This game was a large part of my childhood. I feel it could really benefit from a DICE reboot with better gameplay, actual good story and voice acting, and life-like graphics
If i think of a game from which i really enjoyed i think of this game, this game never got old or boring idk why but it was perfect, i q real company remaster this masterpiece
I loved this game. I actually played this before I watched the films, so it was a bit jarring going back after having seen them when pretty much every character has different voices. Even though the servers were dead I would just queue up all the maps and just play through them until I got bored or finished them. And the campaign was a bit of fun. Haven't played it in probably a few years now since it's not backwards compatible, but next time I feel like dusting off the 360 I'll definitely fire it up.
@@user-zt7zq5sk1c Mt dad was a prick. He would hide up really high, and snipe us with arrows. If we got close, guy was slippery as hell, we could never catch him, give up, only to start getting sniped again.
I had no idea a LOTR Battlefront game was ever released. Super interesting relic of an excellent time in gaming and a great analysis. Your videos always impress me and much like many have said before, you’re hella underrated.
This was such an important part of my childhood 😂 loved this game so much I looked for it again to realise music licences caused the game to be taken away
I've played this game online on ps3 until my fingers became sausages, that one year felt more like 4 years in my head, only real problem with the game is that the assassin insta kill stealth mechanic is absolutely godlike, server delay actually helped the assassins getting instakill 100% of the time, i remember stabbing whirlwind warriors(scouts counter) mid-spin when what should actually happen is me losing stealth upon getting hit by spinning attack
I had no idea this game existed. And when you said it was made by Pandemic I was intrigued. And the similarities to Battlefront II are very apparent, from blue victory text, to character selection circles, and the heros. This game looks like it wanted to be good but definitely needed to be rebalanced so have a good combat flow. Great video, keep them coming!
a few things that occurred to me about this game 1. Mage shields should reveal scouts, that would be a neat thing. 2. The Grunts from campaign REALLY should've been in instant action too. maybe captains as well?
That would be a decent counter, I agree! Just as long as the shields get a recharge. I know their shields being out prohibits their other abilities from being recharged, but it seems really OP for a mage to sit and hold up a staff forever. If the recharging were a thing, the scouts having to avoid them would be pretty neat actually.
Man... You are so... Not irritating. And that's a compliment:) You just speak about the game like a normal guy. Which I appreciate. Keep it. And evolve in your own normal way while being really yourself. I will watch more of your videos.
I’m not sure if you mention it but I’m 14 ish minutes in where you’re going over the abilities, but you never mentioned the crowd breaker attack for warrior and rogue. It uses up your full special energy bar, you press B/O while blocking and you basically knock everyone around you back. Really helpful when you’re getting surrounded/stunlocked.
The next in the ring series will likely be the Ringed City DLC of Dark Souls 3, then the Red Ring of Death for Xbox 360. Eternal Ring is quite a few "rings" away, sorry to burst your bubble.
You had to experience it online when it was highly active to understand how it was. The review was pretty throughout, but most of the comments about the classes and their fighting styles would be somewhat void in the online multi-player. The mages were definitely broken, and a good mage wouldn't be taken down by anyone or a scout, for that matter. You could see them come miles away even with they invisibility. But they work great as a counter for these mages who always were spamming/holding the guard. If they could sneak by them, that is. The best shot was the archer doing headshot as soon as he dropped the guard. Warrior would eat them too if they got the chance, especially if you hit a critic with the axe. Also, while the guard was up, none of the abilities charged, which was a way of nerfing/balancing that out. But yeah, the multi was a whole other vibe, and people master that game to a point that the battles could be eternal and really complex. Great times tbh
Love how you review all these older games. May I recommend Star Wars Clone Wars PS2 from 2002, King Arthur PS2, Godfather II PS3 and Star Wars Starfighter/Jedi Starfighter
There's a move to break stun locking as warrior and scout, but you need full power which racks up quickly while getting hit. Warrior and scout also have a power attack that always breaks guards, but costs the most to use. As for scout being op, Archer is actually the strongest due to scope sniping beating everyone in the game, a scoped headshot 1 shots anyone who isn't a hero or beast at any range. You walk through a mage shield, shoot him in the head, and Instantly kill him before he can drop the shield. You probably feel like the scout is overpowered due to playing on legendary, which makes the enemies a little too tanky to destroy with the archer, but in multiplayer, they dominate the game.
