Simply atrocious: There is not a single thing that this game does well, and as such, It is an irrevocable failure.
The concept? It doesn't sound so bad does it? Take an award-winning formula (as far as the masses are concerned) throw in some awesome Lord of the Rings, and presto, magic right? Well, believe me, this game is actually WORSE than you can imagine, even with that motto.
First of all, the Battlefront style of game has always had questionable AI. Here, the AI is MORE than questionable, with some troops being flat-out brain dead. In fact, frequently during the battles you'll see enemy and friendly troops just standing there! Right in front of you, doing absolutely nothing besides waiting to get killed. Now, this doesn't happen to everyone, but the fact that it happens to more than 20% of the soldiers on the field, is absolutely unacceptable. Helm's deep? Yeah right, it's more like, Jump from your castle wall and kill some stupid Orcs single handily-God, the AI is just flat-out horrendous.
What's worse than that though? Try a large number of things, if you can believe it! First, the classes are so non-realistic to the Lord of The Rings Universe that it makes you feel like they wanted to butcher it on purpose. A mage, warrior, assassin and archer? Real creative-and since WHEN did a simple orc ever utilize magic!? It's just so non-sensical.
More than this, the combat is just horrendous. No, you won't get to hack people to bits, or even kill them with a single, regular sword blow. Instead, what you get to indulge in is the game's appalling arcade-y combat mechanic, where you pull off canned combos, which involve every thing from your sword bursting into flames during a circular swing, to a magical multi-shot arrow. The fighting, in this sense is non-canonical, with moves you'd expect to see in some half-serious game, but not in a Lord of the Rings game; but what is worse than the non-faithful combat, is the fact that it just has zero fun-factor whatsoever. You will not do much thinking here, just hold shift, and tap the left mouse button for that devastating roundhouse, fire-blazing slash. Yay!
My goodness, ladies and gentlemen, the combat is so bad, that I guarantee you that you will find yourself simply either button mashing, or doing the most powerful moves over and over as much as your energy permits.
In fact, to me, the fact that there is a 'character moves list' at all is just appalling; and it is indicative of the fact that the game offers no realistic medieval combat whatsoever. Do not expect to be genuinely riveted by the combat, and for a game that is based on combat, that is not a good thing
Worse than an entirely boring, hopelessly non-canonical combat though, is the fact that the scope of the battlefields themselves are laughable at best. Perhaps you're like me; perhaps you thought you ought to pick up this title, if only to play the awesomeness that is Paelanor fields, and the Olliephant
Wrong, for although I was impressed to first gain control of that gargantuan elephant, my happiness came crashing down, when I literally took two steps to the left, and was told I was close to leaving the playing field. That's right; the sizes of the battle maps are simply ridiculous! In Paelanor, you've barely any room for the beasts at all, and when you do use them, you realize how tiny this so-called pivotal battle really is, as it's rendered in the game. And that trend continues throughout the game. None of the battles live up to their source-material's billing. In fact, helm's deep is just an outer shell of a castle, a high wall, and a small swathe of land out front where the Orcs materialize. Sure, the game also throws in the hordes of Orcs to give atmosphere, but they're honestly no better than cardboard cut-outs.
And that's just the thing: These battles really only amount to small 15 on 15 conflicts, it seems. Where is the epic in that!? What is the Lord of the Rings in that?
Moving on, the sound design is hardly worth noting, the weapon noises and deaths are all standard-fare, with one notably cool sound effect being the ability to screech like a ring-wraith whilst playing as the Witch-King. As well, the music is fabulous-taken straight from the film-the problem? It isn't used enough! It barely appears to give the battles any spunk, and is generally limited to the menus-bad design decision.
In the end, when you take the whole sum of this game into consideration, it is just way too weak and un-fun to even think about recommending. Hell, even the diehard fans will be appalled at the game's simply disastrous take on Lord of The Rings warfare, and the pitched battles of book and movie fame.
As a brief note, the campaign is simply non-engaging with predictable objectives and age-old gaming conventions (hold x spot for 2 minutes, stop AI from breaching the gate; alone etc.), and I cannot imagine that the multiplayer could be much fun in such a broken and over-blown combat system.
Honestly, believe me when I say that Lord of The Rings Conquest is an absolutely abysmal failure that reeks of cheap cash in. The fact that it topped the list of "highest sellers" on ebggames.com is saddening, but it works to show just how blind some gamers are.
As a final nail in this atrocious coffin of a game, I will hereby state, that Lord of The Rings Conquest, for all its promise and its terrible and irrevocable butchering of the licence and the concept of Orc vs. Man warfare, (among other things) has officially received the lowest score I have ever given to a title here on Gamespot, or ever.
1.5/10 Easy contender for worst game of the year, and to date, it is currently THE worst 'noteworthy' game that I have ever played.
Avoid this at ALL costs. You will find nothing redeeming here.