Battle For Middle Earth II Expansion Announced
Electronic Arts has officially announced The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II – The Rise of the Witch-king (apparently still a working title). The expansion is due for release at the end of 2006.
Full of exciting content, including an entirely new faction, completely new single player campaign, and additional units for all six existing factions, The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II, The Rise of the Witch-king, allows players to explore the evil side of Middle-earth. The all new single player campaign’s innovative units will help to tell the story of the evil Witch-king’s rise to power, domination of Angmar and invasion of the great kingdom of Arnor, home to Aragorn’s ancestors. To fully experience the evil side of Middle-earth, gamers can now play as the Angmar faction in skirmish, multiplayer, and War of the Ring modes.
Experience a whole new depth of strategy and upgraded War of the Ring and Create-A-Hero features. Create-A-Hero’s entirely unique Troll class boasts additional weapons and armor that will allow players to have even more freedom in customizing their game play. War of the Ring, a risk-style meta-game, offers upgraded army persistence, a new siege dynamic on the Living World Map, and unified territories that serve as major control points.
In related news, IGN has posted a Q&A with The Rise of the Witch-king Producer Amir Rahimi talking about the singleplayer campaign, the source material for the new content, the new Angmar faction , and additions to the War of the Ring mode and the Create-a-Hero feature:
IGNPC: What’s the overall shape of the new campaign? What’s the main thrust of the action and how does it connect with the events featured in your previous games?
Amir Rahimi: The campaign will serve as a prequel to The Battle for Middle-earth series and will revolve around the Witch-king’s plan to systematically destroy the kingdom of Arnor. In the campaign, the player must dominate the land of Angmar, gather a huge army, and then launch a massive invasion that will span half a century in Middle-earth’s history.
IGNPC: Tell us about the new Angmar faction and how they differ from the existing factions. What kind of new abilities do they have? Do they have any specific weaknesses?
Amir Rahimi: The Angmar faction can be thought of as the evil counterpart to The Battle for Middle-earth II’s Dwarven faction; they will be strong and sturdy, but slow. With the introduction of Angmar’s Thrall Master unit, players will find a whole new level of army customization. The Thrall Master has the ability to summon various types of Angmar forces to battle on the fly. Angmar’s innovative Sorcerer unit is The Battle for Middle-earth series’ most effective support unit to date. Sorcerers consume the souls of their acolytes in order to generate the energy it takes to use their many specials powers. At this early stage of development, we are already seeing some very cool interactions emerging between the Thrall Masters and the Sorcerers.