I was lucky enough to play this back in the day on 360 but the mage class was best once you really learned everything, you could counter any melee rush on you by dropping your ring of fire on yourself and healing at half health and then ground pound/beat them to death and archers are useless against you with your sheild and gandalf had chain lightning like darth sideous that nearly 1 shot on a full charge
Great video. I used to play this game split screen when my brothers and I were little. When we got the game we were so excited because we played Battlefront 2 on the ps2 and this seemed to be more of the same. Only thing is you're saying Osgiliath wrong. It's supposed to be OZ- GILLY-ATH
I requested this game a few months back and didn’t think he would do it. Mainly because how old and awful it was but it’s funny how nostalgia can polish a turd, incredible job on the video pretty fascinating how you found so much in a game that seems pretty basic at its core. It was a cool idea on paper for a game it either lacked the technology or just basic structure leading it to be forgotten in time, well done keep up the great work, it would be interesting to see a 2022 recreation of this game with updated gameplay and graphics, almost like battlefront.
against human players the scout was kinda useless as far as i remember, they have low health, less melee range than the warrior and are quite easy to spot with a bit of experience. we did play split screen though, so maybe that helped
What the heck!? I was thinking about this game after watching Battlefront series critiques and here it is! What's next? Is there a Return of the King review too?
This game had the potential to be even better. I got it a couple weeks ago and... I'd give it a 5.5/10... Still a fun time. Just feels like it's lacking in a lot of departments.... And doesn't feel very open. It feels linear... also looks and feels like an original Xbox game with graphics pushed to almost it's limits.. Didn't feel like an Xbox 360 2009 potential kind of game... Star Wars BattleFront 2 on the PS2 is better and more complete.
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North Could you do this game? I always enjoyed it as a kid and i loved it just as much as i love Conquest (which is alot). Although, for me, WINT bugged out and i couldn't comlpete the game. It's still great tho!
The game is flawed but a ton of fun. Get 4 players, queue up some instant action, and just have a blast. Its hilariously unbalanced but it's a great time. I go back to battlefront and conquest any time I can get. In a lot of ways I think conquest is more fun, though it's definitely more flawed. I think it translated the battlefront formula really well. Well enough for me to put it right up there in terms of fun factor.
The main mechanic of the game was never touched in this single player review, the classes are not balanced to counter each other, the classes are balanced to group up and protect the players spawned as big siege creatures like the Ents and Trolls, healing was the main decisive factor for the winning team, because of this kind of strategy the archers were the worst class in the game, the mages would always have shields up next to the siege creature, all the players inside the shield and the archer would be aiming up, waiting for some1 to step out and then the archer gets backstabbed by stealth rogues, which main role is killing anyone that is not directly next to a warrior, usually those picks would be between the spawn point and the mass of people on the siege minions (for what i remember, the rogue was the only class to get fully animation locked by warrior spin)
Saruman and galdalf could spam heals and shield, there would always be a cluster fuck of warriors around them, protecting them, the damage numbers for the heroes are low because they are supposed to be unkillable, if the team protects them from rogues they will last until the end of the match, and there are zero npcs on an online match, every single character you see is a player, there arent any "normal soldiers" to 1 hit unless you want to 1 hit players, this game was made completely online first and got a single player campaign later
You can boil pretty much everything problematic in this game down to "needs rebalancing" -the assassin instant kill is way too powerful -the mage's shield in infinite and impenetrable -stun locks are way too easy, etc...
Me: Alright time to play most fun class ! *Picking the Warrior class and see the enemy team capture the entire Flag post by entire of enemy Mage Class Honestly i was kind of salty that people were playing as Mage class well i don't say the Mage class is broken or whatever its cuz i got really upset of how they doing that random Jump and Lighting bolt, jump and lighting bolt, jump and lighting bolt attack everytimes and it did so much damage too its cuz the Lighting attack of Mage is fast and quick while you spam clicking when you jump and click jump click jump click like its outrages.
Hot take, but Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is fantasy multiplayer done right as well. It's just a shame that the multiplayer is dead and never really caught on.
