Labeling a game as an RPG and actually producing a good, solid, playable and enjoyable RPG experience are two entirely different things, as EA Games keeps proving whenever if releases a new title based on the Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings Conquest promises gamers they’ll be able to fight in and relive every major battle from the movie and more; that’s all well and good if the battles are, you know, actually fun.

Lord of the Rings Conquest is loosely categorized as a tactical action RPG, but what it really is is a mess. In the game, they toss a seemingly never-ending stream of enemies your way; the trouble is the stream of enemies is so uninterrupted that it makes progress through a map, area or even a single battle quite difficult and tedious. In fact, I’d be more entertained by Pia Zadora reciting term life insurance quotes.

Sure, the first-person action is well rendered and fully detailed. The graphics may not be up to SquareEnix or Konami standards, but they serve the purpose. Unfortunately, they do little more than that, and many of the character models seem overly recycled from other, earlier Lord of the Rings titles.

You are allowed at least three modes of attack, initially; sword, bow and magic. All three work well and look good enough on screen, but the switching and combination of attack styles some battles seem to require for completion seems arbitrary.

The real downfall of Lord of the Rings Conquest seems to be the assembly-line feel that permeates the game; any real passion for the Lord of the Rings universe seems to have been lost in recent titles and instead, there’s a sense that development was rushed through and deadlines compressed for all the wrong reasons. Not an enjoyable game, even and perhaps especially for Lord of the Rings fans.