The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth (2004)
Genres:Strategy, Real Time Strategy (RTS)
Themes:Fantasy, Warfare
Game modes:Single player, Co-operative, Multiplayer
Story:The players control the heroes or villians from the famous Lord of The Rings movies. With a hero characters similar to the Warcraft series you control both the armies and all the unique heroes. The game follows the movies very closely and even got scenes from the films appear in game. Not only does the game contain a giant campaign where you play through the journey of the ring as the good side, the game also features an evil campaign where as the players play as the evil forces of Middle Earth. With multiple diffrent races from all over Middle Earth, a giant spell tree to customize your game and a unique basebuilding layout the game was great for its time.Show more
Vote to bring this game to GOG and help preserve it.32 742
@Bassi_2k10January 29, 2025
One of my alltime-favorite RTS. The game did a great job capuring the atmosphere of LOTR. Playing through missions like the battles at Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith or commanding your heroes through the mines of Moria was just awesome. For me, Battle of Middle-Earth is one of the most memorable and also most enjoyable RTS I ever played. I'd really love to see this absolute classic to be available at GOG.
@Snake-January 29, 2025
I played a lot at the time and the sequel. I also played with friends in LAN games. Although it didn’t have much strategy, was quite fun. The gameplay was simple but effective. It wasn’t a game to think too much about, but its atmosphere was very well crafted, with impressive graphics and an excellent presentation. Even though it wasn’t the deepest game, it managed to immerse you in Middle-earth and make you feel like part of its epic battles.
@DOOMTHEPRIMEEVILJanuary 29, 2025
i would love to see all the lord of the rings battle for middle earth games to come to gog ther ea rare breed of RTS wich is long since over long since overdue to return
@Exist2InspireJanuary 29, 2025
One of the best licensed games ever made and a damn good RTS as well. Definitely deserves a re-release. The recreations of the battles at Helms Deep or Minas Tirith are awesome and playing the campaign from either perspective (good or evil) was very memorable and fun.
@sim_rafaelJanuary 29, 2025
This and BFME 2 were my favorite RTS, I still have the CDs. Using the Command & Conquer Generals engine, this game brings Middle-earth to life, with excellent voiceovers and nice mechanics. The game has a variety of mods over the internet, great singleplayer campaigns (good/evil) and LAN multiplayer where you can add bots to increase the challenge or play cooperatively against them. The licensing to release this game probably is complex, but it is a shame we don't have for sale in any store.
@Kyblik81January 29, 2025
one of the best strategy games of all times, simply great experience and its The Lord of the Rings game! you love the books? you love the films? you love painting LotR minis? you love playing this gem!
@wazz91January 29, 2025
never got to play this, always wanted to, i hope i can experience this as a huge lord of the rings fan i wish there would be more games coming out like this please
@AshnazqJanuary 29, 2025
Unfortunately, this game can't be replaced. This is a great wound in our hearts. A AAA quality remake is our biggest hope. What I saw on the screen when I used that 10 level ability for the first time after leveling Gandalf to 10 was priceless.
@AzrapseJanuary 29, 2025
Great production values and great licensing of the Lord of the Rings movies.
It had more depth than it appears. There were four asymmetric factions here: Mordor, Isengard, Gondor, and Rohan.
The core idea of the game is that your initial base only has limited room for structures, so you must make an initial choice of strategy that you are going to attempt, and then you need to come out and expand by conquering other base locations in the map before your opponents do.
Every faction has several possible strategies, chosen by the kind of resource buildings you decide to create and the production facilities you raise.
This game discourages sending lots of units to their death, since killing units grants the player unlockable and thematic powers and effects during battle that go from summoning allies, making the sun raise and stunning your opponents, calling the Eagles, or bringing up the Balrog.
Each faction had also unique heroes from the movies that you had to level up in battle to unlock more powerful abilities. These heroes could change the course of the game. Among them there all the fellowship members, Saruman, Gollum, or the winged nazgûl.
The two single player campaigns (good and evil) were great, with a full map of Middle Earth were you can capture regions to get stronger, or go straight for the story.
Then, there were lots of multiplayer or solo skirmish maps, and it came with a map editor to make your own.
I spent lots of time making maps, and was part of the awesome modding community that flourished for this game.
The sequel, added a multiplayer conquest mode, which was great. But screwed other stuff, like amalgamating Rohan and Gondor in a single faction, replacing the strategic base building system with a "free-build anywhere" one that, while it sounds better, it robs of much of the interesting decisions from the original. Also added Goblins, Dwarves, and Elves as factions, which is always good, but suffered a bit of generic fantasy design.
@WirbleJanuary 29, 2025
A great RTS game that really reproduced the feeling of the large scale battles of the LotR movies as well as having levels recreating parts of the Fellowship's journey.
But the best part was the multiplayer. My friends and I spent dozens of hours in the coop-mode.
Can heartily recommend.
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