Every now and then I come across a game I have to review that I can’t connect with no matter how hard I try. Whether a gameplay flaw is holding me back, it just isn’t up to scratch graphically (for the system it is on), there are audio bytes that grate on me, or sometimes — on special occasions — I come across a game that houses all that and more.
Can I just get one thing off my chest? Please, game developers everywhere, LEAVE THE LORD OF THE RINGS FRANCHISE ALONE! We’ve had far too many titles based around this intellectual property and it’s about time we put it in a small bag and throw it in a river like many of life’s problems.
Conquest tries to be many things at once, and quite frankly it just doesn’t succeed at any of them. In what could have been a very awesome hack and slash title with an even better multiplayer mode, it manages to only bring you a single player mode that acts as a tutorial for what will be a multiplayer experience that will lead from one annoyance to another.
Anyone new to this title, that may have picked it up purely for the franchise name, will undoubtedly head straight for the “story mode”. Each mission replicates what you’ll find in multiplayer mode, and basically involves getting your character (whether you choose soldier, mage, archer or some of the many heroes) from where you currently are, to another glowing point on the map and either defeat a bunch of orcs and trolls or defend glowing point B from said orcs and trolls.
Some of the locales are actually fairly decent, but the invisible boundaries that you’re bound to get caught on added to the frustration you’ll already have from an amazingly awkward button masher style control scheme that will have you reaching for the power switch shortly after. Or at least force your hand to try the multiplayer mode.
If you’re lucky enough (and I use that term loosely) to get a decent game going, you’ll find exactly what you found in single player mode, but with the opportunity of playing against real live living people instead of shoddy AI that I swear is unfairly tough for the default difficulty. But again, you’ll find the same kind of goals here, unless you want to just jump into a more traditional deathmatch style game. Either way, you won’t be playing for long as you hear a random NPC member of your “squad” shouting out directions and what’s going on in what can only be described as an over-the-top Superbowl excitement.
Closing comments
I honestly can’t find anything in this title worth getting excited about. Character models are alright I guess…… albeit fairly low in polygon count. Ummm… it doesn’t crash? Although you might get stuck in geometry and thrown about the land magically until you hit the suicide button so you can respawn again.
I’ll give whoever can play this game until they have all achievements a dollar.
