Lord of the Rings: War in the North

This game is quite difficult for me to review. I have a great love for Lord of the Rings, yet I have a strong aversion to mediocre games. War in the North is definitely a mediocre title at its best. It has a lackluster skill tree that's less diverse than any game I can remember playing. The combat is fun, for 10 minutes. Oh, and the graphics aren't anything special either. Well, they are special- just not the kind of special you want in a game.

I think the grain effect is intentional.

Genre: RPG, Adventure, Action
Release Date: 25th November, 2011
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
Score: 4/10
Similar Titles: Borderlands, Dead Island, Lord of the Rings

Lord of the Rings: the Battle for Middle-Earth 2

Genre: RTS, RPG
Release Date: March 2nd, 2006
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360
Score: 6/10
Similar Titles: Warcraft III, Heroes of Might and Magic

Opening screen.

From the early attempts by Melbourne House to the sketchy transitions made by EA games, the Lord of the Rings franchise has had a turbulent gaming history. I'm a little ashamed to admit how many of these titles I've actually played; despite never being able to truly enjoy the books.

The Battle for Middle-Earth 2 (BFME) is a fairly well structured attempt to port the epic feel of the films into the RTS genre. Incorporating RPG elements in a similar fashion to Warcraft III, BFME seemed like the ideal game to satisfy my appetite. Whilst I did end up playing it for a long period of time, a lot of the content seemed very dull and badly implemented. I eventually found myself merely challenging the skirmish mode repeatedly, ramping up the difficulty and increasing the opponents as I improved my skills. Although the title has plenty of different campaigns and even a War of the Ring conquest battle, they were mostly pretty boring.