The Lord of the Rings: Conquest

The Lord of the Rings: Conquest is an action game published by Electronic Arts and developed by Pandemic Studios. It is inspired by the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and incorporates many gameplay elements from Pandemic’s Star Wars: Battlefront games. The game allows the player to play as both good and evil forces, but unlike The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth, the latter option revolves around Sauron preventing the destruction of the One Ring and using it to reclaim his lost power. The PlayStation 3 demo was made available on the PlayStation Network on December 23, 2008, while the Xbox 360 demo was released on January 2, 2009. Weta Digital assisted Pandemic in developing the game. Many of their digital models, including the fallen beasts, were provided. Pandemic also used elements from the films and was inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien’s original fantasy novel, such as a level loosely based on Balin’s conquest of Moria, in which Gimli attempts to retake the dwarven city from the orcs. Some of the inspiration was indirect: in the novel, the armies of Rohan and Gondor decide not to attack Minas Morgul, but a level in the game is based on what might have happened if they had. The soundtrack for the game is Howard Shore’s score to the films. On March 16, 2010, The Lord of the Rings: Conquest’s online multiplayer modes for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 were discontinued. On August 16, 2010, a group of fans launched the non-profit CNQReboot servers, which allow PC version users to play online using tunneling software that allows network play via the local area network option.