“The Lord of the Rings: Conquest”
Genre: Action / adventure
Developer: Pandemic Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Nintendo DS
ESRB rating: “T” for teen
Price: $59.99
Grade: C+

The center of a scrum where a bunch of baddies have focused their wrath on you is not a place for hesitation. Every move must be quick, precise and judicious; every ally sharper than a blade. Those who are easily befuddled are those who are easily killed.

Players of “The Lord of the Rings: Conquest” learn all of this the hard way, which takes the edge off this game.

In “Conquest,” players engage primarily in skirmishes that pit assorted white hats against black hats in four class-based character levels: warrior, archer, scout and mage, each level endowed with more abilities than the one before it. The skirmishes are culled from the “Lord of the Rings” movies and allow gamers to fight as both “good” and “evil,” but the game’s structure feels a little like “Star Wars: Battlefront,” which has been praised for its hand-to-hand combat action.

However, the praise doesn’t carry over here. Technical issues create hesitation at key points in the action — defensive actions fail to unfold as quickly as they should and allies seem to be staring off into space at the moments you most need them. This means that in big battles with many elements on the field, the chance of player survival in solo mode is almost nil.

Other shortcomings include lack of plot and frantic button-pressing just to keep a character alive (which, I must admit, really got my blood pumping). At several points, Game Guy thought he wasn’t advancing through the game so much as running on a treadmill, trying desperately to play out the clock.

“Lord of the Rings” fans will appreciate the generous borrowing of imagery from the movies and thrill to be a part of the action they remember from the big screen. Everyone else must find their own thrill, but they’ll have to perform some serious finger gymnastics to do it.