The game starts off by letting the player choose to be on either side of the battlle for the One Ring. Players can choose to be a part of the Fellowship or Mordor. All of the characters from the movies appear in the game and are instantly recognizable. There are also many famous locations from the film including Helms Deep, Minis Tirith and the Plains of Rohan. Official film footage is littered throughout the game as well, but it is short and scaled back; which means if you haven't seen the movies or read the books then you're likely to be a little confused about exactly what is happening at certain parts of the game. The game assumes that the player will know the story and because one of the greatest stories ever told isn’t explained properly enough, it doesn’t feel like you’re actually battling for any one reason.
A familiar face for fans of the movie
Players move along a mostly linear path (we would have appreciated a little more open ended game play) and when you encounter an enemy each of you plans the moves you will make. This is a little different to your normal strategy game because both players plan their moves at once, which means you need to consider what the other player is doing; whilst still remaining offensive. The combat is split into two phases, a movement phase and a combat phase. During the movement phase you tell your units where to go, and during the combat phase you tell them who to attack. After this is done the battle begins and the result is decided based on the statistics of each unit.
The combat is decidedly basic though, as you're never actually controlling many units at once. One of the downfalls of this is that it never really feels like you're participating in a huge epic battle, which is something that is sure to disappoint hardcore fans of Lord of the Rings. Other Lord of the Rings games have featured the huge epic battles, and even though you played a small part in them, it still felt like you were actually participating in a large scale battle, which Tactics just doesn’t do.
A welcome addition is the game's multiplayer support. Up to four players can play at once and do battle in many familiar locales from the trilogy. You actually need to custom build your army in the multiplayer mode though, which adds a bit of variety. However, one of the downfalls of this is that it often takes a long time to actually get into a match, simply because you need to customise your team every single time you do battle. Even when a battle is finished the game actually returns you to the main menu and you need to go through the setup options again; it is very frustrating and makes the multiplayer a fiddly process.
Attacking would be a good move right now
Graphically, the game isn't as impressive as we'd hoped it would be. There are some decent lighting effects, as well as some great animations but the frame-rate often suffers because of this. During intense times the frame-rate will crawl along, which disturbs the pace of the game and is extremely disappointing. However, all of the environments look great and are easily recognisable to Lord of the Rings fans, and the FMV's (whilst short) are very impressive, even if we've seen the footage a lot before.
The audio in the game will be instantly recognisable to fans of the movie. Howard Shore's music from the movies is used over and over again throughout the game and the sound effects work well, with units grunting as they take damage and unleash attacks.
The main campaign will last about ten hours and the player can play through again on the opposing side. We get the impression that EA were hoping the multiplayer would keep the game in your PSP, but it is so disappointing that you're only likely to play through a few battles before tiring of it and moving onto the next game. The campaign could have been a little longer as well, but there are three difficulty levels so dedicated fans may play through a few times, however there is no real reason to play through the campaign mode more than once.
Sometimes the environments will feel a little confined
There is nothing particularly wrong with Lord of the Rings: Tactics, it just doesn't feel very polished. The story takes a backseat and because of this you'll never really feel very immersed in the game. The combat is basic and the battles never feel epic. Hardcore fans of the game are likely to appreciate a new Lord of the Rings game, but in reality there just isn't enough depth in the game to satisfy strategy fans either. The multiplayer mode has a clunky interface that takes a bit of getting used to. Lord of the Rings: Tactics should have been a better game, but most people are likely to be disappointed by the series' PSP debut.
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