What Guardians of Middle-earth was in late 2012, was a strong multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) that wisely used the license it was given from a franchise that was popular. They used it properly and brought to a MOBA game the characters, lands and magic of Lord of the Rings. It also helped that the game sucked players in through powerful upgrade/reward systems, easy battles and long stints of action that really drove the game to the success it deserved.
And now all of it is soon to hit PC, and in fine fashion.
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Last week, we had the chance to sit in on a teleconference with the good folks at Monolith, who discussed what to expect from their PC version of Guardians of Middle-earth. It was quite impressive to hear all the additions they had made for the PC gamer.
To start off the list, expect the full gambit of DLC with this release. This means you get everything the console folks had to purchase. All of the 36 original guardians are included (earned through gameplay/in-game cash, of course), as well as the map skins — The Shire, Goblin-town and Mirkwood. That’s not bad considering what console gamers had to pay for these things as GOME grew. Knowing a lot of hardcore gamers in my life, including the DLC is a big deal for them when it comes to purchasing re-released games. It’s added value and it feels less like a repetition, as it does a new purchase. I’m happy Monolith did this because it opens the doors to a lot more gamers wanting to play this game, as well as the possibility of more games from this series (and there has to be because there are two more Hobbit films releasing).
Another new addition to this release is the promise of faster start times. One of the negatives for the console version of the game was that it took forever to start a match. Once in it, you would be fine. Once in a while, you would be kicked from gameplay randomly, which meant you would have to wait somewhere between 1-3 minutes to start another match. It’s tough to tell a console gamer that they’ve got to wait more than :60 seconds to start any game. One of the biggest improvements, at least so far with this release, is the fact the start-ups are much quicker, as well as the loading time. Of course, when you have 8gb of RAM, a better connection and a computer, everything improves in speed compared to the console (especially this generation). The faster you can get people online, the more addictive the game gets, and the more ‘stick’ factor the game will have to PC gamers. Again, the more people you can stick to the game, the better chances more material will come out for the series.
Other things to expect with this release include:
– Full Steamworks integration, which helps with leaderboards, full Big Picture mode and the use of mouse/keyboard or controller (though, you might want to get the controller for this one).
– Survival Mode is included with this release (yay!)
– Guardians of Middle-earth comes in a variety of different bundles:
$19.99 – Guardians of Middle-earth: Includes Gandalf, Galadriel, Hildifons, Mozgog, Bert, Legolas and their alternate skins
$79.99 – Guardians of Middle-earth: Mithril Edition – Includes all 36 Guardians and their alternate skins with Mithril Guardian Relic and a buddy key
$14.99 – Guardian Packs – Six bundles with five Guardians with their alternate skins
– Xbox/PS3 owners of the game will be eligible for a free PC download code when it becomes available. Most people who have consoles have computers, that’s a fact. It’s nice to know that Monolith and WBIE give a damn about them when it comes to releasing a better product on a better platform (you know it to be true). Glad they’re doing this and reaching out to the gamers.
All of these things combined make for a pretty good deal for this game. While the review of it is certainly forthcoming from DC, the PC version of Guardians of Middle-earth is certainly well on its way to following in the footsteps of its console counterpart.
We shall talk more next week.
