In the Lord of the Rings: Conquest players will be able to fight in the epic battles featured in the Lord of the Rings feature films. These battles are mainly portrayed in the Good - and Evil - campaigns, and these campaigns have been the primary focus of the press.

A truly successful game, however, needs to have plenty of replayability. As good as a singleplayer or co-op campaign may be, after playing it so many times it just gets boring. Multiplayer modes, if properly executed, will provide an endless amount of dynamic battles, that will have you wanting to come back for more. At first sight, Conquest will offer plenty of different gameplay modes - Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, “Ringbearer” and Conquest have all been mentioned - but is enough to make you come back to do it again?

“Not only will each team try to make the best use of their heroes, individual players will no doubt compete for a chance to play as Gandalf”

Let’s take a look at the basics first. The game offers a selection of four fundamentally different classes, along with a selection of unlockable heroes. Each class does offer a different take on the game, but most players will have one or two favourites they will always pick over the alternatives. Then there are the heroes - the fact that they have to be unlocked could cause a great deal of competition in multiplayer games. Not only will each team try to make the best use of their heroes, individual players will no doubt compete for a chance to play as Gandalf (or Frodo, if hairy feet are your thing). Of course, balancing these heroes and classes is of the utmost importance. If one class is only slightly better then the other, this would be the cause of a lot of frustration, and a lot of players choosing to play that class (or not play at all).

Heroes need to be challenging enough to be rewarding to kill - but also to play as. Making a hero too powerful will not provide the satisfaction of your skills being the end of your enemies - not to mention make the other team feel powerless. Making them too weak will cause frustration as it needs to be a real reward for your efforts, and not just a change of appearance. Depending on the game options, getting this wrong could cause to heroes not being used at all, or players walking away because they get frustrated over the way things work.