This image of the One Ring comes from the mobile game Lord of the Rings: The Battle Begins, which we put the Elven Mantle of Silence over in the podcast.
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Whether you treasure Rings of Power or would rather hurl it into Mount Doom (or something in between), Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series has reignited the nostalgia for Middle-earth – and with it, the nostalgia for Middle-earth games. On GameStar.de, hits on relevant topics have more than doubled since the start of the series, for example in our list of the best Lord of the Rings games.
Only: There aren’t that many good Lord of the Rings games – and they’re pretty old, too. What is the problem? And why is nobody using the enormous potential that is still in Tolkien’s works?
Micha talks about this in the podcast with the Lord of the Rings admirer and book devourer Fabiano and with Sören, who still rides through Lord of the Rings Online with his wife every day.
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The fact that Sören is still stuck with an MMO whose graphics and interface are clearly visible in the 15 years since its release is mainly due to the outstanding Tolkien atmosphere. Battle for Middle-earth, return of the king – in no other gaming Middle-earth does Sören feel as at home as in Lord of the Rings Online. Also because it always produces original stories and perspectives.
For Micha and Fabiano, such original perspectives would also offer potential for future Lord of the Rings video games with a Moria mine cart load – even if we differ on how faithfully they should be based on the templates. While Micha generally welcomes experiments and deviations à la Rings of Power (if they are done well), Fabiano wishes for more respect for Tolkien’s work as a whole.
The upcoming Lord of the Rings games Gollum and Return to Moria each strive for new perspectives on Middle-earth – although we are not yet convinced of either.
However, we agree that Tolkien games can let the War of the Ring be a War of the Ring. Because the author’s complete works include much more than Sauron and the Rings of Power!
The thought of a game set in the First Age of the Tolkien Era actually makes us rhapsodize – the times of the satanic Morgoth, the elven kingdoms of Beleriand, the hidden city of Gondolin and the great wars involving the Balrogs and dragons would be a downright epic setting – no matter whether for a strategy game or a role-playing game.
Or even a mixture of both, as Micha demands, who somewhere has the old mount & blade mod The Last Days of the Third Age dug up and has been playing ever since, despite not knowing anything about Mount & Blade…
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