I just noticed that my Deviant is pretty abandoned, and that I have a lot of things to say, but for now I feel like ranting about certain points of Battle for Middle-Earth 2 regardless of the fact that I have this game for almost a year by now.

I'll start by the Create-A-Hero feature, which was suposed to be one of the coolest parts of the game. Unfortunately, this is really lame, because you have an absurdly limited options for customization (armor, weapons, etc), and I know that you receive a greater variation wit hthe expansion, but I'll reveal why I don't want the expansion later; my favorite hero type on this game is the Troll for a number of reasons: they are big; they have cool armor (cooler than the other servants of Sauron) and the got pwning weapons, but I feel they are crippled in-game because they act as they aren't realyy trolls.

For example, they don't trample enemies, they attack only one enemy at time and and only ONE attack animation! They are godamn slow whereas the rest of the trolls are pretty fast; Another flaw with the troll is that the Olog armor (the one that have full chest and back plates) get all sretched on the backs when they walk, that really annoys me...They don't receive leg armors either...

My second most favorite hero to be created is the Orc Raider, even though their helmets are more like masks than true helmets, that bugs me, a lot...

I too hate how Mordor is all messed up: The orc warriors and archers are weak and unable to get any upgrade (except for the archers, they can receive flaming arrows, but it takes to long for that freaking tavern upgrade that I most of the times simply don't research it). The Easterlings don't have these cool shields from the movies (and the game's cutscenes!) and are the only spearmen from Mordor.

And walls. Mordor is unable to build freaking walls, but i think it's not necessary, because the walls are so expensive, they basically take out all your resources trying to do so. Too bad, I love the way the goblins climb them, but again, they are really annoying because they are too slow to do so. Not to mention the computer player is a retarded that can't even close the gates or make walls for his own sake.

Another thing about mordor is their oliphants. You see, I'm crazy for these things, they where the only reason for why I watched Lord of the Rings movies. For my disgust, they were horribly crippled in the game, easily taken out by archers and pikeman which he couldn't simply trample because the charge hability don't work well in the middle of the battle.

And yes, I talk a lot abut mordor because i love playing as Evil...

About Isengard, my main complain is how limited their units are. Apart from the limited options of soldiers, they have absolutely no variation beetwen one soldier to another. If you see the movie you'll see that most of their armor is different in each uruk, but that simply don't appears in the game (with goblins and orcs that happens, even though the orcs don't have helmets, that sucks).

The goblins, at first, i though they where crap, but after playing with them, I saw how cool they where, having cave trolls that takes only 25 command points and take the hellout of the enemy troops. and they got dragons too!

As I don't play much with the goods factions, I don't think i have much to say about them, except that the dwarves are neat, the elves are pathetic and the humans are silly.

The two campaings in the game are really fun to play. The Good campaing, which i recently beated, is surprisingly cool, but what I love the most is the Evil campaing, mainly because it's totally different from wht should happen. Sauron standing victorious and bringing the Age of Darkness to Middle-Earth is simply priceless, but I wanted to see more of tis Age of Darkness....

I don't have much to say about the War of the Ring gameplay, except that I love the details in each land, they are all fun to see and say "oh, so here's where that scenario is from!". It's also the easiest part to give your hero a medal (Legend of the Ring medal).

Another thing that I despise about LotR games is how absurdly big they are. They take up most of your remaining HD in a way that it forces you to make it the only game to play in your pc depending of your hardrive capacity.

Now about the expansion: what I hate on it it's the fact that it removes completly the two original campaings! Not to mention that now the heroe's habilities costs resources....

Now the thing that I hate above everything mentioned until here is the voice of Mouth of Sauron. If you see the extra scene with him in the movie (search in youtube for it) you'll have an heart attack hearing his voice, it's like Palpatine got an egg on his throat! (no kidding, he does sounds like it!), that makes so mad because he was one of my favorite evil characters from it!

In other words, The Battle for Middle-Earth 2 is full of flaws, but I love playing it nonetheless...