The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the Game

With Pandemic behind the reins, will The Lord of the Rings: Conquest just be Star Wars: Battlefront with different uniforms?
5/27/2008 7:29 PM | 0 Comments | Page 2 of 3

Soucy: You'll play as officers as well as the heroes. The officers give you that "part of something bigger" feel, while the heroes give players the ... well, hero moments. Heroes are treated as a reward for players completing their objectives throughout the game, and are also playable in the multiplayer modes.

Crispy Gamer: Now in the Star Wars: Battlefront games, you got to drive such vehicles and creatures as AT-STs and Tauntans. What will you be driving, so to speak, in this game?

Soucy: Oh we've got that covered. Horses, wargs, playable trolls and ents, catapults, siege towers and battering rams are just some examples of the kinds of things the player will have at his disposal in the game, but the battle is set in the air as well as on the ground. We've got fel beasts swooping down from the sky and carrying off soldiers. Eagles come to the aid of the forces of good to attack the orcs from above.

Crispy Gamer: Combat in the Battlefront games have mostly been shooting, with some occasional melee when you're a Jedi and have a lightsaber. Will Conquest be the reverse, mostly melee with some shooting?

Soucy: Of the four playable classes in the game, the Warrior and the Scout are more melee-focused, while the Archer and Mage are more ranged-focused, although every class has some form of ranged attack. Melee combat is an integral part of the game and is definitely a much bigger part of LOTR: Conquest than in the Battlefront series.

Crispy Gamer: How has this changed the game and what have you done to compensate?

Soucy: The mixture of melee and ranged classes is one of the things that has really helped us put a new spin on this gameplay style. There are lots of interesting dynamics between the classes in combat depending on the situation. For example, an Archer has an advantage against the melee classes if he is able to keep his distance from them, but if the melee guys get within range to use their melee attacks, the Archer will be in trouble. There are also a lot of ways for classes on the same team to play together using combined arms to be more effective against their enemies.

Crispy Gamer: Is there anything that you think works better in Conquest than it did in the Battlefront series?

Soucy: Melee combat and controlling creatures. It also gives you a larger sense of an epic battle and has a better single-player campaign.

Crispy Gamer: How about the other way -- is there anything that works better in Battlefront than in Conquest? I could see the vehicular combat being more fun when you're driving an AT-AT than one of those big elephant things.

Soucy: I think you'd be surprised. The "vehicles" we've got in the game end up adding quite a bit to the gameplay and are very satisfying in their own right. It's hard to pick out anything that was specifically better in Battlefront. We've done our best to take the best elements from Battlefront and improve on them everywhere we could. The differences that the Lord of the Rings universe presents have really let us take things to a cool new level in Conquest.