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WAR IN MIDDLE EARTH This is the first Tolkien-based game I've ever liked; the first one to really capture the feel of the LORD OF THE RINGS books themselves. I wonder why it's taken so long to reproduce the Tolkien magic in a computer game...? WAR IN MIDDLE EARTH is essentially a war/strategy type game, but it's not that easy to classify. It's actually a combination of war/strategy, animated adventure, and CRPG all rolled into one. This review is based on the IBM-PC version of the game; Commodore 64/128 version notes follow. You begin the game as Frodo Baggins, just leaving Hobbiton in the company of Sam and Pippin. The evil forces of the Dark Lord Sauron are on the move and dark strangers have been asking after "Mr. Baggins" in the Shire. Your goals are to: mobilize the nations of the West, the men of Dale, Gondor, and Rohan, the Elves of Lorien and Mirkwood, and the dwarves of Erebor and the Iron Hills (by finding objects of power and presenting them to their kings); evade or triumph over the forces of evil (Orcs, Nazgul, etc.); and keep the One Ring o Power out of Sauron's hands by destroying it in the maw of Mt. Doom. In addition to Sauron's forces, you must deal with those of the renegade Wizard Saruman who wants to control Middle Earth for his own purposes. The game plays on three levels: First is a full, overhead map view of Middle Earth with good forces shown as blue dots, evil in red, and neutral in green. Second is the campaign level on which all commands are given. This is a much more detailed map of Middle Earth in which characters are shown as figures and armies as colorful badges. Since this view is magnified, you only see part of Middle Earth at one time, but the map scrolls as you move the screen pointer to the edge of the screen. Lastly is the close-up level in which you can see all the characters in detailed full animation against digitized backgrounds. This is where characters talk to each other, obtain objects, and engage in combat. Control can be by mouse, joystick, or keyboard and is easy and intuitive. You simply click on screen icons or type their first letter to activate them. For example, by typing "S" (for Status display) or by clicking on the icon of the Eye, you can gaze into Galadriel's Mirror, the magic pool in Lorien, where you can see what forces are on the move and where they are headed. The graphics are lovely, the feel of the game is very involving, and the strategy is challenging. Most of the game takes place on the campaign level where you decide whom to ally with, whom to fight, and where to move your forces. One game can be saved and restored from disk, so you can stop play an resume where you left off during the last session. I had two problems with WAR IN MIDDLE EARTH. The first was that I had to slow my fast IBM machine down to 6 Mhz or the game speed was too fast even on the slowest speed setting. Probably as I get better at playing, I'll be able to play at the faster speeds, but I found controlling all the options at my disposal difficult at the higher speeds. The second is that if you play the IBM version from hard disk, you can only play from your C: drive as the game is hard-coded for drive C:. I was forced to play from floppies (my C: drive is full!) -- which wasn't too bad, because once you're on a particular level everything is loaded in memory and there's only a short delay loading new graphics when you zoom in for encounters. At the time of this writing, WAR IN MIDDLE EARTH is available for the IBM, Amiga, Atari ST, and Apple II GS. The game is not copy-protected and can be copied easily, but at a certain point after you've played a little way in, the game asks you to enter the map coordinates of a location from the large parchment map of Middle Earth that comes in the game package before allowing you to proceed further. COMMODORE 64/128 VERSION NOTES The C64/128 version of WAR IN MIDDLE EARTH is substantially different from the Amiga version (which I played first), and has been redesigned to focus almost exclusively on its wargame aspects. The game is copy protected, but you can format a blank disk to save your position. There is now a combat mode with generic animated icons for the combatants that can be manually and tactically controlled during encounters. Other new features include 15 levels of difficulty and still portraits of group leader (which can be accessed from the second of the two disks that come with the game) with brief descriptions. In the Commodore version, you must find three Palantiri rather than one; each reveals a third of the enemy forces. And the story of the game now begins after the hobbits have reached Rivendell, not in the Shire. Another change is that you have control of all the friendly forces immediately; you don't need to offer them a found object to obtain their help. There is still a map of Middle Earth, but now there's also a cursor icon: a gauntleted hand. You can point the icon (by using the joystick) at an area of the map, and bring up the Campaign Map. The Campaign Map provides more details of the geography, and displays shield icons for friendly units. A unit can be either a single character or a body of troops. Eliminated are objects such as rings, scepters, armor, weapons, and potions. Also missing are all the wonderful, digitized animated graphics. But that was to be expected; the C64/128 couldn't have handled them. The emphasis of the game is on the battles, not the adventure. For example, changing statistics are kept for each unit -- Energy, Determination, Steadfastness, Virtue, Bravery, Strength, and Allegiance -- as in other wargames. Units can be given destination orders and told to follow another unit or join it. The overall strategy and tactics of MIDDLE EARTH vary according to the level being played. If you want to walk in Frodo Baggins's footsteps, you can choose to make the same decisions as were made in the book; however, success is not assured. Sauron's plan of war is flexible and changes subtly each time the game is played. You can skip the battle screens and get the results of the battle, but if your Ring Bearer was involved, he stands a chance of being killed. You can manually control your forces and move your troops into formations, or you can pick whom you want to individually attack. The Ring Bearer can put on the ring and become invisible, but this also draws the supernatural forces to attack him. As with most wargames, the battles take some time to load and play. You'll also have to be willing to spend a lot of time searching for the various good forces in the game, and giving them destination orders. The C64/128 version -- as a wargame -- is much superior to the Amiga version. Yet, I personally prefer the Amiga version's graphics, sound, and adventure/CRPG elements. WAR IN MIDDLE EARTH is published by the Virgin Mastertronic Group and distributed by Melbourne House.