I played the new War of the Ring demo today and I liked it. There are two levels available to play, "The Siege of the Iron Hills" and "The Pursuit of Gollum." It seems like a fine RTS game, if you're just ga-ga over RTS games you're going to love this. If not... well, let me break it down into a sort of logic grid for ya:
If you like Warcraft 3 and are a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien you're going to love this game.
If you like Warcraft 3 and are not a big fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, you might as well just play Warcraft 3, unless you're tired of Warcraft 3 and just want a new adventure in the same vein, this might be ok.
If you don't like Warcraft 3 but are a fan of Tolkien, consider very carefully before buying this game. The story is ok, and will be a great thrill to Tolkien fans that like RTS's and are tired of Orcs-n-Humans. But the story isn't justification enough to buy it if you aren't a big fan of the RTS style of game play. Of course this is judging on a very small portion of the storyline, but I'm also basing it on the fact that they are obviously making up their own story, which, as I said, is "ok", but of course nobody competes with the Master in the end, and so true Tolkien fans are bound to ultimately be disappointed with products like this.
When you first enter the game you see a map of Middle Earth (the northern regions - I'm writing this from memory of having played it several hours ago, so don't trust me, but I think the map goes from around the Bree crossroads in the SW, over the Misty Mountains, to the NE corner of Mirkwood). There are two large clickable stars on the map, each representing one of the two available missions. The center-most leads to the episode called "The Pursuit of Gollum". You play as Legolas leading a band of elven warriors (four or five) in, you guessed it, pursuit of Gollum. Because there is no base building or resource harvesting it's reminiscent of some of the levels of the original Command and Conquer. As an example of that type of RTS play, it's... ok. Not outstanding. Legolas has one special ability, a sort of "knockback" bow shot that can help break up a crowd of enemies. It's not, in my opinion, a particularly challenging or even interesting level to play.
The other map-star takes you to the level called "The Siege of the Iron Hills". This one is heaps more interesting, challenging, and fun to play. Your "hero" is Gimli, who leads a crew of dwarves to try to destroy some orc encampments. Along the way you find an ancient, half-completed super-catapult with all the powers of a nuclear-missile launch pad. Operating that baby is a TON of FUN. While the majority of the play of this level is exactly the same as every other RTS out there: gathering resources, building and upgrading base buildings, establishing an army and attacking the enemy, defending your base, etc., the way they set up the finding, finishing and using of the giant catapult is ingenious, and breathes a little fresh life into what is otherwise, IMO, a very tired and overused game formula.
Gimli has two special abilities, he can walk into an enemy guard tower, chuck out the occupants and take over. It's really funny to see the orcs come flying out of the windows. They lay on the ground unconscious for a few seconds then get up and rejoin the fight. Gimli also has a very useful ground smash attack that stuns all enemies around in within a medium-sized radius. It's extremely powerful in a big battle, because the orcs have the tendency to focus on Gimli. The heroes have considerable more life than all other characters.
Of course it's far too early to judge for real, but overall this demo seems to foretell of a decent game. As an RTS it's just another in a long line of decent games. I don't think it's better than Warcraft 3. I don't think it's worse either. As a LotR product it's fine. Not a stand up and cheer game, but not one to avoid either. ... just another in a long line.
