August 20, 2009

Middle-earth Quest Board Game Released

The latest board game themed in the J.R.R. Tolkien's ultimate fantasy setting has just store shelves. The cooperative adventure board game Middle-earth Quest [Amazon, Funagain] puts players in control of heroes who help stave off Sauron from finding the ring during the 17 years immediately prior to the forming of the fellowship. Fans of the movies may remember the time Gandalf went galloping around to find information about the ring after Bilbo's birthday - that was actually 17 years.

The forces of good must therefore keep the ring safe long enough for Gandalf to figure out just-what-the-heck is going on. In the process they will embark on their own quests to halt the forces of Sauron, and to seek help and advice from many characters from the Lord of the Rings novels.

Facing them are a slew of baddies controlled by one player fulfilling the role of the Dark Lord himself. This player can win in a few ways, but mainly by increasing his evil influence on Middle-earth or finding the ring and its bearer before Frodo sets out on his epic trip.

The title is designed for 2-4 players to complete in about 3 hours time, which should give you some idea of its epicness and complexity. This is a pretty big game, so don't let it's 13+ age suggestion fool you.

Thankfully Middle-Earth quest isn't quite as mind numbing as the previous strategy game (as opposed to adventure styled ) War of the Ring. Instead this title is helmed by Corey Koniecka and Christian T Petersen who have both worked on previous smash-hit Fantasy Flight Game titles like Battlestar Galactica, A Game of Thrones and Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition. If you've played any of those then you can get a pretty good feel for the depth of game that we're talking about.

For more information on the title, checkout our previous coverage:

Middle-earth Quest is now shipping from Amazon and Funagain Games.