RTS/RPG Fusion

Whew!

I just beat the Battle for Middle-earth good campaign, talk about an awesome game. The campaign started out like the other RTS games I've played, where it alternated between some small levels where you control a few characters and some bigger levels where you built up armies.

But unlike most RTS games, BFME is like an RPG as well: All of your units can rank up and be re-used in the next missions! Certain key units, aka the Fellowship, got a ridiculous amount of experience by the end of the campaign. For the final level I had Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, etc. all up to lvl. 10, the maximum. Not only does their attack and defense go up, they learn some sweet new abilities too (sounds just like an RPG doesn't it?). Gandalf's powers are displayed in some of the screens here, as is Aragorn's ability to summon a small group of ghost warriors.

While this RPG style application was really sweet, I was even more excited to see that my general units could level up, get upgrades and be re-used as well. Towards the beginning of the campaign I built up a shock-force of well-armored, well-armed Rohirrim Cavalry, which could pretty much roll over anything in its past. Later in the game I formed my massive Gondor army, to which the Fellowship members would later be ended. Units could be upgraded with things such as Heavy Armor, Forged Blades, Fire Arrows, etc. (see this screen for some decked-out cavalry).

I was worried for a while though, because the game would only let me play so many missions of my choosing (like pick which part of Rohan to defend with Eromer) before it made me do required missions (like defending Helm's Deep or the path of Cirith Ungol). But after I had defended Minas Tirith (which was an insanely awesome mission btw) it let me play as many battles as I wanted before I moved on to the final mission. The more missions I played, the more I could level up my units, so I conquered the entire world before finally moving against Mordor itself (I had even come up into southern Mordor, to the Lake of Nurn). By the time I went up against the Black Gates of Mordor (the final mission) I had crafted quite an imposing army.

To take on all the hosts of Mordor, I moved to the Black Gates with my Gondor army and the Fellowship. I had about 50 veteran cavalry, fully equipped with Heavy Armor & Forged Blades. I also had 2 divisions of archers, which were also maxed out. Add the members of the Fellowship and all of my ally summons, and Mordor didn't stand a chance.

This was a fantastic campaign for a fantastic game. I really think that this is the evolution of strategy games, to let you build up & train your forces throughout the game. Now I get to go and play the dark-side campaign :)

- Scott