The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II Q&A - Fan Questions, Part I

Battle for Middle-earth 2 will offer expanded strategy.

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II will be a real-time strategy sequel that combines the epic scope of the award-winning motion pictures with the expanded lore of J.R.R. Tolkien's numerous fantasy novels. Among other things, the sequel will feature improved graphics, better tactical control of player armies, more playable sides, customizable hero units, and an all-new campaign. Senior producer Mike Verdu took the questions of the Battle for Middle-earth II fan community and has answered them below.

Question: What's this product all about?

Mike Verdu: We're creating a bigger, richer, deeper Lord of the Rings strategy game that will immerse you, transport you, and enchant you as you experience the Middle-earth you've never seen. You'll fight epic battles in new places with new armies led by new heroes. You'll experience unprecedented depth of strategy with innovative RTS features that combine creativity and strategy. You'll see Middle-earth like never before with visuals that hit a new bar.

Q: What's new in Middle-earth? Does this game go beyond the films?

MV: The game is based on both the books and the films. As Middle-earth's fate hangs by a thread, you'll command the most ancient and storied civilizations of Tolkien's world, the Elves and the Dwarves, as they unite to fight Sauron's armies in the Northern Lands. New races, places, and heroes come to life from the book fiction and Peter Jackson's movies. If playing on the side of light isn't your thing, you can control the Dark Lord's minions in a mission of ruthless conquest. You'll command vast hordes of Orcs, Goblins, Trolls, Giants, Spiders, Nazgul, Evil Men, and even Dragons.

Q: What's new for the strategy gamer?

MV: Depth of strategy comes in the form of fast and fluid RTS game play, an innovative fortress and wall building system that lets you create your own custom castles, the freedom to build anywhere in the world, a Risk-style strategy meta-game that is infinitely replayable, better control over your armies in battle through smart formations, tactical fidelity in melee combat, customized heroes that become your avatars in battle, and naval units and battles at sea.

Q: Have you upgraded the game engine? How are the visuals?

MV: New technology brings you a high fidelity vision of Middle-earth. Water that sparkles in the sun and crashes on the shore in explosions of foam and spray. Sun dappled meadows and swaying trees. Landscapes of ice and snow. Amazing particle effects for magic spells. The improvements under the hood include a new shader system, normal mapping, specularity, perspective shadows, distance hazing, an improved particle system, and other cool stuff.

Q: How much new content is in the game? Will you be bringing back anything from the first game?

MV: This is like two games in one. We're creating a full game's worth of new content--units, heroes, structures, locations, missions, new game mechanics, and new technology--and we're also bringing back all of the units, heroes, structures, and locations from the original Battle for Middle-earth. We want to deliver the complete Middle-earth experience, with all of the races and heroes from the books and movies and all of the places on the map.

More detail: Battle for Middle-earth II will have a total of six factions (sides), 80+ units, 34+ heroes, and 50+ maps. We're adding three entirely new factions based on Elves, Dwarves, and Goblins--and each new faction has new units, heroes, and structures. We're enhancing the existing factions from the first game as well. For example, we're adding Corsairs and Black Riders for Mordor, Wild Men of Dunland for Isengard, and Dunedain Rangers for our Men of the West faction (Gondor and Rohan are being combined into one faction).

Q: What is the single player game experience like?

MV: There are three ways to play. You can start up a story-based campaign with lovingly crafted RTS missions on the side of Good or Evil. You can also play a new free-form "War of the Ring" strategy game that spans all of Middle-earth and lets you battle a new strategic AI for control of the world. Finally, you can jump into a "one off" battle against AI where you choose the factions and the map. The story-based single player campaign takes you to the Northern Lands of Middle-earth where Elves and Dwarves are fighting a series of massive battles against Sauron's forces during the War of the Ring. These battles in the North are as epic as anything shown on film, with vast armies clashing in new locations like Mirkwood, Lorien, Dale, and the mountain fortress of Erebor.

The game will have an all-new campaign.

The Good campaign puts you in charge of the allied ancient races warring against Goblin hordes descending from the Misty Mountains and the dark tide flowing out of Sauron's fortress of Dol Guldur. If you choose to play the Evil campaign, you'll control the armies from Dol Guldur as well as a host of corrupted creatures. Instead of defending the North, your mission will be to conquer it. Victory for the Evil side will come when Sauron controls the northern lands of Middle-earth.

Once you are finished with the Good and Evil story-based campaigns, you can unlock infinite replayability with our new War of the Ring strategy meta-game. You can choose to re-fight the entire War of the Ring--in the South as well as the North--by choosing a side and a starting location on the 3D living world map of Middle-earth. You can then build up your forces, move your armies, and take territories in a Risk-style strategy game. Battles for contested territories can be auto-resolved or played out in a classic real-time encounter on the actual RTS map.