Over the last few years it seems console gaming has firmly planted a kick in between the legs of it older PC sibling when it comes to popular gaming. But there still remains a few genres’ of gaming that consoles just can’t seem to get right. One is the God or building sim, something that consoles seemed to have tried their best to stay clear off, the other is the RTS game (or Real Time Strategy, to give it is full title).

Titles such as Rise of Nations, Warcraft III, Total War and the (ace) Civilisation series have all proved to big RTS hits on the PC. Where as the Xbox has only ever had a handful of RTS games released for it and all of them immediately forgettable. One reason for this is the control method; a joypad is no competition for a mouse and keyboard. Another reason is the graphical power of the platform, while a PC can easily handle loads of small orcs/knights/space ships cluttering up the screen as you take part in huge battles, where as the Xbox simply can’t.

Now that console gaming has gone HD with the Xbox 360, this is a perfect time for an RTS game to make a comeback and EA’s Lord of the Rings: Battle For Middle-Earth II is the first game to take that honour.

LOTR: Battle For Middle-Earth II is a sequel to the hugely popular PC hit Battle For Middle Earth I and (with EA not wanting to give up the on the golden goose that is the Lord of the Rings franchise just yet) the sequel sees you pretty much doing more of the same.

BFME II (for short) is a RTS game based around the characters and locations featured in the Lord of the rings book and movie trilogy.
The first BFME game had you taking control of key characters as you battled your way across locations made famous by the movie in your pursuit to destroy the ring. The campaign mode in BFME II instead focuses on the fortunes of Dwarf, Elf and some humans who set out to make sure the lands of Middle Earth are safe from the armies of Mordor, while Frodo and the rest set about their little adventure.
The game takes place mainly in the north of Middle Earth (as opposed to the, film which takes place mostly in the south) and draws much of it inspiration from the J R R Tolkien’s books, though you will encounter (and in some cases get to play) a few familiar faces along your way.

The game’s campaign mode is split into two sections, allowing you to take control of the forces of good or the forces of evil. Each side has its own merits and style of playing; while units for the elves and dwarfs are small they can be extremely powerful. Where as the goblins and orcs armies may not be as powerful but can be produced in vast numbers and exceptionally quickly.

If you have played an RTS before you will have an idea of what to expect from BFME II, each levels sees you starting with a basic army and you will soon come across a patch of land on which you can start to build your base.
Bases (which take the shape of fortresses in BFME) allows you to construct various buildings that can produce various units for your army (infantry, archers, cavalry etc), research upgrades to help you in battle, watch towers and huge city walls for defence and much more. Its not a free for all though, building costs resource points, which can be mined or collect via trees (that’s elves for you) and army units cost Command points.

Once you have established a base you can then concentrate on fun part, going into battle, you can create various battle units each with their own specialist skills, from cavalry, to archers, siege units, boats and your basic sword carrying foot solider.
Each unit can also be upgraded in terms of defence and offensive abilities, such as specialist armour, weapons and skills.
You can also get to command hero units, which are often main characters or creatures mentioned in the book or movies. These units are vastly more powerful with special skills or spells, but be warned, as tempting as it may be to throw these units in the forefront of any battles you may encounter they can be killed and they normally require a large amount of resource to revive.

How much success you have in battle really depends on how you manage your army (archers can attack from afar, horses or spiders are good at rushing enemy units), you can also use your surroundings to your advantage (dry trees and fire is a good mix) and working out what tactics to use to win is a big (and fun) part of the game.
As well as the main objectives in the campaign game there are numerous side quests to keep you busy and by completing both the main and secondary goals you will unlock much needed achievement points.

Along with the main campaign mode BFME II also offers a skirmish mode for those gamers who want to jump straight into the action. Skirmish mode allows you to take part in battle across many maps made famous in the film (and were used in the original PC BFME game), such as helms deep and Minas Tirth.

And finally there is the online play via Xbox Live which offers 5 different multiplayer modes, the traditional skirmish mode (an all out battle against an online opponent), capture-the-flag, capture-and-hold, resource race (a race to make the most resource points) and Hero mode, (where you don’t have to worry about armies, just hulking great super characters beating the hell out of each other).

The big question is whether the Xbox 360 can succeed in a genre where so many other consoles have failed. The answer is yes ………and no.

First up is the graphics, which on the whole are pretty good, while not as sharp as the PC version they do have plenty of detail (including shadows, different types of armour and weapons and some nice animation). The graphical grunt of the Xbox 360 means that you can have a fair amount of units battling it out on the screen at one time but if it’s a particular big battle with plenty going on the game can start to slowdown a bit, this may only last for seconds as opposed to minutes but it can still get pretty annoying.

Sound effects and music are top notch and is put to good use. The score and voice acting are suitably dramatic with a few of the actors from the movies lending their voice for the more recognisable characters.

Gameplay in BFME II is well balanced with an enjoyable learning curve. The game offers two tutorial levels to let you get to grips with the game mechanics before chucking you into the deep end.
But beginners needn’t worry as the first few levels allow you to get up to speed in your own time. With each new level you’re presented with a new set of challenges, each one becoming harder than the last, each level also has 3 different difficulty settings.
Generally the A.I is good but after playing for an extended time you do start to see the same tactics being used again and again, but the game does throw in a few surprises to keep you on your toes.

Game controls is an area where many previous RTS on consoles have failed but thankfully the control system in BFME II works……just.
EA have done a good job of moving most of the commands that you would normally give via both the mouse and keyboard into the Xbox 360 gamepad. You can select either lone or groups of units by the simple click of the A button and either the trigger of shoulder button. You can also select individual hero or builder units, as well as choose what item to build by the use of the direction pad and finally the camera and cursor are controlled by the analogue sticks.
While initially confusing, the controls can soon been mastered and you’ll soon be shifting your armies around with ease. Although the odd niggled can persist, such as making sure that you deselect a unit before selecting a new one, otherwise you’ll have your armies walking all over the place on the map unchecked.
One area that the controls do fail on unfortunately is responsiveness, once the action on the screen heats up the response time for the buttons drop considerable (or even in same cases not work at all) and when some big battles can only be won by quick decisions this can prove frustrating.

One other area where the game just doesn’t quite work is the camera view. While at mid and low level the camera is fine but if you wish to pull the camera out to get a wider viewpoint of the battlefield you’ll soon find you can’t. For some reason EA have fixed the game view with quite a low view height, which leaves you feeling somewhat claustrophobic and you can often find yourself becoming lost whenever you want to scroll to somewhere else on the map.

While online multiplayer battles could easy fall in the trap of both sides just racing to build the biggest armies possible then steam into each other (which is often the case with the regular online game) the inclusion of the different multiplayer modes, each with their own victory objectives mixes up the games a great deal and means that planning and strategy become more important.
Maps (both in multi and single player) also offer plenty of challenges and cover many types of terrain from snowy peaks to deep mountain mines and many more.

If you’re a fan of the RTS genre, Lord of the Rings books and movies or even if you just want to try something a little different from the normal run of shooting, driving jumping games, then you certainly want to give Battle for Middle Earth II a go.
EA Games had done a terrific job of porting the game from the PC and while there are a few things that haven’t port that well on the whole the problems don’t detract from the overall enjoyment of the game.
This is without doubt the best RTS title available for any games console.

While this style game won’t suit everyone (it can become difficult and frustrating at times), those who do stick with it will certainly be rewarded with a sense of achievement at many points within the game (such as when you win an exceptionally big battle against overwhelming odds).

Plus what other game allows you to smash Frodo and his hobbit friends in the face with an Orc sized axe?