I spent hundreds of hours playing Warcraft 3, Company of Heroes, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 in the years leading up to the first Battle for Middle-earth, and I consider each of them to be more nuanced and better-balanced strategy games. Image: EA Los Angeles/Electronic Arts via SpottinGames/YouTubeīut as a means for marching an army of Gondorian spearmen, Ithilien rangers, and Riders of Rohan to Osgiliath, only to clash with an opposing force of uruks, trolls, and war machines in a pitched real-time battle, in which you defend two bridges over the Anduin river before launching a surprise attack with upgraded cavalry over a third? These games ruled. Combat relied on standard rock-paper-scissors unit weaknesses, factions were grossly imbalanced in multiplayer, and enemy AI repeated the same strategies custom game after custom game, leading to predictable skirmishes for anyone who preferred to avoid online multiplayer. The Battle for Middle-earth isn’t the best strategy series ever made. There’s also a massive Unreal Engine 4 fan mod in the works (although it’s still unclear when, or if, the project will be finished).Įven so - it’s a shame that modern strategy fans can’t simply visit the Origin storefront, GOG.com, or even Game Pass to try out the simple yet compelling clashes between the Men of the West, elves, dwarves, goblins, Mordor, Isengard, and the forces of the Witch King. Officially speaking, you can purchase pre-owned physical copies of each game on eBay, and play the whole series online via custom servers. The Battle for Middle-earth games aren’t impossible to play in 2023. assumed the mantle of steward for The Lord of the Rings video games, The Battle for Middle-earth series disappeared from digital storefronts, and one of my favorite real-time strategy series vanished into licensing limbo. Tolkien’s fantasy world since 2001, expired as well. What’s more, EA’s licensing deal with New Line Cinema, which had allowed the former to develop games set in J.R.R. 31, 2010, an unfortunate thing happened: Electronic Arts shut down the online servers for The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth, as well as its sequel and the sequel’s expansion.

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