Lord of the Rings: Tactics Impressions

Although the films have been out for close to two years now, the Lord of the Rings license is still going strong with DVDs, toys, collectibles, and of course, video games. It looks like EA Games is willing to bet that the license still has plenty of life left, since it recently bought the rights to the books and announced a new PSP-only strategy role-playing game based on the movie license that it already own the rights to. We got a chance to check out the appropriately titled Lord of the Rings: Tactics at an EA press event where the game was shown for the first time.

The storyline in Lord of the Rings: Tactics spans all three movies and incorporates clips from the films to set the scene for each battle. In all, there's about 40 minutes of movie footage in Tactics. All of your favorite characters from the movies will appear in this game as well, so you'll see Aragorn, Frodo, Saruman, Sauron, Boromir, Gimli, Legolas, Gandalf, and more. That's right...you'll be able to play as both good and evil characters in the single-player campaign. Known as The Fellowship of the Ring and The Host of Mordor, respectively, the campaigns will feature six heroes on each side, as well as a unique storyline for each one. Since the movies focused on The Fellowship of the Ring, the game designers had to create a story for The Host of Mordor campaign by compiling movie footage and extras from the DVDs. We didn't actually get to see any of the Mordor storyline, but if done well it sounds like it could be an interesting change of pace to play as the bad guys and try to defeat those pesky hobbits. It's estimated that playing through both campaigns will take around 20 hours.

In addition to the well-known characters, you'll also see some familiar locations in the game. There are 20 levels in the single-player game, as well as 12 multiplayer maps. These maps are based on locations from the movies. For instance, one of the battles we saw in the demo took place at Weathertop against a bunch of ring wraiths and the Witch-King. The characters and environments are all 3D, with uneven terrain and various obstacles that require you to use strategy when determining how you want to move and position your characters. To help with this, there's a small map overlay in the bottom-right corner of the screen that shows where you are in relation to other characters and the rest of the surroundings.

The gameplay of Lord of the Rings: Tactics is similar to other strategy role-playing games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Gladius. In single-player, you'll move and act with all your characters, and then the enemy will do the same. Each turn has two phases: movement and actions. You can move your characters on a grid, and then in the action phase you can choose to have your characters attack, use special skills, or simply wait. The victory conditions vary with each battle. In the demo we saw, the goal was to inflict 30 hit points of damage upon the Witch-King. We watched as Aragorn rushed in head-on, while the hobbits tossed rocks at ring wraiths from elevated positions on the map. The terrain factors into the strategy of the game, since your characters will get bonuses depending on where they are standing. For example, an archer's range will increase when he is standing on high ground. Likewise, if you get attacked from above, you'll take more damage than if you are on even ground. Attacks include the basic melee and ranged abilities, but there will also be special moves and magic that characters will learn as they gain more experience.

The experience system is based on skill points you earn while in battle. After battle you can go to a "shop" where you can spend the points to increase your stats or learn new abilities. You can also increase your stats by purchasing or upgrading your equipment. So far, it looks like the character development is somewhat shallow compared to most tactics games, since it doesn't seem like there is much you can do with a character. It isn't at all like Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea, where you can change classes and acquire new skills to create a customized arsenal of powerful abilities for each character. Hopefully we'll get a chance to learn more about the leveling system before the game ships.

One of the most intriguing features of the game is the Wi-Fi multiplayer mode that lets two players do battle with their customized parties. Once you beat the Mordor part of the single-player campaign, you can then use the characters to create a mishmash party of both good and evil heroes to play in multiplayer. If you want, you can have Gandalf and Saruman team up to take on your friend's team of Aragorn, Frodo, and Sauron. It sounds like a cool idea to create a sort of all-star team of heroes, but with only 12 heroes in the game you might quickly exhaust all the various combinations of characters.

Multiplayer battles are also turn-based. But rather than taking a turn and then waiting for the other player to go, movement and actions are instead set up simultaneously. Then, once both players are ready, the commands are adjudicated and all of the actions are played out. This sounds like a good idea, since you won't have to wait to get a turn in, but we're interested to see how it factors into the strategy of the game, as you won't know what your enemies are doing--or even where they are going to be--when you're planning your attack.

Lord of the Rings: Tactics looks like it could be an interesting game, with its multiple single-player storylines and the Wi-Fi multiplayer features, not to mention the beloved characters from the award-winning The Lord of the Rings movies. It's commendable that EA is choosing to go with a strategy RPG for the first Lord of the Rings game on the PSP, rather than the obvious hack-and-slash action game. Check back soon for more details, as we'll have had a chance to spend some more time with the game before it ships this November.