War of the Ring (video game)

The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring, created in 2003 by Liquid Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment, is a real time strategy game, set in Tolkien's world of Middle Earth. Unlike many other of The Lord of the Rings video games, War of the Ring is stylised in a manner that befits the original novel, and as such, none of the characters within, which include The Fellowship of the Ring, The Nazgul, Theoden, Saruman, Gollum and various others, are based on the versions seen in the films, a concept that was later used in The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth. The game features a horde of different warriors that can be employed by one of the two available faction, Free Peoples and Forces of Sauron, refered to as Good and Evil in the game. Enviroments range from [[The Mouths of Entwash to the barren stretches of Mordor, and each contain numerous settings, incluing ruins, elvish castles, and Dwarven mines. Despite its mystical appearance, and fairly diverse three dimensional enviroments and buildings, the game has been the subject of some criticism, due to the fact that its style of play is highly similar to that of Warcraft III. Its production being recieved by fans as mediocre, The Lord of the Ring: Battle for Middle Earth, which was considered a major hit, followed closely in its footsteps.

GamePlay
The entire game is devided into several playable categories. Players have the power to chose from playing a single skirmish game as either Good or Evil, a campaign game as either Good or Evil, or an online game with other players as Good or Evil. In addition to these the player may also take the tutorial, a preset game that explains the way to move, attack, and order aroung yoyr troops. Playing the skirmish game is the simplest of the three main options, as no storyline is involved, and thus the player can utilise the full array of soldiers, spells and building available. Playing a campaign game is very different, as a storyline is involved, and the player must follow that predetermined storyline in order to advance to the next stage of the campaign.