War of the Ring does suffer from some issues, though. For one thing, the world's not as persistent as it should be. You can develop a huge base in a territory during one battle, but if the enemy reinvades that territory, most of your structures will disappear and you have to start from scratch again. And while it's understandable that this is so (a contest between a fully developed real-time economy and a nonexistent one isn't really a contest), it's a bit frustrating, not to mention illogical, to have to rebuild everything all over again. The same goes for armies on the battlefield. Only the units that you build on the strategic map are persistent, which means that the huge armies you may build during a battle disappear once the battle is done. And while those strategic units gain experience, it still doesn't make much sense to see fully developed armies suddenly vanish in the middle of war. It's these kinds of issues that prevent War of the Ring mode from being the ultimate Lord of the Rings strategy experience that many of us have been waiting for, but it still makes for a good lightweight strategy game.
You can still summon superunits, such as the balrog, and these can turn the tide in a battle.
EA has made some changes to the battlefield gameplay mechanics, though not much has changed. Naval warfare is a pretty addition, thanks to the shimmering reflections of ships on the beautifully rendered water. However, ships are featured only a handful of times in the campaign, and they don't come in most of the time during the War of the Ring mode, since most territories are landlocked. Meanwhile, the new emphasis on being able to build defenses such as walls seems a bit misplaced, since walls can be incredibly easy to knock down and defensive towers are something of a joke, making their value suspect. Other new features in Battle for Middle-earth II aren't fully fleshed out. For instance, the new build-a-hero function is pretty lightweight. Basically, you can create your own hero or heroine, and he or she appears as a hero unit in the game. However, the actual build-a-hero function is quite limited, since you can't alter your character's appearance aside from selecting between a few armor types, weapons, and colors--you're stuck with the physical features that EA gives you. Normally, this wouldn't be a big thing, but since practically every other EA game features a much more powerful build-a-character mode, Battle for Middle-earth II's build-a-hero mode comes off as disappointing.
The game's multiplayer suite is also one of its strengths, though be prepared for some brutal and wild matches online. You can play in the customary skirmish game in one-on-one matches or in teams. The new resource model becomes the huge linchpin in multiplayer skirmish, since you have to spread as many resource-gathering centers as possible over the map. This means that the winner is usually the side that can quickly eliminate a handful of the opposing side's resource structures, which is an incredibly easy task. After that, it becomes a huge battle of attrition, as one side has a resource advantage to bring to bear. Heroes and other powerful abilities also come into play quite a bit more during multiplayer, since human players are much smarter about using them than the AI. Hero units like Gandalf are worth their weight in gold, as they can quickly wipe out swaths of an opposing army. Meanwhile, the War of the Ring mode is also playable in multiplayer, though as you'd expect, these games take a long time to play through (we're talking days, not hours). Thankfully, you can save a game's progress and pick it up at a later time. EA has also done some good work in terms of making games easy to find online--the server browser is nicely organized, and the game persistently tracks performance so you can easily gauge your chances against a potential opponent by examining his or her experience level.
Visually, Battle for Middle-earth II packs a few graphical improvements over the original. For instance, there seem to be a few more shader effects at work, so surfaces such as ice have a nice sheen to them. There's also some improved lighting and shadowing at work. But in general, the graphics haven't evolved much from the first game. That's not a bad thing, though, as the original game still captured the look and feel of Middle-earth quite well. Though the battles are nowhere near as large as those seen in the movies (or in the game's own cutscenes, for that matter), you still get a sense of the clash of arms as companies of human soldiers clash with hordes of goblins and orcs. And, once again, the biggest units in the game are some of the best looking--you can send impressively rendered dragons and fellbeasts into battle or watch the noble eagles swoop down from the sky and rip apart an enemy building with their talons. It's interesting to note that the in-game cutscenes taken directly from The Lord of the Rings have disappeared in the sequel, probably because the developers would have had to recycle the same cutscenes over again given that there has been no new movie footage since the first game.
The build-a-hero mode isn't as powerful as it should be, but at least you can still create your own avatar in the game.
The sound effects also remain strong, and Howard Shore's memorable music from the movies echoes throughout the game. Meanwhile, some of the voice work from the original carries over to the sequel, and die-hard Lord of the Rings fans may feel a chill down their spines whenever they hear Ian McKellen's Gandalf or Christopher Lee's Saruman declare victory after a battle. And EA managed to find decent substitutes for the other big-name roles.
The Battle for Middle-earth II is certainly a better version of 2004's great strategy game. With that said, for all the things it does new or differently than before, some aspects feel a bit undercooked. Still, this is probably the best Lord of the Rings RTS available, and by encompassing the whole of Tolkien's mythology, it really lets you battle for all of Middle-earth this time around.
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