Scraping the bottom of the RTS barrel.
User Rating: 5.8 | The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring PC
First off, if you have Warcraft III (or any Warcraft for that matter) don't bother with this game - it's more or less a very watered down version of Warcraft. Even if you're really into LOTR you will likely be disappointed, too as there is only a casual link between this game and the books. Basically, Sierra slapped this mish-mash of poor story telling and completely UN-epic gameplay on some old RTS engine they had lying around and popped War of the Ring out just in time to make a few bucks off of the last Peter Jackson flick without having a movie tie in license. That kind of cynical marketing is just plain crass and the product is just as offensive to any intelligent consumer. For all of it's shortcomings it's not at all miserable to play if taken for what it is - a generic RTS. The visuals are flat, yet they have a hand-drawn appearance that lends the game some charm. The game engine was clearly intended to be used for small skirmishes and not the large, epic battles that make up the War of the Ring in Tolkien's books and the recent movies. if this game came out in 1998 and was not a LOTR license it would have been pretty good. Unfortunately, it came out in 2003 and is a complete turd in 2007.
If you find it in a bargain bin and you can spare the dough, fine - but don't even think about paying even $10 for this coaster.
