Even if you’ve never played one of them, the Battlefront series of Star Wars games have always been good fun. They weren’t RPG’s or space flight sims, only simple 3rd person shooters that revolved around zone capturing in what was considered an addictive formula.

With Free Radical (who is...Ahem, was behind the Battlefront series,) being in trouble, who knows when, or even if Battlefront 3 will come into fruition.

However, if you’re looking for a similar kind of experience in the mean time, Pandemic Studios has been working on Lord of the Rings: Conquest. With unit classes, “Hero” units, and zone capturing galore, it seems to be shaping up as a fun package.

After reading up some info, I downloaded the PS3 version demo of it. Right away, after reading from several sites how it paralleled Battlefront, I immediately saw what they were talking about. Prior to spawning, you could choose from any of the 4 available classes. After picking a zone to spawn at, you’d appear on the map ready for action. Upon death, you were simply returned to the class selection screen, and were able to return to the battlefield after a brief respawn countdown.

Pertaining to the classes themselves, the Warrior, Scout, Archer, and Mage all seemed to have their place on the battlefield, aside from a few balance issues which I hope will be addressed before the game actually hits shelves. (I’m looking at you, Mages!) One gameplay element that stood out to me was the fact that Warrior’s couldn’t swing their sword while moving, while Archer’s could fire arrows, laugh, mock and run circles around you at the same time. As said, we’ll see what changes between now, release, and the future.

YOU...SHALL NOT...PASS!!!

While it seems to be a promising hack n’ slash, the game feels somewhat clunky in its execution and presentation. However, if you’re a fan of the Battlefront series and enjoy the Lord of the Rings universe, I’d give this one a whirl. There’s a demo available via PSN and Xbox Live for the PS3 and Xbox 360, respectively. A PC version will also be released, though there is no demo currently out for it. Look for the full game to be released in the U.S. and Europe this month.

Potential PC buyers may be interested in these minimum system  requirements, which were posted by the Administrator sledgehammer90 on the Pandemic forums.

FOR WINDOWS XP SP2 or Windows Vista
* 2.4 GHz Core Duo processor or equivalent
* 1 GB RAM
* A 256 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 3.0 – nvidia 7800 or equivelent
* The latest version of DirectX 9.0c
* A DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
* At least 6 GB of hard drive space for installation.