The game is set in the time of the Fellowship and allows various modes of play. In single player mode you can elect to play a campaign as either the forces of good or evil. There is also a skirmish mode option which is available for both single- and multi-player. In the campaign mode you are greeted with a beuatifully rendered map depicting the various regions, each broken into zones. Each represents an area to conquer or to travel over.

Every major conflict from the movies is included. You will battle with the fellowship through the mines of Moria, defend the plains of Gondor and stand firm in Helms Deep. When you set out with the fellowship you initially fight alone but as you progress through the campaign you will enlist the help of allies and be able to create units and armies.

The basic game setup is in 3D isometric view that you can zoom in and out of as required. Control is through the standard point and click. However, rather than the menu bar at the bottom you are presented with, a palantir serves both as map and unit control. A bit of practise is required to get accustomed to it but you will soon find that it is quite adequate for the small amount of commands you need to give your units.

The strategic resource side of the game is not too complex, with each side being required to collect one or two resources to get things moving along. Your city building is limited to a preset area that is of a format familiar to most current strategy games. You have limited building spaces and are forced to make immediate trade-offs between farms and unit-producing buildings. This may not suit some players as you cannot freely build towers etc. to set up your own defensive arrangements. Nonetheless the system works well and with most maps containing more than two or three available settlement sites, you can eventually develop whatever mix of buildings you want.

Upgrades are simplified as well in the game. As time progresses and you produce more units, more options and upgrades either happen automatically or become available to you. If you do upgrade unit abilities such as weapons and armour, you also have to buy them for each unit. This may seem a bit harsh but it does place more importance on the upgrades and which units receive them.

As you battle onwards your units improve in ability. They can gain standard bearers and become more adept in combat. In campaign mode these units are carried through to the next battle. There is a neat feature where you can upgrade your orc units by setting them to fight each other. As they are a free cost to produce (they are dug up, like potatoes), there is some advantage in doing this.

Variety-wise there are some exciting units and some notable ommissions. You get to see the ents, the oliphants, ogres and the like as well as the normal missile units, infantry and cavalry. Elves make an appearance in the campaign and can be "summoned" as a special ability; however, we would have liked to have had the option to play them and the dwarves as a race in the game.

All the heroes and villains make an appearance in the campaign, and within the skirmish game you can also generate them from one of the buildings. Initially they are pretty limited in ability, but as they gain experience more hero abilities become available to them. These include lightning attacks, more powerful attacks and so on. You also gain command points that can apply to the entire battle, which will allow you to call in special units like the elves, heal units or arm your peasants. Progression through the campaign can also gain you more command points to use.

Combat is limited in the amount of options available to you. Most units have no variety in formation and tactics is a case of just sending them into battle as a mob and hoping for the best. Battles are usually a confused affair with lots of bodies flying and many casualties. Units die quickly in this game - especially green ones, so it is an ongoing process of building new units to replenish lost ones, or pulling units out to heal them. Ideally we would would have liked to have seen more flexibility to combine and group units into specialised formations that would allow more tactical input into the battles.

Even at easy levels the game's AI can be tough. You need to grab settlements early and produce units and resources quicker to gain the upper hand. As soon as you have lost said upper hand it is a tough road back to win the battle. This style of gameplay may not suit everybody, but the battles are certainly not protracted because of this simplistic strategic model. There is no apparent advantage for terrain types that we could descern either, so overall it is largely a unit bash fest with limited tactical flexibility.

Overall the graphics are great with some excellent animated touches to the settlements and buildings. The combat and spell effects are also well put together. On our review PC the game was very smooth, however we did try it on a lesser spec'ed machine and in the bigger battles there was a considerable amount of performance drop. Clearly, to get the best from the game you need a high end machine.

The in game movie sequences from the films are a nice touch and the voiceovers by the actors themselves meld well into gameplay. All of this makes for a well presented and polished product.