The Lord of the Rings: Conquest Ships

Is this the very first big game of 2009? Maybe. Electronic Arts has shipped Pandemic’s The Lord of the Rings: Conquest for the Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Nintendo DS. The game will ship on various platforms January 16, 2009 in Europe. The game takes some of the elements from Star Wars Battlefront and Star Wars Battlefront II titles, reworks them and throws them into the wonderful world of Middle-earth.

In this world at war, players can choose to control their favorite heroes and villains including Aragorn, Gandalf, the Witch-king, the Balrog and even the Dark Lord Sauron. The campaigns can be played online or split-screen and four-player split-screen or online for up to 16 players round out the game’s various modes.

I sincerely hope that this will be the game to put Pandemic back on track. Given last year’s train wreck that was Mercenaries 2, I need something to believe in again. A playable demo with a single player tutorial and online support is available on Xbox Live. What little I played was entertaining enough, but hard to gauge. Demos after all, are snapshots; a small sliver of what could be a great game.