A browser-based expression that blends city management and tactics

Mar 22, 2013 15:44 GMT  ·  By

No major movie property is complete these days without a video game tie-in and the development team at Kabam and publisher Warner Bros. are aiming to offer a companion for The Hobbit trilogy by introducing Armies of the Third Game, a browser-based social game.

Gamers are able to select from three races initially, Elves, Dwarves and Orcs, and will be able to collaborate with a number of heroes including Bilbo and Radagast.

There are two main mechanics to the game: city development and tactical battles.

The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age uses a template that’s very similar to that seen in the Command & Conquer browser-based game from Electronic Arts.

The space for base building is limited and there are four resources that players have to balance, improving their buildings, recruiting more heroes to lead armies and creating the troops that will do the hard fighting.

Once a city area is somewhat well developed players can look at the region, which is made up of wild areas that can be conquered for a number of bonuses, and goblin camps, which pose more of a challenge but also grant significant rewards when conquered.

The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age has a simple point and click combat system and battles are over very fast, with limited actual control on the part of the player.

The browser-based experience is not bad, but it fails to impress in any way or add any innovation to the genre.

The simplest way to move The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age faster is to use Mithril for boosting, both in terms of actual power and speed, but the currency requires a real-world money investment and it might only be worth using for hardcore Lord of the Rings fans.

Worth a full Softpedia review? No.

The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age (3 Images)

Hobbit look
Region mapTactics move
Open gallery