I loved this game back in the day but looking at it now I can see how flawed it is. I still think that there is a great game somewhere in the DNA but it's held back by a whole slew of issues that drag the whole thing down. Had things been managed more effectively, perhaps more time given to the devs or a more fleshed out melee combat system, people would be looking back on this game with the same fondness they do the Battlefront games.
I don't remember Minas Tirith being hard, but then I didn't bother with harder difficulties XD also your pronunciations of the words hurts my soul Actually no lie the Mount Doom Nazgul mission was way more troublesome for me
The dlc is lost to time. If you don't own it you can't even sail the seas for it. People have the files but are not uploading them. Someone did but it lacks the files to work properly a shame. It seemed quite cool though Gothmog was a odd choice
I really despise this game. It's execution. Not it's idea though. I think it would have been fantastic, but it's easily the worst Pandemic game I've ever played. Imagine if it had more time though? A world conquest mode (similar to Galactic Conquest), modding tools, more rideable creatures (you can't even control the fellbeasts...), better balance, the ability to construct fortifications (like building turrets in classic Battlefront). Better unit balance (no more completely broken mages and scouts or hilariously bad combos). Larger battles without relying on campaign. It's just such a disappointment from a studio that has created arguebly two of the greatest Star Wars games ever made (classic Battlefront and classic Battlefront 2). This game was sold as LOTR Battlefront and it is anything but that....
I try to get an official copy if one exists at a decent price range, and fortunately (or unfortunately?) Conquest wasn't too bad to track down. I might resort to that in the future for some games, but we're not quite there yet.
@@Dorkaxe The thing is that you can't "officially" buy this game any more. If you buy it, it's gonna be used and no money will be sent to the developer. Whether you pirate or buy it used makes no difference to the non existing developer any more.
Your videos are so underrated. You have a tendency to pick really interesting games and have an interesting discussion around them. Love it
Much appreciated! Glad people are cool with me talking about a random game for a lengthy amount of time!
Honestly it’s pretty fun for me but I do agree the Mina’s Tireth level is a grind.
This game was a large part of my childhood. I feel it could really benefit from a DICE reboot with better gameplay, actual good story and voice acting, and life-like graphics
If i think of a game from which i really enjoyed i think of this game, this game never got old or boring idk why but it was perfect, i q real company remaster this masterpiece
@@rune_6656 well there is a team making a remaster of the game in the Unreal engine
I loved this game. I actually played this before I watched the films, so it was a bit jarring going back after having seen them when pretty much every character has different voices. Even though the servers were dead I would just queue up all the maps and just play through them until I got bored or finished them. And the campaign was a bit of fun. Haven't played it in probably a few years now since it's not backwards compatible, but next time I feel like dusting off the 360 I'll definitely fire it up.
Ah man, I remember playing this religiously back in the day. This made me so happy to see, even aside from the criticisms. It was just fun.
I used to love the campaign especially the evil one, it was actually the only mode I ever played
Me and my brother played this game together 🤣 never forget once i got to use a “hero” and my brother instantly killed me with the OP assassin shit
My entire friend group agreed to never use scouts.
That’s what I used to do to my brother 🤣🤣🤣 he used to get a hero I use to use my cloak, go behind him then kill him🤣
@@user-zt7zq5sk1c Mt dad was a prick. He would hide up really high, and snipe us with arrows. If we got close, guy was slippery as hell, we could never catch him, give up, only to start getting sniped again.
I had no idea a LOTR Battlefront game was ever released. Super interesting relic of an excellent time in gaming and a great analysis. Your videos always impress me and much like many have said before, you’re hella underrated.
This was such an important part of my childhood 😂 loved this game so much I looked for it again to realise music licences caused the game to be taken away
I've played this game online on ps3 until my fingers became sausages, that one year felt more like 4 years in my head, only real problem with the game is that the assassin insta kill stealth mechanic is absolutely godlike, server delay actually helped the assassins getting instakill 100% of the time, i remember stabbing whirlwind warriors(scouts counter) mid-spin when what should actually happen is me losing stealth upon getting hit by spinning attack
Didn't even know there was a lotr battlefront type game so this was a super cool video to watch
just binged all your videos and i can conclude that you are the most underrated youtuber rn
Dude your videos freaking rule keep up the amazing work. The nostalgia is real.
