Available Heroes: Gandalf the White
Gandalf makes his way to Isengard with the intent of helping the Ents cleanse the area of Saruman's evil. Nearly immediately, you'll be cut off from the Ents by a fallen tree. Continue around to the right. You'll want to fire away at the explosive-laden carts before you near them for some easy kills. Continue onward until you come to a checkpoint. You'll note that the conditions in the valley below are less than welcoming, what with all those big, heavy Ents walking around. Head down, and a special objective will appear--you and the Ents have to kill a set number of enemies before you can continue. In reality this plays out more along the lines of letting the Ents do the majority of the work, while you stay out from underfoot. Stay toward the right side of the valley, and you'll generally have a pretty good view of incoming Ents.
Once the requisite Orcs are dispatched, continue onward through the newly-opened path. You'll be attacked by a couple of melee enemies and several more that deem it necessary to pelt you with fiery arrows. This is a good time to point out that all the heroes in the game are capable of acting like a Jedi and parrying away incoming projectiles with ease. At times it's easier to dodge the arrows and then return fire, but successfully parrying raises your skill meter, making it easier to garner more impressive kill ratings. In this way, you can sometimes finesse what would have been a fair into a good, excellent, or perfect kill by parrying away some incoming fire, then immediately taking all the shooters down with rapid ranged attacks. Continue on, and before long Saruman's tower Orthanc will come into view, and you'll be rewarded for your efforts thus far with another checkpoint.
Keep moving, and knock out the explosive cart. You'll be assaulted by easily-dispatched Orcs, but the true danger is on the other side of the water, where many enemies are firing flaming arrows at you. Thankfully, there's a well-placed explosive cart underneath each one. Use your Ranged attack to take each tower down, and keep on truckin'.
Continue across the bridge and enemies will assault you from both left and right. Take them out, and run down to the right, and you'll be treated to perhaps Gandalf's best line of the game. At the bottom you'll find an Ent attempting to take down the supports holding back the flood of water that we all know is destined to rush toward Isengard. Eliminate the enemies accosting him, and then alternate between firing away at the support and removing any replacement archers from consideration. You can safely fire magic away without worry, as incoming enemies will drop replacement ammo. Once the support is removed, enjoy the show.
This level is about as frenetic as they come. Gandalf finds himself atop the wall surrounding Minas Tirith, against an onslaught of evildoers bent on sacking the city--and they're armed with siege machinery. For this mission, don't worry about taking out enemies. Your fight is with the overrun meter in the top-right of your screen. As the enemy erects ladders onto the wall, you must quickly knock them down with your physical attack button. If the overrun meter turns completely red, you lose the mission. Thankfully, adjacent to the timer is a rudimentary map of the wall, and incoming enemies are highlighted for you. Worry about the ladders, and smite only those enemies that impede your progress.
During the lull between attacks, hover around the center of the wall to minimize your time to respond to new threats. After awhile, the wall will be assaulted by much larger machinery, and these can't be removed with a simple push. Fire a volley of magic at them, and they'll go down. Survive long enough to destroy several of these, and one will forcefully make it to the wall and start unloading baddies. (The event is scripted, and will happen no matter how well you do.) Meanwhile, more Orcs will begin battering the main gate. Eliminate the mass of Orcs surrounding you on the wall, and the defenders will begin to head down to the courtyard. Follow them down. When you reach the gate, the Orcs will breach, and the level will end.
This is an exceedingly simple level, in that it's not much of a level at all. You have one simple task: hold the courtyard of Minas Tirith until a set number of residents flee to safety. This, you will find, is not so simple a task after all.
For the first wave of enemies, stay near the stairway where the citizens of Gondor are fleeing. You'll have several guards here to help you stem the tide. After the citizen count reaches fifty or so, enemy archers will appear; be ready for them, and take them out with your ranged attack from behind the cover of the statue in the center of the courtyard.
At one hundred safe civilians, the enemy will kick it up a notch and start sending bad guys strong enough to merit their own health bar. Should you need them, there are health potions hidden in crates on the outer edge of the courtyard.
After 150 civilians are safe, a few trolls decide to make an appearance. Use the burning spears to take them out quickly, or move in for a pummeling if you're feeling adventurous and would like to try for some perfect kills. Once all 200 civilians are safe, the city retreats, and the mission ends.
