Okay, so who isn’t a fan of LOTR? We’ve all watched the movies, read the books, and even played the games. Somehow there is that feeling that something is just missing from the games though.

Yes, that’s right, the epic battles you’ve imagined when reading the books or whilst watching the movies - how much did they pay all those extras? Unfortunately the other LOTR games have never been able to emulate these huge scale battles, but this is where LOTR: Conquest steps in by shoving you right into the middle of the battles to do a bit of honest cleaving!

After choosing what type of character you would like to play in the game, you are literally thrown into the hot seat by facing a mass of  raving slavering and generally nasty Orcs, great time for a bit of hack and slash. It might sound a bit daunting, especially for someone who is new to the LOTR games, but there is a very informative tutorial to help you get through this insane period. The controls do feel a bit clunky at first, but after about a half an hour of play you will be wondering why other games don’t use this control system.

LOTR: Conquest’s world looks beautiful and the battles are vibrant and full of energy allowing for easy but hectic gameplay where you will often be running around screaming, “Health, I need Health”. But be warned you will need a higher end PC to enjoy all the graphics benefits of the game.  A medium range PC will however have the game playing with fairly decent graphics. Another great feature of LOTR: Conquest is that if you don’t want to play as the good guys then you don’t have to. Has a Hobbit been bugging you today? No problem, introduce him to your axe or maybe your other 15 Orc buddies. To do this unfortunately you will have to complete the Armies of the West campaign.

LOTR: Conquest also has a multiplayer mode where you can go online to play with your friends in either Deathmatches or play co-operatively through the missions. If you have been looking for a fast paced, hack and slash game to keep you occupied then this is the game for you. Now where did that Hobbit go?