Remember those amazingly epic battles of good against evil seen in Peter Jackson's landmark trilogy of The Lord of the Rings? Wouldn't it be cool to command those battles yourself? Turns out…not so much. I guess there is a reason you don't see many RTS games on a console.

THE STORY SO FAR

I'm not that high on the LOTR mythology and for the most part I can't stand the book; to me it’s a lot of people walking around and around on a nature walk. I actually enjoyed the parts with Legolas and Aragorn, was mildly amused by the parts with the Ents, but I hated Frodo and Sam's scenes together. Given all that rant, I still really loved the movies, and though I wasn't heralding each one as deserving of the Oscar, I was mighty happy when Return of the King won that year cause it was the best movie of that time.

With LOTR Battle For Middle-earth 2, instead of simply taking the story you've read about and seen already in theaters, the developers decided to use other bits of info Tolkien had in his library, which included talk of a war that raged on in the north while our heroes from the trilogy were dealing with the one down south. It helps round out the story and keeps you engaged, but the story is mostly deadweight and not handled all too well. As missions played out, I had an idea what the general consensus of the mission was and what I needed to do, but for me having to free an Ent isn't exactly a story point bulletin in my book.

You can choose to play as both the forces of light or dark, so you can experience the same story told through two different ways. Would you rather be the dignified elves and lead a war against evil? Or would you rather be the dingy goblins and trolls, crawling forth from the bowels of the earth to lay waste to the innocent. Either way, you can choose both, and if you enjoy the game you'll be playing through both sides of the coin anyways.

SINGLE PLAYER: GAMEPLAY

For starters, you'll want to go through the tutorial to have any hope whatsoever of succeeding in the game, but the problem is the information goes by too fast, so you'll occasionally miss some vital information and will have to play around until you stumble upon what the tutorial was asking you to do in the first place.

Once you make it through the tutorial, then it's time to delve into the story mode of the game by choosing either the forces of good or evil. Typically the two play exactly the same, though there are a few differences that help separate them just slightly regarding how they play. After you learn those, however, mostly the changes are cosmetic in regards to unit types.

Some levels thrust you right into the action, giving you a select number of units and telling you that you need to accomplish this certain task. Other levels, however, force you to setup a few buildings first, like your base, a few unit training areas, etc. After you meet the requirements the game asks for, then it will give you your next goals, which could be taking out all the Cave Trolls to freeing an Ent to demolishing a castle.

There is a good amount of customization in regards to how you want to approach a mission. You can use the blitzkrieg method and simply send wave after wave of units at the enemy until they are demolished, and for what it counts it works in the early missions. You can choose to separate your units into different groupings, splitting the enemy and taking them from both sides. You can choose to fortify your base, leaving a few units behind to guard incase the enemy slips behind you. In other words, the game is a real time strategy game for a reason.

Combat takes on the properties of a Paper, Rock, Scissors match as certain units are stronger against specific units and others are weaker against another type. Archers and fighters are your major go-to guys at the beginning, as they'll handle about everything, but then when the enemy starts throwing at you spider riders, you better have some spear handlers because otherwise your forces are doomed. Otherwise, the whole thing seems like a crapshoot, as your forces can literally dominate one minute and then the next they are getting their butts handed to them. The AI isn't anything to write home about either, because though they clearly see an enemy on the screen, they don't always attack what you want them to. Beyond that, simple walls prove problems to them, because though there is clearly an opening a few have managed to walk through, the others must insist on standing there, hacking away at the stone, thinking they'd rather go through it while their brothers in arms are being slaughtered by spiders. It makes the game very frustrating.

Matters aren't helped along by the controls either. The game does what it can with a Xbox 360 controller in mind, but button pressing combos and scroll wheels don't always work like they are supposed to and thus lead to the death of a lot of your troops. For example, selecting all of your troops to lead an advance against one stronghold should be easy, but often times the game didn't want to select every unit I had for one reason or another. The paint drag system doesn't work as well as a typical rectangular drag; jumping back and forth from one battle to the next is a chore; selecting powers and heroes isn't a speedy process either; and in general I just fully realized why we don't see more RTS games outside the realm of the PC.

And I haven't even mentioned the fact that the game contains lag galore – even the tutorial, probably the first thing you'll experience about the game, is crazy with the lag; there isn't even that much going on, but it chugs like a snail in molasses. The speed gets a little better the further along you go in your adventure, but the game is never lag free.

MULTIPLAYER: GAMEPLAY
Mutiplayer plays exactly like the single player game, with up to four players being able to battle on one map and various win parameters being setup. Players can choose to eliminate the competition by destroying all their units and base, occupying several territories for points, etc. It's not always army against army, however, as you can choose to play with just heroes as well.

Online is pretty fun, but only when you get paired up with competition equal or less to you. If you are a relative newbie and jump into a game against someone quite advanced, be prepared to be destroyed and cry as your game quickly comes crashing down around you.

GRAPHICS
The environments are pretty spectacular, as dense forests, pristine elven cities, and gushing waterfalls are all nicely rendered and really help draw you into the world of Tolkien. The larger character units also look nice, but the smaller ones, even when you push the camera in as far as you can, are almost indiscernible from one to the other; I only knew one character was Tom Bombadil because he was doing a jig and singing.

SOUND
With Hugo Weaving reprising his role of Elrond, voice acting in that regards can't be beat; for some of the other in-game storytelling not involving Elrond, however, left a little to be desired. The orchestral music really brings you into the game, making your marches to meet the enemy seem like the most epic battle regardless of the size of your army. The sound effects, while good, become canned and repeats way too early into your game – you hear one Cave Troll take a dirt nap you've heard them all.

IN CONCLUSION
If you have a Xbox 360 and an itch for some RTS goodness then LOTR: Battle for Middle-earth 2 will have to tide you over, because…well…there aren't any other RTS games for the system. For what it is, the game is good enough, but it could've been a lot better if a little more thought would've gone into the controls and gameplay, perhaps even dumbing it down a bit to help with the transition. But trying to take the precision of the game on the PC and moving it to a console, trying not to lose anything in the process, ultimately hurts the game. Kudos to EA for trying something new, but ultimately it doesn't work.

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