Love or hate the fantasy, it is impossible not to recognize the importance of the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings for the fate of auteur entertainment cinema and for the genre. If after almost twenty years these films make many of the products derived from them attractive, it is evident that Peter Jackson at the time he managed to perform a real miracle. Demonstrating the importance of the universe created by J.R.R. Tolkien in the collective imagination, there are countless Tie-In videogames released in recent years, including the next one The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, recently announced and for now without an official release date, although the team has made it known that it is aiming for a release entirely during 2021 on Playstation 5, Xbox Series X and PC. Without obviously neglecting the Amazon TV series which will be set during the Second Era. While waiting to be able to dive again into the magical world created by Tolkien, let's make a summary of the history of The Lord of the Rings in the world of video games, analyzing what were in our opinion the ten most important titles for the series in order of release!
The Hobbit (1982)
Even before the Lord of the Rings became a real cultural phenomenon, in the distant past 1982 the Australian study Beam Software created what is ultimately the first video game set in Middle-earth. The Hobbit it was a classic text adventure and, despite the technical limitations of the time, it was a futuristic title. The Bream Software title gave the player the ability to insert complex sentences into commands and included an interesting physics system. The Hobbit was therefore not just a licensed title, but it took itself very seriously and can easily be defined as innovative for the time.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Return of the King (2002/03)
With the advent of the saga on the big screen, Electronic Arts decided to ride the success of the films directed by Peter Jackson by buying the rights to exploit the film material. While parallel Vivendi Universal Games produced a questionable title dedicated to The Fellowship of the Ring, EA released two titles from the second and third installments of the Jackson trilogy between 2002 and 2003. The result was surprising, especially considering that in most cases the licensed titles developed during the sixth console generation were easily forgotten. The two brawlers managed to make the player relive the spectacularity of the cinematic sequences thanks to both the official soundtrack composed Howard Shore than to the incredible technical sector for the time. If Beam Software's The Hobbit was the first title dedicated to the Tolkenian universe, the two EA-branded titles were the first taken from cinematic works.
The Hobbit (2003)
The Hobbit produced by Sierra Entertainment and developed by Inevitable Entertainment in 2003 it definitely improved its reputation over the years. Probably the strong negative judgments of the time were the children of the fact that the title produced by Sierra was released at the same time as The Return of the King of EA, and the qualitative differences were objectively clear. The Hobbit was still a decent title, albeit nothing unforgettable. He took full advantage of the gameplay style of The Legend of Zelda and the art style vaguely remembered The Wind Waker, but obviously it had little to do with the Nintendo saga other than intentions. There have been titles worse than this set in Middle-earth, however.
The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (2004)
One year after the excellent The return of the king, and consequently also from the end of the film trilogy, EA decided to still exploit the goose that lays the golden eggs with another title which, although it did not narrate the events seen in the room, was strongly inspired by the universe created by Peter Jackson. Thus was born The Third Era, a video game that embodied the epicness of the trilogy seen in the cinema and confirmed its artistic style and atmosphere, but differentiated from EA's previous work on gameplay. The Third Era, in fact, was a role-playing game that was strongly inspired by the playful style of final Fantasy (especially the tenth chapter of the series). Considered by many to be the best title set in Middle-earth, it is undoubtedly one of the best.
The Lord of the Rings: Tactics (2005)
Many often like to joke about the objective failure of PlayStation Vita, but few remember that Sony's previous portable experiment (which took the name of PlayStation Portable) gave fans various little pearls worth playing. In the immense stock of PSP there is also an interesting title dedicated to The Lord of the Rings, that is Tactics. Battles were conducted on a grid system that rewards by adopting a more tactical approach. The consequence of this was that the sense of epicness seen in the fixed console chapters was inexorably lost, but for lovers of the world created by Tolkien, Tactics is a very underrated title that is worth recovering and re-evaluating. The absolute strengths of the title were a great longevity and the official soundtrack of the trilogy, as well as a good technical sector.
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth 2 (2006)
Speaking again of strategic games, the best exponents in this sense are undoubtedly the two chapters of The Battle for Middle-earth. The two titles are very similar to each other, so we decided to give more focus to the second chapter, which managed to improve its predecessor from every point of view. In fact, EA managed to perfectly blend the strategic genre with the epicity typical of the battles seen in Peter Jackson's films and, even if the genre is not palatable for all palates, every fan of the world created by Tolkien should definitely try it. You will not regret it!
The Lord of the Rings Online (2007)
Although we are talking about a MMO dated 2007, it is undeniable how The Lord of the Rings Online managed to perfectly capture the grandeur of Tolkien's mythology. It is especially commendable for the fact that the project is still alive after all these years and continuously receiving updates and expansions (one is even planned for 2021). The Lord of the Rings Online is objectively one of the best videogame incarnations of the brand, thanks not only to the development team that after more than a decade is keeping the project alive, but also to its incredible community.
The Lord of the Rings: The Northern War (2011)
After the fruitful EA breakthrough, the exploitation rights passed into the hands of Warner Bros. Interactive Ent. Warner Bros. 'adventure in Middle-earth got off to a decidedly wrong start, first with the terrible The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Adventure (2010) and subsequently with Il Lord of the Rings: The Northern War. The latter, although better than the title dedicated to the famous Drifter, was an easily forgettable hack and slash and turned out to be a thunderous commercial flop. The title came out in fact in the same period of release of masterpieces of the caliber of Dark Souls, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception e The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. In such a scenario, any game would have come out with broken bones.
LEGO The Lord of the Rings and LEGO The Hobbit (2012/14)
Putting aside these early sonic failures, Warner Bros. decided to move away from the typical epic atmosphere seen in the movies and therefore entrusted the boys of Traveler's Tales the task of reconverting everything in a LEGO key. Thus they were born, between 2012 and 2014 LEGO The Lord of the Rings e LEGO The Hobbit. The two titles included all six films directed by Peter Jackson and boasted the splendid soundtrack of Howard Shore. For the rest, let's talk about a typical game LEGO to the Traveler's Tales, among hundreds of unlockable characters, as many secrets and the humor typical of this genre of productions developed by the British studio.
Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War (2014/17)
Illegitimate son of Assassin's Creed e Batman Arkham, The shadow of Mordor turned out to be a real bolt from the blue thanks to an excellent gameplay system, a freely explorable map - full of collectibles and side missions - and the system Nemesis which made the experience unique and innovative. The shadow of war, its sequel, confirmed the good things seen in its predecessor, a shame about the unhealthy idea of forcibly inserting a microtransactions which prematurely compromised the project and consequently turned fans away. Despite being both excellent games, however, it must be said that paradoxically the two titles developed by Monolith Productions they are those in which the typical atmosphere of The Lord of the Rings is least breathed, to the point that if they had been titled in another way (obviously removing some obvious quotes and characters) no one would have noticed the difference.
