Tolkien’s influence on video games goes back decades. Fans have played games based on Lord of the Rings (and The Hobbit) for almost as long as video games have existed, and for every misguided flop there has been a game that was surprisingly good for a licensed product. And in some cases much better than that.
Here are five of the best of them:
THE HOBBIT
The Australian studio Beam Software made a number of LotR games, but their first remains the most important. The Hobbit, released in 1982, is an all-time classic adventure game that helped advance the genre in many ways, from the inclusion of illustrations to a complex text entry system that allowed users to string long sentences together (instead of just “Open the door “). It even had a primitive physics system.
thE RETURN OF THE KING
The second of EA’s brawlers based on Peter Jackson’s film trilogy was the better game. It married a competent action system with Fantastic Recreations of key scenes from the film and had incredible voice acting (for the time) including performances by key actors such as Ian McKellan and John Rhys Davies. It was also one of the best looking games of 2003.
THE THIRD AGE
yes i mean it This game has one of the dumbest boss fights ever, but that tends to overshadow anything that came before it. This is one of the best final fantasy Clone around, even if it’s a bit simpler, and its alternate narrative of the saga is one that still feels at home in Jackson’s interpretation of the novels. And like most others from EA Lord of the rings Game production values helped really sell the license and have a bigger impact on fans than the game would have if it was set in a random different universe (with more zips).
BATTLE FOR MIDDLE-EARTH II
The massive fight scenes from Lord of the rings would always lead to strategy games, but the question was how would these ever extend to full single player campaigns. EA found the answer in using hero units, allowing players to recreate smaller moments from the trilogy while still allowing the Libra to fight battles like Helm’s Deep. Both BFME Games are good, but the second could be a bit better thanks to a campaign that didn’t have to follow the main story as closely and was therefore able to develop a better mission design.
SHADOW OF MORDOR
By far the better of WB’s two Lord of the rings Playing (so far) Shadow’s focus is much narrower, his nemesis system refined. I’m not the biggest fan of WB’s take on the license – it feels more like its own IP clad in a layer of veneer Lord of the rings– but the thrill of its stealthy murder and orc friendship system makes up for it.
SPECIAL MENTION: THIRD AGE: TOTAL WAR
This is a mod, not a standalone game, so I couldn’t do it officially add it to the list. But here’s a shout out for it nonetheless, because nothing has ever captured the scale and fury of the series’ biggest battles quite like this one Total war Transformation that transforms Medieval: Total War 2 into the ultimate combat experience in Middle-earth.
This was originally published in 2017.
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