The battle at Helm's Deep, in Minas Tirith and before the Black Gate, Frodo's rescue by Sam and the protection of Rohan against the armies of Mordor - all this and much more is in the real-time strategy game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth to find. The focus is clearly on the fast ground battles, the base building this fall by the wayside. However, this tarnishes not enthusiasm, but ensures Kurzweiligkeit. The atmosphere fits perfectly, the music, and many voice-overs are taken from the movie. Among the campaigns: These campaigns are based on the film. Changes in the story, such as the rescue Boromir, are possible and on the side of Mordor and Isengard even often, what I do not find that bad. Most units can, if they survive, accompany the player through various missions and achieve a high level. The duration of the campaigns is quite long and the missions, some RPG-like, are varied. To control: Like most strategy games there is the control of the mouse and from the usual keys on the keyboard and is internalized rapidly. Only to lose the overview in great battles, as the units of different players are not great to be distinguished from each other. For Graphics: The graphics are very nice and extremely detailed, the most striking are the wonderful animations. Only the cards are often similar, a few more trees here and a few more ruins since. Among the characters and units: All the main characters of the film are also available in The Battle for Middle Earth and have special abilities that make them more significant than normal troops. Each unit also has the ability to ascend levels, thereby increasing the life. However, the maximum is at level ten. But no unit is invincible, even Olifanten and trolls go at fire arrow fire from archers to reason, which, however, are themselves a chance against Wargreiter. For the music, the sound effects and the voices: The music of Howard Shore's composition for The Lord of the Rings is staged brilliantly and can entrain. The same applies to the matching sound effects, which can rip and neat surprise. The German voices have already been used in the film, giving their part to the good sound to it. Only the oriented Galadriel spokeswoman in the campaign seems sleepy and unmotivated and some figures (about Gimli) have a new voice spendiert get. The special features (to name a few): The general skills that allow the player to interact with spells in the battles. This unit can be propagated summoned or cured and raw materials. These abilities are very powerful and able to change all the gameplay significantly. Furthermore, the construction sites for forts and outposts are set, the player has virtually no discretion in the choice of location. In addition, in battles not true that the seemingly superior player comes out victorious. The favorable applying a general ability can operate the superiority of the enemy quickly reversed. Weaknesses: A small disadvantage for those who have already come to know the benefits of it, is the lack of a button for temporarily stopping the game action. Sometimes it can get very hectic when a base dug and a new upgrade needs to be explored, while the opponent just deployed to a completely different point on the map with his army. In addition, the loading times can annoy on older computers. I had and have a lot of fun with The Battle for Middle Earth. Even for me as absolute EA Games games Meider it was a worthwhile purchase.