The Lord of the Rings: Conquest

The Lord of the Rings: Conquest is an action video game published by Electronic Arts, and developed by Pandemic Studios based upon the fantasy book The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien and its live-action film trilogy adaptation, directed by Peter Jackson and released by New Line Cinema. It is the spiritual successor to the Starwars: Battlefront games. The game uses several models taken directly from the movies and uses these in its in-game engine. It is set for release on January 13 2009.

Story setting
The game's campaign and battles will mostly portray those seen in the live-action film trilogy, but will also feature several battles that are not seen in the films, like the attempt to recapture Minas Morgul by the Free Peoples prior to the assault on the Black Gate. The good campaign will closely follow the events as depicted in the movies and books. Finishing this campaign in turn will unlock the evil campaign, which follows a what if scenario if the Nazgul had killed the ringbearer at Mount Doom and reclaimed the ring for Sauron, unleashing his wrath upon Middle-Earth.

Good Campaign
The Good Campaign is meant to follow to events in the film and books. It follows the film series, but adds some locations from the books, and some maps are inspired from parts of the books, Minas Morgul, as an example, because of the debate whether to attack it in The Return of the King novel.
 * Last Alliance of Elves and Men: The training level in which all classes and their powers are explained. The level takes the player through various places of the battle, finally ending at a plain where a charge is made. After this, the player must fight Sauron as Isildur. Killing him completes the level.
 * Battle of Helm's Deep: The player takes the position of a warrior or an archer and must prevent hordes of Uruk-Hai from capturing the deeping wall. After this, they must hunt and kill various torch-bearing orcs before they can light the bomb and breach the wall. he player is called back to the main gate where they must prevent the orcs from gaining control of the main gate. The wall is then breached and the player must rush to the keep and help Theoden drive orc officers off. After this, the player may have the chance to play as Aragorn depending on their score, but either way must recapture the wall from the orcs. Once this is accomplished, the battle is won.
 * Battle of Isengard : The player takes up arms as the men of Rohan, take control of an Ent and later play Gandalf in the Battle which led to the destruction of Isengard. The player partakes in two main missions: kill Wormtongue and get the key and deliver it to Treebeard; then participate in the march of the ents by taking control of an Ent and breaking down watchtowers and killing multiple orcs. The battle ends with the assignment carried out by Gandalf titled: Kill Saruman.
 * Mines of Moria: One plays as the Rohirrim driving the orcs out of the mines. Partway through the battle, the player may take the role of Gimli. At the end, the player plays as Gandalf and fights a balrog.
 * Battle of Osgiliath: The player fights alongside Faramir and his men to attempt to stop the invading orcs from taking hold of the city Osgiliath, the gateway to Minas Tirith.
 * Battle of Minas Tirith: The player must take part in the defense of Minas Tirith from an immense army of orcs.
 * Battle of the Pelennor Fields : You may play as a Rohirrim in the famous Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
 * Battle of Minas Morgul: A scenario depicting what would happen if the heroes decided to attack Minas Morgul.
 * Battle at the Black Gate : You may play as Gandalf, Gimli, Legolas or Aragorn as you hold back the tides of evil to give Frodo time to destroy the Ring.

Evil Campaign
The Evil Campaign is available only after finishing the Good Campaign, and depicts what would have happened if Frodo had failed to destroy the Ring.
 * Mount Doom The player controls a Nazgûl who first needs to kill Orc chieftains who rebelled and after that, kill Frodo and Sam at the Crack of Doom.
 * Osgiliath The player must destroy and recapture the city in preparation to siege the White City. The Player may control The Mouth of Sauron in this mission.
 * Minas Tirith The player must destroy the White City to defeat the world of men.
 * Mines of Moria The player must summon a Balrog and destroy the men of Gondor who have inhabited the mines.
 * Weathertop The player must kill Aragorn as Saruman.
 * Rivendell The player must destroy the elves in Rivendell as Sauron himself.
 * The Shire The player must burn the Shire and slaughter all of the hobbits as well as killing Gandalf playing as Sauron.

Gameplay
Lord of the Rings: Conquest will allow you to play as one soldier in a larger battle. Players will be able to pick one of four classes: The Mage, Archer, Scout or as a Warrior. By earning points during the battle, players will be able to take on the mantle of one of the heroes from the films, which are more powerful versions of the basic classes. For example: a high-scoring player can unlock Gandalf as a hero to play as on Minas Trith, who has abilities similar to a mage, yet more powerful. Heroes are playable for an unlimited time, as their health does not gradually decrease as it did in the similar game, Star Wars Battlefront II. Good heroes include Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf the White, Frodo, Faramir, Isildur, Elrond and Eowyn. Evil heroes include Sauron, the Balrog, the Mouth of Sauron, Lurtz, Saruman, Grima Wormtongue, a Nazgul, and the Witch-King.

The game will have a total of twelve locations or maps. These maps have been mentioned as being much larger than those in Battlefront. For players who wish to get staight into the game the game features instant action like the previous battlefront games you will get to play any army you want straight away. The game's multiplayer modes will allow up to 16 players, but battles may feature as many as 150 additional AI-controlled troops. Mounts are also available, examples are Wargs and Horses, but also siege weapons and towers. Flying mounts are not included, but fellbeast or eagles can be summoned to attack a single target. Trolls and Ents can be "mounted" and played as, for the original character vanishes and the player assumes control of the beast.

There will also be an enormous number of playable factions: some of the good factions include the defenders of Gondor, the Men of Rohan, the Elves, the Dwarves. Some of the evil armies are the Easterlings, the Haradrim, the minions of Mordor, and the servants of Isengard....however, these factions are all share the same classes, just with different skins. The skins of each class in each faction may vary. For example, Uruk-Hais may have different helmets and Gondorian archers may wear ranger clothes or armor.

Community links

 * Middle-earth Center, a fansite
 * official fan community for Pandemic and EA’s The Lord of The Rings: Conquest!