Here’s my critique:
It was perfect, perfect, everything down to the last detail.
I had no idea this game existed. And when you said it was made by Pandemic I was intrigued. And the similarities to Battlefront II are very apparent, from blue victory text, to character selection circles, and the heros. This game looks like it wanted to be good but definitely needed to be rebalanced so have a good combat flow. Great video, keep them coming!
a few things that occurred to me about this game
1. Mage shields should reveal scouts, that would be a neat thing.
2. The Grunts from campaign REALLY should've been in instant action too. maybe captains as well?
That would be a decent counter, I agree! Just as long as the shields get a recharge. I know their shields being out prohibits their other abilities from being recharged, but it seems really OP for a mage to sit and hold up a staff forever. If the recharging were a thing, the scouts having to avoid them would be pretty neat actually.
@@Dorkaxe I wonder if that was a planned feature, but behind the scenes stuff prevented it from being a thing.
Man... You are so... Not irritating. And that's a compliment:) You just speak about the game like a normal guy. Which I appreciate. Keep it. And evolve in your own normal way while being really yourself. I will watch more of your videos.
As always an amazingly well done review!
Glad you finally got over that hurdle of a meat grinder.
Also more people need to become Patrons!! GOGOGO :)
I’m not sure if you mention it but I’m 14 ish minutes in where you’re going over the abilities, but you never mentioned the crowd breaker attack for warrior and rogue. It uses up your full special energy bar, you press B/O while blocking and you basically knock everyone around you back. Really helpful when you’re getting surrounded/stunlocked.
Yeah, you're right, I should have mentioned that. Can't believe a scout can do that. If anything that strengthens my claim that the scout is OP lol
@@Dorkaxeeh, mages directly counter scouts. That’s why you use the fire ball on the ground to reveal location and melt health.
Glad you are reviewing the first game in the rings series, hope you will review Eternal Ring soon
The next in the ring series will likely be the Ringed City DLC of Dark Souls 3, then the Red Ring of Death for Xbox 360. Eternal Ring is quite a few "rings" away, sorry to burst your bubble.
The mage is the right choice 90% of the time. The scout is a close second. Now you can check out the remaster coming out soon!
This channel needs more love!
You had to experience it online when it was highly active to understand how it was. The review was pretty throughout, but most of the comments about the classes and their fighting styles would be somewhat void in the online multi-player. The mages were definitely broken, and a good mage wouldn't be taken down by anyone or a scout, for that matter. You could see them come miles away even with they invisibility. But they work great as a counter for these mages who always were spamming/holding the guard. If they could sneak by them, that is. The best shot was the archer doing headshot as soon as he dropped the guard. Warrior would eat them too if they got the chance, especially if you hit a critic with the axe. Also, while the guard was up, none of the abilities charged, which was a way of nerfing/balancing that out. But yeah, the multi was a whole other vibe, and people master that game to a point that the battles could be eternal and really complex. Great times tbh
I like you glad I clicked on that Two Towers review. Subscribed
The long awaited return of "OzGOLIATH"
Love how you review all these older games. May I recommend Star Wars Clone Wars PS2 from 2002, King Arthur PS2, Godfather II PS3 and Star Wars Starfighter/Jedi Starfighter
lol I can't believe I didn't notice your profile pic until the end of the video when you talked about Patreon.
There's a move to break stun locking as warrior and scout, but you need full power which racks up quickly while getting hit. Warrior and scout also have a power attack that always breaks guards, but costs the most to use. As for scout being op, Archer is actually the strongest due to scope sniping beating everyone in the game, a scoped headshot 1 shots anyone who isn't a hero or beast at any range. You walk through a mage shield, shoot him in the head, and Instantly kill him before he can drop the shield. You probably feel like the scout is overpowered due to playing on legendary, which makes the enemies a little too tanky to destroy with the archer, but in multiplayer, they dominate the game.
I really enjoy your critiques/ reviews! Keep it up!
I was lucky enough to play this back in the day on 360 but the mage class was best once you really learned everything, you could counter any melee rush on you by dropping your ring of fire on yourself and healing at half health and then ground pound/beat them to death and archers are useless against you with your sheild and gandalf had chain lightning like darth sideous that nearly 1 shot on a full charge
Just stumbled on your channel, good stuff.
