The game is dead, dont buy it.
Battleborn is more alive than this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scypQ4J3FJg
In short the game is bit of a cashgrab, there is nobody playing the game and the overall gameplay is subpar compared to other competition. Only good thing i can say is that u can play with mouse + keyboard or controller, but no point buying the game since developers abandoned it. Balance and everything is absolutely horrible about this game, i feel sorry for everyone whose going to waste any penny on this game.

The MOBA/ARTS genre has exploded over the last few years. With Heroes of the Newerth, the original DotA, League of Legends and Dota 2. Now Monolith and Warner Brothers have decided to get in the fray, with Guardians of Middle-earth, a Lord of the Rings themed MOBA/ARTS game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3(and now PC...) If you were ever afraid that a DotA style game would be dumbed down when brought to a console, I can say that your fears are unfounded. Guardians of Middle Earth is anything but dumb, in fact it's quite deep.

In Guardians, you get the typical 3-lane 6-tower map setup from a top down perspective. Exactly what you’d expect in any MOBA. A mix of upgrades for towers and buff shrines in the jungle area, between the lanes, that your team can capture. Each shrine increases a teams health regen, allowing you to stay in lanes longer, which you need to do to gain XP. While there is a single lane map I’d advise against playing it. It devolves into rage quits quite often, which ruins the experience.

There are no item or gold mechanics in the individual matches, nor is there any last hitting required. These meta game elements are Call of Duty style loadouts and unlocks from experience and gold gained for completing matches. The amount of individual loadouts are gated by your account level. The items used within are gated by gold. You buy gems, potions, and relics from the in-game shop using gold. This is a way of specializing your loadouts to meet certain needs across any character. This whole area of the game is way too large to go over extensively in a review. Suffice to say, the depth and variety in loadouts is immense.

The in-match skill mechanics are more to do with team work and map awareness than twitch reflexes. Movement controls with the left thumbstick. Attacks control with the right thumbstick for directional aim. Your characters face around a 360 degree axis. Your facing will also change with your movement. Holding the right stick will override the left stick’s facing controls. Allowing you to strafe and backpedal. A ring is drawn around your character showing your attack range, area of attack(usually a cone), and directional facing. It works well most of the time, but there are situations where you can’t tell if you’re hitting your target or not.

Using abilities can be frustrating. You get the same ring shaped hud element for each targeted skill. These skills assign to the face buttons. I don’t know about you but I don’t have the dexterity to hit the A-button and use the right stick at the same time. You will usually end up having to aim with your movement and be careful enough not to run too far while attacking. It’s not ideal but there is a certain level of acquired skill in doing it.

One nifty feature borrowed from Monday Night Combat is upgrading towers. Towers are upgraded by all players so long as they are a certain in-match level. Each of the 4 upgrade types need different minimum levels in order to apply. The creep waves are altered in the same fashion by upgrading a barracks found behind each lane’s second tower. These barracks are immune to attack until the towers in front of them are destroyed. Upgrading the barracks allows the creep wave to concentrate on different styles of pushing. Heavy siege units break enemy towers or front line fighters hold the enemy from being able to push to your base. It’s a great strategic mechanic that more games in the genre could enjoy.

The Guardians are ripped straight from the pages of Tolkien's classic. They range from the bastion of good himself, Gandalf the Grey. To the epitome of evil, Sauron. And a few other notable characters like Gollum and Legolas. Each Guardian fits a different archetype and role, that create what could be a diverse meta-game. Only time and community will decide how competitive the game becomes.

As for the community and player interaction: there doesn’t seem to be a lot going on in that department, at least within the game. Most players don’t seem to wear their headsets, which is a blessing and a curse at the same time. My time spent with the game has been rage and troll free, but just about every match has had someone disconnect or leave. It’s unfortunate, and I’ve yet to win a game short handed or lose a game with a numbers advantage. Luckily, queue times were short and lasted only about 2-3 minutes.

There isn’t much else to say. The character design is great and borrows from the films and the sound is pretty top notch too. The graphics are as good as you’ll find on current-gen systems, if not a bit muddied. The gameplay though is the core of the experience. If you’re looking for an easy way to get yourself into the genre, Guardians of Middle-earth is one of the best chances you have.

Too bad it's completely dead on arrival for PC.

Dead game, avoid.

It runs like absolute trash. Do not waste your money.

Game abandoned.

dont buy this ♥♥♥♥. it'zz dead and broken.

I really wanted this game to be good but it's not. It really isn't. I'm a HUGE LOTR fanboy and even that couldn't save this game for me. I've never wanted a game to be completely removed from my steam library before this one. For the love of Eru, do not spend money on this dumpster fire of a game.

Trashy and dead. Abandoned by developers and players. And Steam still keeps selling it...

10/10 It Exists -IGN

Tired of plain old fully functioning sensible MOBAs with strong controls and some form of accessibility?
Tired of boring old precise mouse movements without a hint of unnecessary acceleration?
Are you bored of tooltips with a solid explanation of the skill in question?
Would you rather have cameras that don't pan in a sensible fashion and move when you point your mouse at the minimap?
Do you despise interesting and well-thought-out character and skill design?
Do you really love it when you just paid money for a broken-down version of the Ferrari you could have tried out for free across the street?

If you answered yes to any of the aforementioned questions, then this game is for you!
Features Include:
-Broken Mouse Precision
-Generic, Messily-Constructed Tooltips
-Awkward Camera Movement That Basically Forces You To Lock To Your Character
-Characters Which Come From The Lord of the Rings Lore (well thank goodness)
-Like Most Excellent Established MOBAs, It's FREE! (with the payment of $20 + Additional Cost If You Want To Have The Full Content Without Hours of Playtime)

If you're anything like me, you love the Lord of the Rings Franchise and the mechanics of MOBA gameplay.

And you'll love this ga-

I can't.

I just.

I-

Please kill me.