Things went well, Monolith had a success on their hands, so the natural progression of things was to push this to another platform and sell it. They did just that by bringing out the PC version of this releasing a few weeks back on Steam, and what you get certainly is something different.
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In terms of gameplay, the concept of the game hasn’t really changed.
It’s a tower defense-based game, where players charge at each other in attempts to destroy one another’s towers protecting their bases.The towers have powerful defenses that will make you dead pretty darn quick. The strategy you’ll want to use for attacking the towers first starts with your NPC troops that are created in waves during the game. Much like you would find in an RTS, you have barracks (in a sense) that keep spitting out disposable soldiers. The soldiers are immediately drawn to three different directions in the game (if you’re playing a 3-lane game). Each wave tries to get to the tower to help bring it down. The real use of these soldiers is as distractions to keep the tower from hitting you. It works well, even with waves of enemy soldiers trying to stop your soldiers impending attacks.
While attacking, players also have the ability to activate shrines that help add more flavor to the game. The typical three-lane game has a row of vertically placed shrines in it that, once activated by a team, help to make it more difficult to bring said team down. They add an element of ‘oh, yeah, let’s do that while everyone is fighting’ strategy to it, but most of the time you’ll just push forward with the fight and ignore them.
In addition to the normal way to play, you can also do some co-op versus bots (five players versus five computer controller players), five versus five and Survival mode (this one is actually quite addictive — if you can handle it). This means that there is some depth with GOME on the PC, a little more than what you would find on a console version.
In addition to this, the PC version includes all 36 original guardians in the initial release, as well as the map skins for The Shire, Goblin-town and Mirkwood. If you’ve played the console version then you understand the inclusion of these helps to add a bit more depth to the game and allows you to feel like the Middle-earth badass that you want to be from the get go. In short, it makes the purchase a bit sweeter.
So, what’s the rub?
Well, one thing that was promised when we first heard about the PC version of the game was that the loading times and in-between match times would be shorter. When there are people ready to play, this promise is met. When there aren’t people out there playing, then the time to wait becomes a huge issue. Right now, people are not wanting to play this game for whatever reason. I have read many forums and the number one complaint with this release is that this isn’t a ‘free-to-play’ title. In the console world, which I reside mainly in, ‘free-to-play’ is a dirty phrase that makes us think that a company is simply doing a cash grab on their title. I’m just not sure why people feel so offended by the fact that Monolith is bringing a great game to the PC and adding more value to it to justify the pricing.
I digress, the fact that people aren’t playing this game really does bring down the immediate loading times. Most of the time while I was reviewing this, I had to play against bots. It was sad and depressing, as I know how much fun this game is on a console when actual people are involved.
The biggest complaint I had about this version of the game is the awful control scheme with the mouse/keyboard. I do realize that you can use a console-esque controller to play the game, but PC gaming is supposed to excel with the mouse/keyboard. I have editors/writers who make fun of me for being a console gamer because of the gamepad usage. So, it was sort of shocking that using the keyboard and mouse was more of hindrance than an improvement especially for this type of MOBA game. Trying to keep up with your location by moving the screen with the mouse, having to target enemies and then activate powers really was too much for how the control scheme was laid out in GOME. I felt like Monolith didn’t put a lot of thought into the useful scheme of the controls. Maybe they assumed that most people would break out their Logitech controllers and hook them up USB instead of using the mouse. Sadly, games in the MOBA category were born from mouse/keyboard fire, and it should be the first and most obvious choice. Using the mouse/keyboard was way too much work in Guardians of Middle-earth that distracted from the game, and made the gameplay almost unmanageable. I literally fought more with the controls than I did with my enemies, and that’s the honest truth, not just a clever pun.
Shifting back to some positives, the presentation of the game is a bit above the console version. The in-between screens of action and the sharp crisp details you would expect from a PC version of any game is there and present. You do get some great shading, particle effects and tiny little things to remind you that you are very much on a PC game. Heck, some of the character art is very much just that, art. As a whole, the game looks a lot similar to the console version, but just a cut above. I mean, this is where a console version of any game starts at the beginning of its life, therefore it has to look and feel better before the great console compression begins.
Let’s talk pricing. Despite an outcry from the MOBA PC gaming community that this game needs to be a ‘free-to-play’, the pricing model works in the favor of the gamer. Here’s how it’s broken down:
$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
Personally, I wouldn’t pay more than $19.99 for this package. I feel like the $20 package gets you more than enough with this game. I’m more about gameplay than characters/looks anyway. If I’m getting all 36 characters in the initial purchase than I don’t really need anything else, unless it’s incredibly substantial. I know there are people out there that would go the $79.99 route to have the entire package of the GOME world, but for me it’s just not a package worth the price that is being asked. The fact that they have different packages is a plus, though again the gamers moaning about having to actually pay for something might make this all a moot point. I’m sure if they stopped and added up all the little items they bought for their ‘free-to-play’ then they would understand they’re initially paying the $19.99 that Monolith is asking. There’s less stop and go by asking it up front.
So, is this game fun? For me, I didn’t like this version as much as I did the console. I don’t mind the pricing, don’t even mind the time waiting for people to join, but I simply can’t forgive the controls. I hate fighting a game when it comes to controls. I had this issue with Resident Evil 6 when I reviewed it for PC. Having played games like C&C, Dishonored and a few others in the last year, I feel like I understand how a PC game is supposed to feel in the controls category. Guardians of Middle-earth doesn’t feel fun on the control side of things. It was clunky at best, as was my fun with the game.
