It’s been more than 20 years since we first set off from The Shire, with Frodo and Sam on a journey to destroy the Ring of Power, and despite a series of lackluster Hobbit films doing their best to put it out, the passion still burns like fire The quintessential fantasy epic trilogy of fiery Mount Doom. In the time before and after these releases, fans relied heavily on video game interpretations to continue their direct relationship to Middle-earth and One Ring’s characters, settings, and stories, in addition to Tolkien’s other literature.
But after a flurry of spinoffs and non-canonical additions slowly reducing the IP’s purity to directionless mediocrity, it’s critical that future iterations strive to regain the familiarity that comes with being part of what you previously believed in Sensation and emotion it even started. That’s right – I’m talking about movie tie-ins. Look, you might be scoffing, I wouldn’t blame you for that given the partner’s history, but Electronic Arts mastered it in the early ’20s with Two Towers and The Return of the King with their direct release from film to game This, it is time for us to reach the same dizzying heights of success.
A lot of the complexity has to do with licensing and we don’t want to get bogged down. But to sum up, Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, while Tolkien’s other works belong to an extremely complex web of rights that even Goldeneye can profit from. However, when it comes to game development, the fundamentals are solvable. Tolkien Manor at one point held all rights to all of Tolkien’s work. Over time, these rights have changed hands and been divided in to different parts, culminating in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit under the same banner, while the rest of his works such as The Silmarillion and The Unfinished Story”) is attributed to another banner.
Then you have to break down the media formats they are licensed to make and what elements of the material they are allowed to use. For example, Amazon’s recently released and controversial Lord of the Rings TV show was licensed directly from the Tolkien estate and was developed using only the Lord of the Rings addendum. While this still provides them with plenty of material to work with (as the appendices contain a wealth of information on chronologies of major events, detailed genealogies, and the history of the rulers of Middle-earth), it does mean they can’t use any of that original epic tale — so they have to be creative with recognizable characters and places that give us those elements of delight.
What about games? Well, until recently, Middle-earth Enterprises also owned all the literary rights to LOTR and The Hobbit, and earlier this month we heard that Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.’s publishing label Private Division was created within the LOTR realm with Wētā Workshop on a brand new set of games. This is very exciting for two reasons: First, this is done through a full series license from Middle-earth Enterprises, which means this new game will be able to use all the lore, characters, and – most importantly Yes – from the entire series of The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings novels.
The second reason is that Wētā Workshop isn’t your average developer — it’s the instrumental effects/prop company that made the original Lord of the Rings movies, and in 2014 it positioned itself as an interactive games division. So that’s it, we have all the source material to create a modern game based on the most popular fantasy story of all time. We also have a developer who was there years ago; what makes the movie so special can be understood from a production standpoint.
The only problem is that video game holding company giant The Embracer Group, which recently acquired all of these literary rights, and pretty much every other right you can think of, recently signed a deal to acquire Middle-Earth Enterprises. However, we have no reason to believe that game development will change in any way after Embracer’s public announcement to push more use of IP for new games and movies, so let’s assume all is well for now.
But getting the right to create great games is only part of the battle. Daedalic Entertainment’s upcoming industry mystery The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is also licensed to use the books at will. Daedalic chose to tell Gollum’s story after escaping from Barad-dur – meaning it tells a story that is outside the scope of the books, despite using characters and settings from the books. It could be a lack of game information, poor publicity, or a delayed release, but moderate interest in the game has been waning since its 2019 release.
But, in the end, could it just be because we don’t really care? Gollum is an amazing character, but our fascination with him has always been in his interactions with Bilbo and fellowship in Tolkien’s wonderful novel. Once you remove him from that environment, you’re just theorizing, writing new material; why are you doing this? Whether you’re a fan of books or movies, the one constant is clear – source material is king.
The Shadow of Mordor/War series of games gives us another modern licensing experience in an open-world, non-classic Mordor history that shamelessly mixes legal history with the crowd-favorite shoe-corner look—seriously, Whose idea was it to sexualize Shelob? They’re not bad games, they’re third-person action-adventure games with great (now patented) Nemesis systems, but the question remains…are we excited to be a part of this world again, or are these bastards explained Just using a convenient environment to sell games? It would be great if you could enjoy them as they are. But I don’t blame you for the more cynical conclusion.
There are some great games released under the LOTR banner, don’t get me wrong. The Battle for Middle-earth RTS series is a lot of fun, capturing the scale of the war well, sticking closer to the canon than most, adding wicked campaigns and alternate resolutions for good measure and fun. But the truth is, there’s still an itch in the video game space for LOTR fans since their early ’00s movie sidekicks. And the reality is, there’s nothing special about these games, really. They don’t need to introduce shiny new mechanics or drastically expand the setup. In fact, they’re pretty basic hack-and-slash titles, but they consciously let go of these frivolities in favor of letting you do one thing: relive the movie experience.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is actually a fairly rushed gaming experience, capturing the first two films in about six hours of gameplay. But still, it’s incredibly playful to play a key role in a familiar setting. Crossing swords like Aragorn to defeat Lultz and avenge Boromir, or kick a ladder off the walls of Helm’s Depths in ecstatic climax, feels very satisfying. The entire game is filled with seamless transitions to the actual footage of the film, again blurring the lines between audience and player. Subsequent titles have inherited everything the first game did, but found ways to improve it, such as adding a larger roster of playable characters and increasing the number of enemies that could be on screen at any one time, and it took us by surprise at the scale. These games don’t try to reinvent the wheel. They just improved it.
Despite their simple design philosophy and limited visual fidelity by today’s standards, at the time, both games were considered part, if not the best, part of a movie-to-video game adaptation. The Lord of the Rings is arguably the greatest story of all time. We feel connected to the journey of Frodo, Sam, and Fellowship, and it’s a wonderful connection that many fans are looking forward to again. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, there’s nothing to suggest that Wētā Workshop will even create a game tied to the original story, but their history with the franchise and the wealth of material available to them certainly suggests that this is the 20th we’ve gotten so far. The best chance of the year for the purest LOTR gaming experience.
The original pairings are outdated and certainly outdated, but they share a core philosophy that celebrates a collection that millions adored. The Lord of the Rings craze has endured for decades and hasn’t shaken its enthusiasm – surely it would welcome celebrating the beginning of it all again? Forget the sexy Shelob; any day I’ll take the brave Sam Wise.
