War in Middle Earth

gaff 2016-11-06
(10/10)
I couldn't finish it 25 years ago, because there were code check somewhere in fangorn forrest, but I returned to it several months ago and finally win! It's a satisfaction.

It's very interesting mixture of adventure mode a strategy game, like dune but completely in another way. I think it's very underrated game, because it has been made almost 30 years ago, five years before the golden era.

At that time it was very sophisticated and very complex game. Adventure mode is too old, but strategic part is still very interesting and playable though!
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Temin 2015-03-06
Orcun: Don't vote down games you've NEVER PLAYED!!! You are destroying the score-system and are ruining the experience for everybody...
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mike_tyson 2013-03-26
There are a great many games based on Tolkiens works, not all of them good. My favourite one is The Hobbit (1985) which unfortunately never got ported to the Amiga. War in Middle Earth is clearly one of the best LotR-based games. I would describe it as a strategic-level wargame where you can view and influence the action on different scales. The graphics engine is just plain weird, looking very pixelized and mixing scanned with drawn artwork, but it looks charming in its own weird way and fits the LotR theme.
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Orcun 2008-04-23
(1/10)
Graphics seem so bad. Hobbits look like ducks
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BlueStar 2005-06-24
(6/10)
Great graphics do not make a good game. The idea of the game is really compelling. Yet it seems like the developers stopped halfway through the game and just put it on sale. This could have been the best RPG of the Amiga if only they had included more depth. Hardly any NPC interaction, and while the game could be appealing if they had tried to slow down the pace (seeing the hobbits walk across the land could have been exciting if they could interact with NPC's), the programmers settled for a more tactical approach. Doesn't deserve the high score that it has now. Could have been the number ONE in Amiga games ever but has no depth at all.
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Maff Rignall 2005-05-17
(10/10)
In an time when computer strategy games conjured images of gaudily colored hex squares and impenetrable keyboard commands, this was a very, very welcome breath of fresh air.

It's ostensibly a war game, but with all of the dice rolling and spellcasting aspects removed - you just pick an army and tell them where to go - if they run into trouble en route they sort it out for themselves. The strategy is reduced to the absolute top level of commands.

Usually this would seem incredibly restrictive and narrow, except that it's Tolkien's world you're playing with... With each game you basically get to rewrite the Lord Of The Rings. There's no obligation to follow the book's storyline, you can do things how you like, just as long as you get that ring to Mount Doom - and of course you could try it differently each time.

At the time, the mouse GUI was unheard of in a strategy title, whereas the graphics engine for the party-viewing screens was gobsmacking. Mixing digitised images with a random generator which meant that every screen was different. It looked absolutely fantastic, so much so that the game made a good screensaver - just tell your party to go somewhere, then leave them to it. At the time nothing matched it.

In hindsight, the actual battle logic seems a bit suspect, and the inventory management aspect is completely superfluous, but that's not enough to stop this being a classic. Seventeen years later, it's still one of my all-time favourite games.

10/10.
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Kriko 2005-02-13
(7/10)
I also loved the atmosphere; the graphics and the moody music captured the essence of Tolkien's world perfectly. I did feel that the game didn't quite work however - it was part adventure, part strategy but the mix lacked something. Baking powder?
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Lane 2005-02-02
(8/10)
Played it just because of fantastic and above all, atmospheric, graphics and music. It really took me to the Middle-Earth.
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