familiar.I have never been much of a fan of RPG before (Role Playing Games), but I have really had lots of fun with this LOTR Anthology. It is great fun and never ceases to challenge and frustrate. All in all 5 starts
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We multiplayer with and against each other and have a blast doing it... My sons and I are huge fans of the LOTR series and these RTS games are the most enjoyed and most played in my house....... for those concerned about Vista OS compatability, we have had no issues. We solo and multi on two vista and one xp computers without any issues.
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Plenty of people here reviewing the game, I just wanted to tell everyone how to make it work on newer computers. This trick works for LOTR BFME I and Rise of the Witch King as well. This trick works on Windows 7 and probably works for Vista too, just never tried it. I seriously doubt you will have problems with XP machines.Basically, the main problem is screen resolution: today's computers are normally configured for resolutions above(or different from) 1024 x 768, such as 1920 x1080 and other HD configurations. Some older games weren't programmed for the big screens of today.
A little html background is required to do this, but it shouldn't be too hard for beginners(I am one myself).
You are essentially doing three things: you are creating a new text file ".txt", then converting that file to a ".ini" file, and then dropping that file into the LOTR BFME II roaming file. The original, detailed instructions for this fix can be found here, ,a Windows 7 forum, but I wanted to post this because it is sometimes hard to know where to start.
1. Use Notepad to create this text file(use the same margins and paragraph spacing as this, although I'm not sure it matters, but with computers, precision is usually important):
AudioLOD = High
HasSeenLogoMovies = yes
IdealStaticGameLOD = High
Resolution = 1024 768
SaticGame LOD = High
TimesInGame = 5
1a. Save the text file as "Options.txt" to your Desktop or somewhere easy to remember.
2. Make sure you have the "Hide extensions for known file types" box unchecked in Control Panel -> Folder Options
3. Browse to your newly created text file and right click on it. Then change the filename to "options.ini"(the right-click menu selection: "Rename"). You will know you did it right when you see a dialog box saying something like: "Are you sure you want to change the file extention?", click "yes" for this.
4. Copy this file (highlight and then CTRL + C) and then browse to this folder "C:\Users\[your login name]\AppData\Roaming\My Battle for Middle-earth(tm)Files folder".
5. This folder should be empty. Paste your new .ini file(Press CTRL + V) into the folder. If you did it right, the file should appear as: "Options.ini" in the folder.
6. The game should work fine after this.
Again, this is just a dumbing down of the process described on the forum. I had some trouble figuring it out and thought it might help other technically challenged people like myself to present it a little clearer. :)
Also, love the game!
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