The darkness to come – BFMEII The Rise of the Witch King preview

Electronic Arts is guilty to the first degree of milking IPs for sequels and expansions ad nauseam. But not all sequels and expansions suck, even if it’s from EA. They sometimes do the job of adding new features to the franchise, correcting the mistakes of their forebears, and at times drawing new audiences.

GameSpy ran through a preview of EA’s newest-milked expansion, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II: The Rise of the Witch King. The title alone screams milked IP: We never thought we’d use TWO COLONS to write a title. But, judging from the GameSpy preview’s conclusions, the milk isn’t at all sour.

Okay, so here’s the run-through. The newest faction thrown in by the expansion is the Angmar faction, led by the leader of the Nazgul himself, the Witch-King of Angmar. What’s so cool about this new faction is that it’s a mix of different Middle-Earth races and abilities. You’ve got trolls, men, goblins and orcs, the mixed bag to deploy. And unlike the other standing factions of BMFEII, you can’t rely on zerging on the one hand, or pure tank units on the other, to win the day.

As GameSpy says, Angmar is a “generalist” faction, relying on the adaptability of its forces to counter anything the enemy throws at it. Its best example, perhaps, is the Thrall Master. He is built single and alone, but can call in any “thrall army” the player wishes to call into the field. Got cavalry running at you? Thrall in pike-wielding hillmen. Archers ruining your day, call in goblin warg riders. Then there’s the sorcerer, which functions like a priest-sorceress combo in Warcraft III, with healing and offensive buff capabilities.

The expansion also tweaks the War of the Ring mode to address some criticisms from the original BFMEII. There are 14 new territories, players can construct strategic buildings on the map, a new War of the Ring scenario in addition to the original one, persistent units on the strategic map, and improved AI. Or slightly improved AI, as far as GameSpy can judge, because to them, it’s still pretty weak.

LOTR: BFMEII: RotWK will ship November 28 for the PC. No word on an Xbox 360 version. Dang, we still have to write those double-colons.

Electronic Arts is guilty to the first degree of milking IPs for sequels and expansions ad nauseam. But not all sequels and expansions suck, even if it’s from EA. They sometimes do the job of adding new features to the franchise, correcting the mistakes of their forebears, and at times drawing new audiences.

GameSpy ran through a preview of EA’s newest-milked expansion, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II: The Rise of the Witch King. The title alone screams milked IP: We never thought we’d use TWO COLONS to write a title. But, judging from the GameSpy preview’s conclusions, the milk isn’t at all sour.

Okay, so here’s the run-through. The newest faction thrown in by the expansion is the Angmar faction, led by the leader of the Nazgul himself, the Witch-King of Angmar. What’s so cool about this new faction is that it’s a mix of different Middle-Earth races and abilities. You’ve got trolls, men, goblins and orcs, the mixed bag to deploy. And unlike the other standing factions of BMFEII, you can’t rely on zerging on the one hand, or pure tank units on the other, to win the day.

As GameSpy says, Angmar is a “generalist” faction, relying on the adaptability of its forces to counter anything the enemy throws at it. Its best example, perhaps, is the Thrall Master. He is built single and alone, but can call in any “thrall army” the player wishes to call into the field. Got cavalry running at you? Thrall in pike-wielding hillmen. Archers ruining your day, call in goblin warg riders. Then there’s the sorcerer, which functions like a priest-sorceress combo in Warcraft III, with healing and offensive buff capabilities.

The expansion also tweaks the War of the Ring mode to address some criticisms from the original BFMEII. There are 14 new territories, players can construct strategic buildings on the map, a new War of the Ring scenario in addition to the original one, persistent units on the strategic map, and improved AI. Or slightly improved AI, as far as GameSpy can judge, because to them, it’s still pretty weak.

LOTR: BFMEII: RotWK will ship November 28 for the PC. No word on an Xbox 360 version. Dang, we still have to write those double-colons.