Great video. I used to play this game split screen when my brothers and I were little. When we got the game we were so excited because we played Battlefront 2 on the ps2 and this seemed to be more of the same. Only thing is you're saying Osgiliath wrong. It's supposed to be OZ- GILLY-ATH
Great Review as always!
I requested this game a few months back and didn’t think he would do it. Mainly because how old and awful it was but it’s funny how nostalgia can polish a turd, incredible job on the video pretty fascinating how you found so much in a game that seems pretty basic at its core. It was a cool idea on paper for a game it either lacked the technology or just basic structure leading it to be forgotten in time, well done keep up the great work, it would be interesting to see a 2022 recreation of this game with updated gameplay and graphics, almost like battlefront.
STAND FAST AGAINST THE GROWING TIDE!!!
Who played this against me on 360 back in the day? I was that mage that you couldn't kill.
against human players the scout was kinda useless as far as i remember, they have low health, less melee range than the warrior and are quite easy to spot with a bit of experience. we did play split screen though, so maybe that helped
Lol the Minas Tirith timed defence sections almost make me feel bad for wanting you cover this game 😅
What the heck!? I was thinking about this game after watching Battlefront series critiques and here it is!
What's next? Is there a Return of the King review too?
Well I'll be damned! There actually is!
I keep reading your mind but in the past.
This game had the potential to be even better. I got it a couple weeks ago and... I'd give it a 5.5/10... Still a fun time. Just feels like it's lacking in a lot of departments.... And doesn't feel very open. It feels linear... also looks and feels like an original Xbox game with graphics pushed to almost it's limits.. Didn't feel like an Xbox 360 2009 potential kind of game... Star Wars BattleFront 2 on the PS2 is better and more complete.
Really like your reviews are you gonna review The Battle for Middle-Earth games?
I would like to, yes. I'd imagine Third Age will come before BfME games, but who knows.
I love this game so much
Nice, now we need Dead Rising 3 DLCs.
It's a shame that the ps3 and xbox 360 battlefront was never released on those consoles
Its been a loooooooong time since I played that game but I believe you could control Oliphants on pellinor fields
you could, but in my experience they were laughably bad because you could instakill them with a QTE
I remember thinking: "how is this so much worse than bf2 in every way?"
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North
Could you do this game? I always enjoyed it as a kid and i loved it just as much as i love Conquest (which is alot). Although, for me, WINT bugged out and i couldn't comlpete the game.
It's still great tho!
The game is flawed but a ton of fun. Get 4 players, queue up some instant action, and just have a blast. Its hilariously unbalanced but it's a great time. I go back to battlefront and conquest any time I can get. In a lot of ways I think conquest is more fun, though it's definitely more flawed. I think it translated the battlefront formula really well. Well enough for me to put it right up there in terms of fun factor.
Thanks for the vid
Worm Touge does have a secret bomb attack
The game was good but the gameplay in Legendary and Heroic difficult was rough
The main mechanic of the game was never touched in this single player review, the classes are not balanced to counter each other, the classes are balanced to group up and protect the players spawned as big siege creatures like the Ents and Trolls, healing was the main decisive factor for the winning team, because of this kind of strategy the archers were the worst class in the game, the mages would always have shields up next to the siege creature, all the players inside the shield and the archer would be aiming up, waiting for some1 to step out and then the archer gets backstabbed by stealth rogues, which main role is killing anyone that is not directly next to a warrior, usually those picks would be between the spawn point and the mass of people on the siege minions (for what i remember, the rogue was the only class to get fully animation locked by warrior spin)
Saruman and galdalf could spam heals and shield, there would always be a cluster fuck of warriors around them, protecting them, the damage numbers for the heroes are low because they are supposed to be unkillable, if the team protects them from rogues they will last until the end of the match, and there are zero npcs on an online match, every single character you see is a player, there arent any "normal soldiers" to 1 hit unless you want to 1 hit players, this game was made completely online first and got a single player campaign later
You can boil pretty much everything problematic in this game down to "needs rebalancing"
-the assassin instant kill is way too powerful
-the mage's shield in infinite and impenetrable
-stun locks are way too easy, etc...
