gothhenge's Full Review: The Lord Of The Rings, The War Of The Ring for Win...
Capitalism at work
What happens when someone makes a blockbuster movie that makes millions of dollars? People try to cash in on it by making games based on the movie. We've seen it countless times recently: Star Wars, Spider-Man, The Matrix, The Hulk, and even Finding Nemo have games based on them. The Lord of the Rings seems to have inspired many more games, however, including this RTS offering from Sierra and Liquid, "War of the Ring" (WotR).
When you thaw a Blizzard, you get Liquid
When I first glanced at the menu screen of this game, I was at first shocked and then appalled by what I saw. The graphics look like they're straight out of Blizzard's "WarCraft III" (WC3). "This can't be a good sign," I thought. And sure enough, I was right.
To say that WotR is reminiscent of WC3 is like saying that "The Simpsons: Road Rage" is reminiscent of "Crazy Taxi" (note: the makers of "Road Rage" are actually facing a lawsuit from Sega, the makers of "Crazy Taxi", because the games are so similar). How does Liquid rip off Blizzard? Let me count the ways.
The most obvious similarity, of course, is the graphics. I'm pretty sure the model for Gimli was lifted straight from the dwarves in WC3. The terrain and lighting, too, are all far too similar to Blizzard's games. It's as if Liquid didn't even try to conceal the fact that they were ripping off another game. The graphics are pretty slick overall, but then, so were WC3's.
Another similarity is the whole "Orcs vs Humans" thing, and that goes as far back as the original "WarCraft". Now, I'm willing to overlook this, since this aspect of WotR was taken directly from Tolkien, but come on, it's too apparent not to notice.
Certain similarities are expected between different games in the RTS genre: collect resources, build buildings, create armies, then go annihilate your foe. That's all well and good, but WotR copies so blatantly from the "WarCraft" series that it's a wonder to me that Blizzard hasn't followed Sega's lead and brought a lawsuit against them for it.
Just like in WC3, WotR has special "Hero" units that you can summon, who have an effect on the normal units around them. And just like in WC3, when you click on the units, they pick from a variety of sayings to indicate that they are awaiting your orders. Liquid could have gone all the way with it, and included humorous sayings when you click on the same unit repeatedly (a la Blizzard's annoyed orc in WC2 saying "Stop poking me!"), but they didn't. The things that were left out of WotR that are included in WC3 (and even WC2) are part of what makes "WarCraft" such a better game. E.g., WotR only has 2 playable sides (or races), while WC3 has 4.
But enough about me...
Admittedly, WotR has its good points. The AI is actually pretty vicious in this game; units will give chase, set ambushes, and generally kick your tail if you don't watch them closely. And the variety of units is nice, but once again, nothing that we haven't seen before in WC3. I would have liked to see more variation between the two sides, though; each good unit seems to have an exact counterpart on the evil side, as opposed to WC3, in which each side has distinct strengths and weaknesses.
WotR took what was great about WC3 and left it out. The tech tree isn't as interesting, the buildings aren't are pretty, and the interface is more difficult to use (Hotkeys anyone?) and doesn't encourage an immersive gameplay experience. Bottom line? WotR just isn't worth buying, not when you can get the WC3 Battle Chest (which has the original WC3 plus the Frozen Throne expansion) for about the same cost (or less). Rabid Tolkien fanboys who have never played WC3 might like it, but those of us who know and love Blizzard will be seriously disappointed. But hey, at least it's not as bad as "Lords of Everquest"...
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