Guardians of Middle-earth

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List Price: $29.99
Sale Price: $12.75
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Finally the MOBA's arrive on consoles and for those wondering what a

MOBA is it's a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. this style of

play has been popular on pc for a number of years now with games like

League of Legends dominating the market, so making one for console

was a great idea. another great idea they implemented is

no microtransactions like the pc counterparts have.most pc MOBA's

usually charge real cash for characters, items etc. here Guardians Shines

by not charging a cent for anything. you unlock characters by earning coin

(Gold) by doing battle with up to 5 human enemies (10 players total)

this may sound fantastic but as of this writing, I have not

been able to play and finish a true ten person game (no A.I. Bots)

so here's the rub, while it's a really fun game especally with friends

you will usually have 1-3 human opponents on a team and the rest

will be filled with A.I. Bots that perform pretty well considering

they're A.I. Controlled.

the gameplay consists mainly of killing enemy guardians (players)

destroying enemy Towers (defencivefires on enemies)Upgrading your towers

and upgrading your Barracks (barracks when upgraded can produce mounted units, Siege units like Ents and elite fighters good for taking on players)

and finally destroying the enemy base. destruction of an enemies base immediately

ends the game. if the timer runs out the game ends as well.

there are a number of game modes to choose from including an all

A.I. vs Player Match setup called Skirmish Mode. it's a good place to start

for the new player.

the 2nd mode Battlegrounds is the meat of the game and has the choice of

three lane (more strategic) or One lane (full on head to head battle)

then there's Elite Battlegrounds for pure player vs player matches no Bots

However again another flaw shows up with wait times for a single match

taking up to 15 minutes to start, then later one might start in ten.

other times there's not enough players for a match and you have

to wait until the queue is filled.

Once you've chosen your battle type and get into a game it

is fantastic with glorious spell effects and all sorts of team buffs

like shields, healing, shrouded in darkness etc. and there's

Commands in addition to abilities that have a longer cooldown but allows the player

to have a quick heal at level one but maxed out at level 12 you can

summon a Balrog or an Ent. there's about five Command Power choices

per level and four levels each unlocking at lvl four, eight, and twelve.

finally, there are Relics that you can equip up to three of and fill with gems

these apply various effects from regeneration to the more expensive

relics shrouding the player in a shield each time an ability is used.

others increase damage and others still speed up cooldowns.

the animations are excellent but nothing new with an isometric style of view

of the lanes or lane.

Characters to begin with you have on each side (good and evil)

three unlocked characters and 5000 gold is required to unlock another

though they have a great "Featured" group of characters each week that are free to use for that week only. as of this writing I do not know if they will cycle.

a really fun game that could have been more fun with all ten friends.

Gameplay: 5 stars a blast to play and a deep amount of strategy

Graphics: clean and nicely animated 4 stars

Sound: nothing beyond the expected 4 stars

Controls: 5 stars simple and easy to pick up and play.

Overall: if it weren't for the wait times for matches

with human players this would easily be a Five Star title

but the wait times are annoying. I have read on the official

forums that several patches are coming to address the issues I stated

about the long wait times and games with ten live players failing

to remain stable long enough to complete a match. so let's

hope they bring out a patch for these soon since it truly

is a Gem on the Psn and XBL marketplaces.

the game only falls short of greatness due to those two flaws.

don't overlook it try the demo First!

NOTE: the PS3 version as well as Xbox, are Marketplace

Downloads off your service (I Used PSN)

so in this retail box you get a cardboard disc that has a voucher code on it

good for BOTH the full game and the Season Pass. this pass get's you eight more guardians as they are released. so if you're wondering if there's a disc

in the retail ps3 version, the answer is No.

Click Here to Read More Reviews >>

As an active player of MOBA-style games(multiplayer online battle arena), I was very excited to hear news about one based on the Lord of the Rings. After playing it for some time, however, my expectations fell as I discovered that while it does retain some good qualities of other MOBAs, it fails to truly shine in its own right. Guardians of Middle Earth plays much like one would expect from a MOBA: you choose your hero, you fight through lanes alongside spawning minions(or soldiers, in this case), you take down towers, and you attempt to overtake and destroy the enemy base. Combat is fluid, leveling feels scaled correctly, and each hero character is very unique. In addition to the normal mechanics, you can also capture shrines located across the battlefield for passive bonuses, keeping the balance of power always shifting. What is disappointing to find, however, is that you do not earn any in-battle gold, and there is no equipment to speak of, like in games such as League of Legends. You do earn experience and gold overall through from every battle, and outside of games you can customize your loadouts with new skills, bonuses, and consumable potions. This adds for a nice incentive to keep playing and completing challenges, which are plentiful and diverse. What really detracts from the overall experience of Guardians of Middle Earth is the over feel of the combat. Enemy AI is idiotic, and the game almost forces you to play with others because of so. Also, because of the lack of many heroes, it is very easy to use overpowered characters and abuse their abilities. Perhaps in the future when more characters arrive, it will be more balanced, but until then, you are better off avoiding anyone will low survivability. Overall, while it is not a terrible game, it probably wont appeal to many outside of MOBA or Lord of the Rings fans, until some issues have been fixed.

Buy Guardians of Middle-earth Now

Would be fun if you like online gaming but the graphics stink. And not up tot he quality of other Lord of the Rings Games.

Read Best Reviews of Guardians of Middle-earth Here

I bought this for $15, and it came with a downloadable voucher, I download it, then played one game online. Even with a wired 30 megabit connection, I got lag. For a League of Legends play who is used to instantaneous response, that was unacceptable. The $15 price tag about fits it for how bad the servers can be. I'd suggest waiting for the PC version to come out to see if the servers are any better. But I don't suggest buying this unless they step up their servers.

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other then the servers sometimes this game is so fun. i was no fan of mobas but now i cant stop playing, great game.