I should start off by saying that I LOVED the Battle for MIddle-Earth II games both the expansion and the base game, sinking hundreds of hours into it playing the campaigns, an amazing global map campaign, creating custom characters, and playing online.

This game captured the feel of Middle Earth, representing the power of its heroes, the richness in the lore, and the power of a cavalry charge in a way no other game has since.

When the games first came out their visuals where stunning. The soundtrack is the trilogy soundtrack, and so is also perfect.

Perhaps my favorite thing about the game is the little touches the game did to make the game both visually interesting and strategically compelling. Each faction got a variety of different spells, that cost power, which was built up during game play. One could spend this power early on for small boost, or try to save it for some potentially game changing spells, like a temporary healing aura, summoning the watcher in the water, or even the Balrog!

The characters also started off relatively weak, but by keeping them safe and grinding thru some enemies you could level the heroes up, gaining more HP, damage, ect and much MUCH better abilities. If an opponent was getting a powerful heroe, it would often be worth jumping it with everything you could to slay them. Then the opponent would have to purchase and rebuild the hero all over, giving you a break to regain momentum.

I could continue to go on about just how awesome this game was but I won't as we have come to the reason why I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars. The game is nearly impossible to play now. It is out of print and EA no longer owns the license for it. You can't get it ANYWHERE.

The physical copies of the game I saw were going for ridiculous prices, like $200. To make matters worse, I own the expansion, but can't find my base game.

I'm unwilling to shell out that much money for a game 10 years old, and so this will be regulated to the fond haze of my adolescent years, most likely never to be revisited.