Lord of the Rings: Conquest is a third person action game developed by Pandemic Studios and produced by Electronic Arts, in which the player is to fight his or her way through the major battles throughout the Lord of the Rings movies. Based on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the game plays much like Star Wars: Battlefront.

This game allows the player to fight for the forces of good or evil. You play as a warrior, archer, scout, or mage. In this class based fighting system, there are rally points in which you respawn when killed.

The good campaign, aptly named War of the Ring, focuses on what the movies do, destroying the Ring of Power and saving Middle-Earth. You fight through such famous locations as Helm’s Deep, Isengard, and Minas Tirith.

There are also battlefields not seen in the movies, with a level called The Liberation of Minas Morgul (a main staging place for Sauron’s armies). Playing through the campaign, you get the option to use such heroes as Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Gandalf and Faromir from the movies.

The evil campaign, The Rise of Sauron, focuses on Sauron’s armies stopping the Ring from being destroyed and fighting to get it back. The story for this level is what would have happened had Frodo failed to destroy the Ring, and if Sauron were to regain power. Players have the option to play as the Nazgul, trolls, a Balrog in Moria, Saruman, an army of Uruk-hai against the inhabitants of Frodo’s Shire, and ultimately Sauron himself.

The music is probably the best part of this game, as Howard Shore’s original score from the trilogy was used. Every level’s music fits perfectly from a moment in the movie.

Elrond from the movies returned to narrate the game, and does a masterful job. He sets the mood perfectly in narrating both campaigns.

The gameplay itself is not difficult to master, as it is basically a button-masher. While frustrating at times (the button combinations tend to be confusing), the gameplay is addictive and fun.

Ultimately, this is a good buy for any LOTR fan, and it will provide hours of entertainment.