The success of Tolkien’sLord of the Ringsbooks and films has unsurprisingly led to numerous tie-in games that take place in the fantasy world of Middle-Earth. The next game originally appeared to be just around the corner whenThe Lord of the Rings: Gollumwas announced in 2019, and news of a 2021 release date followed shortly thereafter.
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Unfortunately, the game has recently been hitwith a lengthy delay, andGollumis now expected torelease sometime in 2022. Although this is disappointing, the disastrous release ofCyberpunk 2077has reminded players of the importance of developers getting all of the time that they need to complete their game in full. Thankfully, the plethora of Middle-Earth games that have been released over the last few decades means that there are more than enough titles to play in the meantime that cantemporarily fill the void.
10The Lord Of The Rings: Conquest
ALord of the Ringsgame based on the classicStar Wars: Battlefront II(2005) sounded like a match made in heaven, and expectations for the game were unsurprisingly huge when EA teamed up withBattlefront II’s developer Pandemic Studios to make the dream into a reality.
Sadly, Pandemic Studios weren’t able to recapture the magic ofBattlefront II,andConquestquickly became viewed as a disappointment, exemplified byits Metascore of just 55. Despite the lackluster execution,Conquestcan still be great fun to play, and fans ofLord of the RingsandStar Wars: Battlefront IIwill likely find plenty to love about the action game.
9The Lord Of The Rings: War In The North
From one hack and slash title to another,The Lord Of The Rings: War In The Northwas released in 2011 to underwhelming sales, likely due toSkyrimandUncharted 3releasing around the same time. The game performed particularly badly in the UK, where itonly just crept into the top 40 charts.
Although the sales were disappointing, the game is certainly worthLord of the Ringsfans checking out today as it’s an ambitious game that attempted to improve upon theTwo TowersandReturn of the Kingtie-in games by adding RPG mechanics and more-depth to thehack and slash combat.
8The Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age
From a game that took inspiration fromStar Wars: Battlefront II, to one that will remind players ofFinal Fantasy X.EA’sThe Lord of the Rings: The Third Agereleased in 2004 and scored a respectable75 on Metacritic.
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Criticisms from reviewers were predominantly aimed at the game’s combat and character development which both lacked any real depth, thoughThe Third Ageredeemed itself with its fantastic presentation and set-pieces that are guaranteed to impress fans of the franchise.
7The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ringwasreleased just under a year after the film of the same name. Surprisingly though, the game is not an adaptation of Peter Jackson’s film, as Vivendi only had a license to make tie-in games to Tolkien’s books.
Because of this,The Fellowship of the Ring’s gameplay is drastically different from EA’sTwo TowersandReturn of the Kinggames. Whereas the latter titles predominantly offer an action-packed hack and slash experience,Fellowshipof the Ringhas a much slower pace withexploration and fetch queststaking center stage over combat.
6The Lord Of The Rings Online
An MMORPG set in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth almost sounded too good to be true before the game’s release, but Midway Games made it happen in 2007 when they teamed up with Turbine to create the online experience. The game received an impressive86 Metascoreupon release, as well asGameSpy’s award of MMO of the Year.
Today, the game has aplayer base of around 100kand is being worked on by the team of Standing Stone Games and Daybreak Game Company.
5The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers
Despite the enormous critical and commercial success of Peter Jackson’sThe Two Towers,the game wasn’t a sure-fire success,as the aforementioned licensing of Vivendi’sThe Fellowship of the Ringgame had left many consumers confused as to whetherThe Two Towerswould also be based on the books rather than the films.
EA’s excellent marketing of the game soon calmed any doubts, and the game went on to be a huge success that is still beloved to this day.
4Lego The Lord Of The Rings
The success ofLego Star Wars: The Video Gamein 2005 didn’t go unnoticed, and it wasn’t long beforethe Lego collectathon formulathat Traveller’s Tales created found itself adapting some of the film industries most iconic franchises likeIndiana Jones,Harry Potter,and of courseLord of the Rings.
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Lego The Lord of the Ringsis widely considered today to be both one of the bestLord of the Ringsgames, as well as one of the best Lego games, predominantly due to theexcellent open-world implementation.
3The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
EA didn’t try to reinvent the wheel withThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, as they instead opted to keep the gameplay very similar to thehack and slash formulaintroduced withThe Two Towers.
The game did expand the horizons of its predecessor though, by giving players a far vaster range of characters to control. WhereasThe Two Towerssimply followed the quest of Legolas, Aragon, and Gimli,The Two Towersincorporated the stories of all of the main characters by having three branching campaigns.
2The Lord Of The Rings: The Battle For Middle-Earth II
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle For Middle-Earth IIis yet another example on this list of a fantastic idea on paper (a real-time strategyLord of the Ringsgame) being put into practice.
Much like its 2004 predecessor,Battle For Middle-Earth IIdidn’t disappoint with its fantastic strategy gameplay, enjoyable Good and Evil campaigns, and impressive range of units to choose from. The game also added a One Ring Mode, which put an interesting spin on Skirmishes by having Gollum constantly hiding somewhere during a battle. If one team finds him, they can take the ring from him and bring it back to their base in exchange for a powerful hero.
1Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War
From one critically acclaimed sequel to another,Middle-Earth: Shadow of Warwas released in 2017 to impressive critical reception. Much like its predecessor,Shadow of Waroffers a fantastic open-world set in Middle-earth that will have realized the dreams of many fans.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Warisn’t without its issues, particularly due to the unfortunate implementation of microtransactions; but the game is still worth any fan of Tolkien’s books or Peter Jackson’s films checking out, and the amount of content offered should just be enough to tide players over untilThe Lord of the Rings: Gollumhits stores.
