If you were to pick just one scene from Peter Jackson's marvellous cinematic take on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, chances are good it'll be one involving a lot of orcs and humans hacking each other to pieces. This isn't because you care less about the story of good overcoming evil, or the many trials and tests that each of the characters are forced to endure, it's because it was the huge scale battle sequences that really stood out.

It's only inevitable that we gamers will want to recreate these scenes in a more familiar surrounding and though there have already been a spate of Lord of the Rings games, none have quite been that successful at recreating those sequences. The Lord Of The Rings: The Battle For Middle-Earth changes all that, bringing the films to a much more comfortable strategy format and doing what previous games couldn't, in its interpretation of those stand out battles, even though it takes its time in getting there.

First things first however, those expecting a full, to the letter representation of the books will be sorely disappointed; likewise, it doesn't exactly stay true to the movies either, with it's blatant changing of the events that unfolded. Gandalf defeating the Balrog in Moria, Boromir actually surviving past the deadly encounter with a group of angry Uruk-Hai now accompanied by one or two trolls, this is as vivid a take on the story as you can get, but it does allow a certain amount of freedom to the game that would have previously been restricted.

Battle For Middle-Earth isn't really about tying itself in with the story of the books or the movies, it's more about letting you, the player, rewrite the history of Middle-Earth and fight the battles in the way you want to. It also means the inclusion of two campaigns, with the added opportunity to play on the dark side and actually fight for the dark lord Sauron himself, burning Middle-Earth to the ground in the search of the one ring.

Regardless of which campaign is chosen, both good and evil are bound by the same World Map screen between each mission, a snazzy 3D representation of the map of Middle Earth. It accurately follows the path of the Fellowship as they travel across the land to Mount Doom, but it also shows troop movements of the various armies and the areas they plan to attack. More useful additions include the limited ability to choose areas to do battle in, each of which offer differing bonuses that can affect traits such as commands and resources. We're not Talking Total War here; the world map merely offers a bridge as a go-between for each mission, tying them in to each other so they make more sense. Other than that, it doesn't allow for the ability to attack anywhere in the world, so those dreams about sending an army to crush the Shire are going to have to be quashed now I'm afraid.

Once a battle has been selected, the game moves into a far more comfortable 3D real time setting, with all the usual trademarks of strategy games. Much of the earlier sections of Battle For Middle-Earth have you fighting through open planes to destroy the forces of Mordor, or Rohan and Gondor if you happen to be playing for the other side. Base management and resource gathering are commonplace here; in fact it's necessary in order to build an army that'll be with you through much of the game, leading up to that final, bloody conclusion. The more troops you can train and upgrade in these early levels, the easier your task towards the huge battles near the end of the campaign.

But while most certainly a necessity, the first half of Battle For Middle-Earth can feel a little slow and repetitive. The objectives make for nothing more exciting than destroy this, build that, get your hero character up one level and the environments can feel a little samey too. There's certainly no fault with the graphics though, using the Command & Conquer: Generals engine, the game boasts some surprisingly beautiful looks given the age of the technology powering it, while even little effects come with mouth watering detail to them. It even manages huge scale battles convincingly, though not without occasional lapses where the frame rate can drop a little, especially in huge encounters with the enemy. Where it goes wrong in the beginning of the game though, is with the constant repetition of similar looking environments, flat terrain interspersed with a stream or two, not quite the imaginative fantasy land J.R.R. Tolkien envisioned.

But there is some variety, especially when playing as the good guys. As well as controlling the forces of Gondor and Rohan as they fight to keep both Sauruman and Mordor at bay, the game also switches to follow the Fellowship on the first leg of their journey. More hack and slash than collect and build, these occasional levels do add a little variety when it's needed and certainly make for some much more impressive environments to traverse, the mines of Moria being of particular merit. But these sections don't last and it's not long before the drudgery of the other levels returns.

However, while perhaps lacking in real variety, base and resource management are at least handled in a way that prevents dragging the game down into tedium. Rather than being left to set up a camp anywhere in a particular environment, bases are instead restricted to specified areas. Sizes differ, as do the amount of buildings you are allowed to construct, which can make defending smaller settlements a little difficult. But it's easy to deal with, a click here, a click there and you're halfway to having a fully operational base-camp, leaving you to concentrate on building up an army. But what about resources? Build a farm or two and you're set, more input than that is rarely needed. A pain free and simple to grasp system that doesn't chew through the hours that other similar strategy games have been known to do.

