War of the Ring impressions

I think I'll build lots of these fellows

It’s not very often that you hear developers admit that they basically have just copied another game, when they are presenting their newest creation. But that’s exactly what happened, when Liquid Entertainment’s Edward A. Del Castillo (design director/producer of games like Battle Realms and Command & Conquer Gold) demonstrated the upcoming RTS game War of the Rings set in the Lord of the Rings world to games journalists. After a few minutes of demonstration I couldn’t help thinking “total WarCraft III rip-off”, and then someone asked the question. To my surprise Mr. Castillo answered:

- The similarity to WarCraft III is on purpose. Vivendi (the publisher of the game, ed.) wanted it to be that way.

Vivendi published WarCraft III for Blizzard last year, and given its success it makes sense to use the game’s concept and look for another game. Luckily it seemed to work very well with the Lord of the Rings premise, and as you read on, you’ll notice many WarCraft III elements. However, since Liquid Entertainment previously created the Battle Realms games, fans will also note many BR elements.

Epic battles and simple ressources

War of the Rings

War of the Rings is based a lot less on the main storyline in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books than most other LOTR games, you’ve seen. There’s a perfectly logical reason for that:

- If you play the books, you can’t change what happened, and that’s not fun, argued Mr. Castillo and mentioned the Battle of Helm’s Deep.

Thus the game focuses on the events that were only briefly/vaguely mentioned in the books, where there’s more room for interpretation. But the game still takes place during the same era as the books and in the same area (like Rohan and Mirkwood). The main screen is a huge map of the Middle Earth, where you can select battles. The scenarios are non-linear and as you complete scenarios, you unlock new ones, which then appear on the map. It’s possible to play both as the forces of good and the forces of evil. Liquid Entertainment have emphasized the battle element of the game, and you’ll typically see between 20 and 100 units engage at the same time. Thus resource gathering has been simplified and you only need ore and food. A third resource is fate, but that can only be acquired by defeating your enemies.

Oh Legolas, where art thou?

War of the Ring

The user interface and details like the management of heroes are almost identical to Blizzard’s RTS, as we saw Legolas kill off some giant spiders. Heroes also gain experience and carry them on from scenario to scenario. But even though I write a lot about the similarity to WarCraft III, it’s also important to note that the graphics are a lot better. Liquid Entertainment have integrated an advanced wind model that effects details like flags and the grass. Via the mouse you can also create small waves in small lakes or move long grass.

Likewise there is rain that reduces flammability and the units’ moving speed. Add to that beautiful sunlight and shadow effects and you have a game that looks really sweet. During the demonstration it was easy to see that Edward A. Del Castillo was very pleased with the looks of the game.

Are you afraid of the big, bad Balrog?

War of the Ring

One of the most important parts of a Real Time Strategy game is the artificial intelligence (AI), and that was sadly a portion we didn’t get much information about. However, Mr. Castillo promised that the AI will be capable of advanced tactical decisions like setting up an ambush. On the other hand we saw some of the most interesting units in the game including a Balrog. It’s a massive unit that took up 1/3 of the game screen and the earth shook when it was approaching much like the earth shook in the Jurassic Park movie, when the T-Rex was getting close.

War of the Ring will be released early 2004, and if it’s successful, Liquid Entertainment are already planning to produce expansion packs, which will open up new areas on the main map. The game looks and feels a lot like WarCraft III, but add to that Liquid Entertainment’s experience with the Battle Realms games as well as much better graphics, and you have a promising RTS game on your hands.