The Lord of the Rings: Conquest Unveiled

IGN: So how many people are we going to see on-screen, because one of the screenshots we've seen has a crazy number of people on the field.

Eric Gewirtz: You know, it depends on the battlefield and it depends on the situation, but we're looking at around 150 units on the battlefield at a time, so there can be up to that many on the battlefield. We also have the armies extending out for the sense of the battle. So the units extend out past the game space as well.

IGN: When you're playing a single-player game by yourself, do you have any management control over what your army is doing?

Eric Gewirtz: Out management control is a little more dynamic than that. You can directly affect the tide of the battle based on the combat and your skill as the players, especially in the Instant Action Mode. The more effective you are at taking out enemy units and the more effective you are at accomplishing objectives, the more effective your allied army will be. So you can start to see the tide of battle starting to turn if you're really good. But there's no direct control over, "you go there," or a squad command.

IGN: What are those objectives that you just mentioned?

Eric Gewirtz: In the Campaign Mode, we've been trying to strike this balance. We've started playing with this idea in Battlefront II in kind of having a narrative story but still allowing you the freedom to play any way you want, and it's been a real challenge in this open battlefield-type gameplay. For instance, to give you an example, in Pelennor Fields, we've set up these scenarios where, in the campaign, there's these massive siege towers that are being pushed by these Trolls. It's all happening systematically, but they're trying to get to the walls of Minas Tirith and as the good player, you're trying to destroy these siege towers. You can destroy them any way you want; you can commandeer a catapult, you can use your fire arrows, you can attack the Trolls themselves, you can set up signal flares.

There's a ton of ways you can accomplish the objectives, and it plays out differently every time because sometimes if you pull the Trolls away, they'll come off and fight you but then other Trolls will start pushing the siege towers if you kill them eventually but don't destroy the siege towers. If you destroy the siege towers, then a cavalry will attack you. So it plays out differently every time and then of course depending on what class you are, you have different tactics available to you. So as a Warrior, you're going to be focused on the melee combat, and there are different approaches to accomplishing that objective.

That's just one objective. After that objective is accomplished, the Oliphants are unleashed and these massive Oliphants are charging through the battlefield and you have to take them out. And they get, depending on the class you are -- depending on the situation, if you're playing co-op you use combined arms -- but basically we've put these basic situations and presented them to the player and then let the player figure out how they want to accomplish them.

IGN: Is there any sort of upgrade system as you work through the game? Can you upgrade your character at all?

Eric Gewirtz: Our upgrading is built into the actual combat. For example, with the Warrior, he has a combo meter; the more damage he does and the more effective he is in combat, the more access he gets to more special moves and chain combos. The same applies for the special abilities for all the classes, so as you start becoming more effective in combat, you start unlocking more of these special abilities and start becoming more powerful. But it's per-unit-based, so when you die you have to rebuild that.