I like The Lord of the Rings: Conquest
Me: Alright time to play most fun class !
*Picking the Warrior class and see the enemy team capture the entire Flag post by entire of enemy Mage Class
Honestly i was kind of salty that people were playing as Mage class well i don't say the Mage class is broken or whatever its cuz i got really upset of how they doing that random Jump and Lighting bolt, jump and lighting bolt, jump and lighting bolt attack everytimes and it did so much damage too its cuz the Lighting attack of Mage is fast and quick while you spam clicking when you jump and click jump click jump click like its outrages.
Have you heard about the new lord of the rings conquest game coming out?
So weird! I just did the evil campaign last week.
Hot take, but Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is fantasy multiplayer done right as well. It's just a shame that the multiplayer is dead and never really caught on.
I was so confused i kept thinking you were saying Red Alert but you were saying Middle Earth 😂 duhhh im so dumb
Where can i download the game?
My guy, stop saying “os-goliath” it’s “os-gilly-ath”
I loved this game back in the day but looking at it now I can see how flawed it is. I still think that there is a great game somewhere in the DNA but it's held back by a whole slew of issues that drag the whole thing down. Had things been managed more effectively, perhaps more time given to the devs or a more fleshed out melee combat system, people would be looking back on this game with the same fondness they do the Battlefront games.
34:37 what kind of sandwich has a cherry on top
I don't remember Minas Tirith being hard, but then I didn't bother with harder difficulties XD
also your pronunciations of the words hurts my soul
Actually no lie the Mount Doom Nazgul mission was way more troublesome for me
Which words am I mispronouncing? I would imagine Osgoliath?
yeah pretty much. I think Minas Morgul as well XD
also youre complaining alot about the enemy health while playing on legendary difficulty, which gives all enemies more health and damage
That's actually a fair point, somehow I hadn't considered that. Doh.
Review all 3 battlefront psp games please
PSP battlefront games? ok
Peter Jackson should have been a character in this game tbh
Evil side gets Balrog, Good side gets Peter Jackson. I like it!
The dlc is lost to time. If you don't own it you can't even sail the seas for it. People have the files but are not uploading them. Someone did but it lacks the files to work properly a shame. It seemed quite cool though Gothmog was a odd choice
oh boy, star wars battlefront 2 lord of the rings edition
WAIT THERE WERE SPECIAL ABILITEIS?!
Oz Goliath?
I like your reviews but please pronounce Osgiliath correctly.
Os-gil-ee-ath
I'm never gonna live that pronunciation down lmao
2:16 that’s purple and hence why gandalfs is white
I really despise this game. It's execution. Not it's idea though. I think it would have been fantastic, but it's easily the worst Pandemic game I've ever played. Imagine if it had more time though? A world conquest mode (similar to Galactic Conquest), modding tools, more rideable creatures (you can't even control the fellbeasts...), better balance, the ability to construct fortifications (like building turrets in classic Battlefront). Better unit balance (no more completely broken mages and scouts or hilariously bad combos). Larger battles without relying on campaign. It's just such a disappointment from a studio that has created arguebly two of the greatest Star Wars games ever made (classic Battlefront and classic Battlefront 2). This game was sold as LOTR Battlefront and it is anything but that....
I loved this game but darn was it flawed
Nah dude mage all the way
You really should go watch the movies and rereview how to properly pronounce the names of places in Middle Earth. You butchered some of them.
1 OZ-Goliath please, hold the Faramir.
:D
You can always just pirate this game on pc and with proper resolution enemies will no longer blend in the environment and friend can be seen from foe
I try to get an official copy if one exists at a decent price range, and fortunately (or unfortunately?) Conquest wasn't too bad to track down. I might resort to that in the future for some games, but we're not quite there yet.
@@Dorkaxe The thing is that you can't "officially" buy this game any more. If you buy it, it's gonna be used and no money will be sent to the developer. Whether you pirate or buy it used makes no difference to the non existing developer any more.
Piracy is a crime batman tut tut
@@travus111 What's your point?
You're certainly not wrong, but I think you know what I mean. If it's not obscenely expensive, I generally try to get a physical copy if I can.
my tier list is:
s:mage
a:archer
b:scout
c:warrior