Upgrades though, are a completely different kettle of fish. It's not uncommon to spend the majority of the earlier parts of the game wasting time and resources in acquiring upgrades. The cause of this is the odd upgrading system that the game uses. Any normal strategy game would have you constructing a certain building, spending money on its upgrades until its use had been fulfilled, then producing an army fully equipped with these new additions to crush the enemy. Here, however, you first must construct a building that can research upgrades, purchase said upgrades and then be forced to spend yet more money and time selecting these upgrades for each individual unit. It's an odd system that consumes time and it's not helped by the fact that for certain upgrades to become researchable, specific buildings must first gain a rank. This isn't so much odd as it is foolish, as it forces you to churn out troops and sacrifice them in order for that building to gain the rank required. And you've no choice either, as later on upgrades don't become so much an option as a requirement, with enemy forces coming fully upgraded, tearing through bases with little effort. If your army isn't adequately equipped to halt their attack, you're dead.

It's at this point the game almost feels like a letdown; a strategy game with huge potential and a massive back catalogue of source material from both the Lord of the Rings books and the movies, sadly scuppered by bland missions and stupefying additions to some of the game mechanics. But, it's just when things are at their darkest that a little ray of light shines through and suddenly Battle For Middle-Earth shows us its true colours and real abilities.

Much like the movie trilogy, Battle For Middle-Earth starts off slowly but eventually picks up once it begins covering the events from The Two Towers. It begins with the siege of Helm's Deep, a huge fort ready to withstand the might of 20,000 Uruk-Hai. Of course, being a game, certain restrictions have to apply, so the scale of the siege has been toned down a little, yet despite this, Battle For Middle-Earth still handles huge scale battles rather convincingly. Certainly enough to induce panic as far as Helm's Deep goes, as the ten minute countdown until the enemy forces arrive at the wall, that last chaotic attempt to train as many archers as possible all the while overlooking defensive areas and assessing how easy they will be to hold and then trying desperately to fend off the assault long enough until reinforcements arrive.

These elements were exactly what made the action sequences in the movies stand out and they certainly work in quelling the blandness of the first half of the game. It doesn't let up either; from Helm's Deeps the quality of the levels just gets better, attacking Isengard with a group of Ents picking up boulders and crushing orcs, the ambush by a group of Rangers on a convoy of Sauron's human armies and their huge oliphant escorts to the huge battles of Pelannor Fields and Minas Tirith, even levels that weren't exactly part of the movies become more exciting as the battles increase in size with massive open assaults and epic castle sieges.

Yet while the pace picks up, there's never any real sense of tactics involved. Flanking manoeuvres are all but pointless, attacking an enemy from the side or the back makes not one blind bit of difference, while the AI on the whole doesn't quite impress as much as it should. Orcs seem more than willing to fling themselves at impenetrable defences, often coming across as mere cannon fodder whose existence seems pointless. The game does seem more geared to massive one-on-one assaults, with charging head on at the enemy being the most commonly used strategy. Still, with the size of some the battles on offer, you'll almost be glad that AI is as simple as it is, as there's an awful lot to concentrate on.

Battles are rewarding though, so putting in the effort no matter how little needn't feel wasted. Command points are awarded for particular stand out acts, such as defeating huge armies. These not only allow you to increase the size of your armies, but can also go towards the purchase of special powers from a menu provided, some of which can be no more than simple boosts to a hero's traits while other, more expensive bonuses, can include requesting reinforcements from Elven archers or Ents and even calling the army of the dead to your aid. Play as the bad guys and you'll be able to summon up your own Balrog, a huge fire demon that crushes the enemy with ease.

But for those who grow weary of the single player campaigns, the game also comes packed with a pretty in-depth skirmish mode for those single player battles without pesky objectives to work to, as well as being good trainers for online play. Multiplayer itself can provide hours more play on top of the 20 plus levels in the single player campaigns and with upwards of eight people able to play online there's certainly no shortage of battles to participate in, making the longevity of the game last that little bit longer.

While it takes its time getting there, The Lord Of The Rings: The Battle For Middle-Earth eventually manages to pull off its huge battle sequences with as much gusto as the movie on which it's based. If only the beginning of the game matched the later section, then this would have been closer to the 9/10 mark, but it just loses out with some odd inclusions of a sporadic upgrade system together with feather light tactics. It does what it does with real style and the recreation of those famous battle sequences from the movies are the best to date, ranking this as the finest Lord of the Rings game out there. It may be nothing more than attractive pop strategy, but it's fun pop strategy on a scale like no other, if not quite the one game to rule them all that we were all hoping for.

Reviewed by Kieron Giacopazzi for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).