Lord of the Rings movies captured imaginations of many people, millions of movie tickets and books were sold. It is one of the most lore rich worlds any escapist would want to visit. Fantasy rich world of Middle Earth will always make you come back for more. So many bad games were made to milk this franchise, however for every 5 bad games came the good one and the best one is Battle for Middle Earth. RTS series that any fan of the RTS genre and Lord of the Rings can enjoy immensely.
Battle for Middle Earth
First game was released not too long after Return of The King in 2004. and was made by Electronic Arts. This is one of rare games from EA that is actually good. During campaign mode players can chose between forces of good and forces of evil and play some of the missions from the movies and play with almost every hero from the movies. There are four playable factions that we can build up full armies with. Gondor, Rohan, Isengard and Mordor. Every faction also have magic points that will help them during battles and can change the course of the battle. For example Mordor can summon Balrog and Gondor can summon Eagles to help them, you can even build your favorite heroes from the movies. Very fun RTS.
Battle for Middle Earth 2
As the first game reached certain success, naturally it wouldn't take long to see another BFME game. Sequel was released in 2006. and game passed with flying colors. Game improved in every area with more interesting playable factions, you could now build Dwarf, Goblin and Elf armies with improved Mordor, Isengard and Men of the West from the first game. Your main keep can have many upgrade options considering what faction you choose, every one is distinct and have their own flavor. That added huge replayability to this game. Another interesting feature in this game is hero editor, players can create their own customizable heroes in addition to cannon ones and build them with their armies. Seeing all this play out in real time brings Middle Earth to life. One of the best games of mid 2000's.
The Rise Of The Witch-King
This is a big expansion for Battle for Middle Earth 2. It is a prequel story about the rise of the Witch-King of Angmar and fall of the Arnor kingdom. Angmar is also 7th playable faction and one of the more interesting ones with armies of well trained trolls and powerful magic. Old factions received some new units and hero editor allowed the players to build Troll heroes. Full package for many hours of multiplayer and skirmish battles.
