Total War: Warhammer 3 makes up for the lack of the best LOTR game

On December 31, 2010 something unfortunate happened: Electronic Arts shut down the online servers The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth, as well as its sequel and the extension of the sequel. EA’s licensing agreement with New Line Cinema, which had enabled EA to develop games set in the fantasy world of JRR Tolkien since 2001, also expired. Warner Bros. took over the reins of The Lord of the Rings video games, the Battle for Middle-earth series disappeared from digital stores, and one of my favorite real-time strategy series disappeared into licensing limbo.

The Battle for Middle-earth games are not impossible is scheduled to be played in 2023. Officially, you can buy pre-owned physical copies of each game on eBay and play the entire series online via custom servers. There’s also a huge Unreal Engine 4 fan mod in the works (although it’s still unclear when or if) The project will be completed).

Still, it’s a shame that modern strategy fans can’t just head to the Origin storefront, GOG.com, or even Game Pass to experience the simple yet compelling clashes between the Men of the West, Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, Mordor, Isengard, and the Powers of the Witch King.

The Battle for Middle-earth isn’t the best strategy series of all time. Combat was based on the default weaknesses of rock-paper-scissors units, factions were grossly imbalanced in multiplayer, and the enemy AI repeated the same strategies in each individual match, resulting in predictable skirmishes for those who would prefer to avoid online multiplayer .

Rather, as a means to march an army of Gondorian spearmen, Ithilic rangers, and horsemen from Rohan to Osgiliath, only to then clash with an opposing force of Uruks, Trolls, and war machines in a fierce real-time battle in which you defend two bridges across the Anduin River before launching a surprise attack with cavalry reinforced by more than a third? These games decided. I’ve spent hundreds of hours playing warcraft 3, Company of HeroesAnd Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 developed in the years leading up to the first Battle for Middle-earth, and I consider each of them to be more nuanced and balanced strategy games. But for someone obsessed with the warlike conflicts described in Tolkien’s books and the way they were brought to life in the hands of Peter Jackson, The Battle for Middle-earth was breathtaking in its ability to to show how a war was fought with dragons, giants and wizards , treemen and superhuman heroes could unfold. And at that time there was nothing like it.

That’s probably why I felt so strongly drawn to it Total War: Warhammer when it was released in 2016 and its sequels in the years that followed, evolving into what I would call “…”. healthy obsession with Total War: Warhammer 3. The grand strategy trilogy is set in Games Workshop’s “Fantasy Battle” setting (which existed before the company relaunched the tabletop storyline with the Age of Sigmar universe in 2015). and ridiculous superpowers. Sure, you can reenact that Rode the Rohirrim in the Pelennor Fields. And yes, you can recreate these wonderfully Throttle Points in Osgiliath against hordes of orcs, kobolds, trolls and war machines.

But you can also fight undead Egyptian pharaohs with shape-shifting dragons. Vampires can take on armies of tree people; The spirits of the dwarves’ ancestors are able to dodge the meteor-pierced Gatling rifle rounds of underground rat soldiers. I envision Fantasy Battle as a universe created by some kind of Tolkien obsessive who has a little bit of it to lost in the 80’s. by extension, Total War: Warhammer 3 is the Battle for Middle-earth dialed in on 11.

I would not have written about the last year Total War: Warhammer 3 for Sub Gems, Polygon’s column is reserved for our top-performing subscription service recommendations, as it hasn’t technically been available on any service in its full form. But in February, Creative Assembly nailed it Immortal Empires, the expansion that brings together the maps and factions of all three entries in the trilogy, free to all base game owners and Game Pass subscribers. Players no longer need to own every game in the series to command armies across the crowded, vast, fantastical map; to play the expansion with Warhammer 3create factions and gradually buy new ones as you encounter them. Total War games are complex creations, and PC Game Pass offers players a great way to test the waters before committing to a pricey purchase of the entire trilogy.

At a time when video games set in Tolkien’s fantasy world are either underwhelming or largely unknown (there are a handful of studios producing Lord of the Rings games right now, but none of their announcements have blown me away), Total War: Warhammer 3 is an ointment that relieves absence The Battle for Middle-earth and its sequels. It’s an unparalleled delight to watch Games Workshop’s larger-than-life heroes clash on lava-filled battlefields, while huge, ethereal polar bears wade in formations of vampire pirates, and mid-air eagles collide with wyvern-riding wizards.

Creative Assembly has proven over the course of three games and more than a dozen DLC packs that it can recreate a beloved fantasy universe with the breadth, scope, and creativity the setting deserves. If only there were another gargantuan fantasy license waiting for its next great video game adaptation that Creative Assembly could get its hands on…