Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The winter doldrums begin

Above: You Ent gonna enjoy this one. (It's a pun, you see.)

My first review of 2009 is up, and the game's a stinker: Lord of the Rings: Conquest. I try hard not to be mean-spirited when I write a review of a bad game, because I know a lot of people worked awfully hard on it, but at the same time I had almost a physical reaction when playing this game. My body rebelled, as though I was wearing an itchy sweater and I just had to yank it off. So there you go.

This, by the way, is the third game I've played by Pandemic Studios, and the third that sounded great on paper but failed in execution. The other two were the first Mercenaries and Destroy All Humans! I'll still hold out hope for Saboteur, though. Now that's a neat idea for a game.

7 comments:

Gary A. Lucero said...

While I'm a fan of Mercenaries 2 (it was bad enough to be good, IMO), the demo for the LOTR: Conquest game was just awful. It took only 5 minutes to see that it had no redeeming value, although to be fair someone will enjoy it. It just won't be me.

Iroquois Pliskin said...

Hey, I thought the first Mercenaries was pretty boss. It had the open-world gameplay from GTA but there was much more license to ratchet up the absurdity when it came to the munitions. It was some great stuff.

PS the mbta is the worst! I'd like to give a specific anti-shout-out to the #66 bus. What's the appropriate metaphor: the keystone kops of municipal transport? Something along those lines.

Anonymous said...

I got amped about the idea of Saboteur right when I read it. After seeing Mercs 2, though, I don't know what to think.

M2 was such a disappointment after liking the first one.

Gary A. Lucero said...

I remember the first Mercenaries as a pretty bare bones affair. It didn't seem to have a lot of style and it failed to draw me in.

Though Mercs 2 has issues, like horrible voice work which repeats ad nauseam, and some missions that seem impossible to complete, it really feels like more a sand box, with tons of stuff to do, and some aspects of combat are really satisfying.

Pleas realize this is coming from a guy who mostly plays RPGs, doesn't care for Call of Duty, and isn't a multiplier gamer. I play shooters casually, so my viewpoint is not the norm.

Garrett Martin said...

I've never played any of these games, but I do ride the MBTA every day. True, the service is awful. What's worse, though, public transit that will gradually get you almost anywhere in a city, but usually with a lot of delays, or something like MARTA in Atlanta, which isn't quite as technically challenged, but covers relatively little territory? The T is a firm, resolute bummer, but at least it'll get me places I want to go, eventually.

And yeah, good review!

Garrett Martin said...

Okay I take all that back. Took me two hours to go ten stops on the Redline yesterday. The MBTA is the worst.

Mitch Krpata said...

Validation.