I laughed at my friend when he showed me he bought this game for his PC. He was like "Shut up, how was I supposed to know this game was garbage!!" LOL! Funny stuff.

I suggest you only buy this game if you can get it for under 20 dollars otherwise invest your money into WarCraft.

"This game is horrible"
i cant believe i wasted 30 dollars on this trash. i thought this would be better than warcraft3. WRONG!

if you want a good RTS game get Warcraft3 and/or Warcraft3 Frozen Throne. Just dont pick up this trash because if you do, you will be sadly disappointed that you lost 30 bucks.

"Not the Greatest, but Still Worth a Look"
In the already overcrowded Real Time Strategy game genre, can Sony offer a fun, competitive product that meets or exceeds the standards set by it's contemporaries?

The answer is a rather uninspiring yes and no.

Developed by Rapid Eye Entertainment, a group of former New World Computing programmers (responsible for the Heroes of Might and Magic series), LoE tries to take the Everquest MMORPG experience and squish it into the confines of RTS wargaming. The game centers around your "Lord", which, like the "Hero" unit in Blizzard's Warcraft III, is the leader of an army of creatures you work to upgrade and develop into a conquering force. Lords are members of several different "factions" which determine what kinds of armies you can raise. As with both Warcraft III and Everquest, you need to level up and advance your Lord by defeating other enemies and obtaining experience points as well as complete mission objectives in order to advance in the game. Unlike WCIII, however, you can actually level up your troops and even "knight" up to two troops to give them powers nearly equivalent to your lord. This feature alone is what sets LOE apart from any other RTS on the market today and presents some very interesting and unique gameplay strategies.

As with all other RTS games, you accumulate resources to build buildings and purchase upgrades to train and outfit your army. In this case, there is only a single resource: platinum. The "money" system is simpler than in other RTS games in that the challenge lies in budgeting your platinum on buying the right buildings and units rather than trying to acquire a wide variety of different resources.

But with the leveling system, it's quite possible to take a group of basic troops up to very high levels without ever needing to create specialized units.

There are two primary modes: a single player "campaign" which involves completing a series of scenarios with some light RPG elements interspersed in between, and a multiplayer mode where you can fight other players online. The single player game is servicable at best, with an only casually interesting storyline (disappointing, given the amount of history and lore in EQ). Many of the maps seem somewhat linear in design and the objectives are nothing any RTS gamer hasn't seen before.

In fact, many will argue that besides the leveling aspect, there isn't much in LOE that hasn't been done already, and implemented better. In particular, the AI/pathing is irritatingly bad with units often taking the longest, most baffling route to get to whereever it was you wanted them to go. They also have an annoyingly short attention span and will sometimes disregard orders to stay put and go run off and attack things when you don't want them to.

This alone is what really hurts the game in the long run. The RTS field has reached maturity to where these types of problems simply aren't acceptable anymore and most players will pass on the game because of it.

Which is somewhat of a shame, since underneath the rough elements is a relatively intriguing RTS game. The graphics and animation in the game are quite good, with realistically-drawn 3D models and cool spell effects. In addition, one of the most entertaining aspects of Everquest, the level up "Ding" sound, is retained here and is just as satisfying as it was in the MMORPG.

Also, the idea of leveling up troops does create an extra dimension of strategy, especially in multiplayer, where you can try to kill NPCs to gain more experience before attacking your enemies.

Unfortunately, many reviews have complained that there aren't enough differences between the units of each faction to make battles interesting. Those people inevitably rely on the obvious warrior-healer strategy for their army, but more inventive players will likely find other ways to develop their forces.

So here's the rundown:

Pros:
Graphics & Animation are solid--the zoom feature is nice.
The level up system is entertaining--all troops can advance!
Some RPG elements to break up the monotony.
Buy and register the game with an EQ account in good standing before Jan 3, 2004 and you will be invited to EQII Beta

Cons:
Atrocious AI and Pathing algorithms
Units don't always respond to commands
Game balance: there is little incentive to find different strategies to win
Units can seem too similar no matter which faction you play

Overall, this is an average game with limited entertainment value. I thought most of the reviews of the game so far were too harsh, but agree there are enough issues with the game that prevent me from making a recommendation (especially at the retail price that Sony wants you to pay). I would recommend obtaining the demo first, then purchasing the game at a discounted price if you decide you really want it.

"Sony did this?"
First off let me just say that the only reason I bought this game was for the invite to EQ2 beta... Now then, after loading it up and playing it for all of maybe 8 minutes, I turned it off and went back to CoD. I have been playing EQ since 99' and i have to say that in 4 years I have never really been disapointed at Sony. That changes today. I can't for the life of me figure out why a company that is making as much as they are on EQ, would waste so much time and money developing a title such is LoEQ... Playing it has made me anticipate EQ2 more, for the fact that I need a good game to wash out the vile thoughts I have had about how to best get rid of it. One thought was throwing it off a building, although I would feel for the people at the bottom, having crap rain down on them from above..

This game was a waste of time, not so much money for the fact that there is a beta invite in the package, but this game is by far the worst game I have played since "Real War". And another thing..dont you think that if you can only register your product for the beta one day, 23 hours and 59 minutes, that the site will be lagged out or down most of the day? That sounds like a trap, like a gamble, they say you are sure to get a slot when you register, but whats to stop them from saying " The server was up, but you thousands of people just forgot to do it, no, this is a gamble, be warned... There is no guerantee anyone will get into the Beta of EQ2 this way. I hope they take into account long time users of EQ, I'm still playing it, even after all these years.