Not
Mediocre Presentation And Graphics
For a game based on The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings franchises, it’s disappointing to note that the game has last generation visuals. The graphics look faded and isn’t as vibrant as Middle-Earth should look like. Not to mention that you cannot alter the camera in the game nor can you zoom in and out of the action. It would have been nice if you could zoom in as the character models to look a little too small for my taste. There is also a map at the top right hand corner of the screen too, but you cannot zoom in on that either.
No Offline Or Single Player Modes
It would have been fun if this game featured some sort of single player campaign that somewhat replicated the most famous battles that occurred during Middle Earth’s history. Sadly, this isn’t the case as Guardians of Middle-earth is solely just an online multiplayer experience with absolutely no single player mode to speak of. You cannot even play the game in offline co-op or versus modes either.
Hardly Anybody Is Online Playing
As aforementioned, this game is strictly an online only video game. Well it’s quite sad to note that the online community for this game must be very small or not even existent at all. Even though I logged on and tried to play the game several times, I rarely found any real players to play with. Since this game requires ten people to play the game with five on each team, I normally played against and with the A.I. instead since it took a long time to even find anyone to play with. The game automatically pits you in a match with A.I. controlled opponents if you cannot find anyone to play with and against in over two minutes.
Note to gamers, if you’re planning to purchase Guardians of Middle-earth, make sure your online friends have the game too so you can invite them to play. If you don’t have online friends that also have the game, it will be a tough finding actual players playing the game.
Verdict
Guardians of Middle-earth is an enjoyable MOBA that fans of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings will love to play. Its simple easy to pick up and play controls will make this game playable for gamers of any ability level. That being said, it’s sad that there is no single player campaign included in this game and the online community is pretty small. Only people with online friends will get the most out of this game.
[Editor’s Note: Guardians of Middle-earth was reviewed on the Xbox 360. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
