An epic quest: finding the best «The Lord of the Rings» game

Rainer Etzweiler

12-8-2025

Translation: Megan Cornish

From pixel orcs to gym bro Gandalf to terrifying eight-legged creatures – I’ve played through 40 years of The Lord of the Rings games and picked out the best virtual Middle-Earth trips.

On 29 July, Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game – the latest game based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic – was released. The life simulation is the first fully fledged game from developer Wētā Workshop – and that quickly becomes apparent.

The game has performance issues, a whole host of bugs and is just boring. Metacritic rates it accordingly with a score of 57 and Opencritic gives it 61 out of 100.

The idea’s charming: Animal Crossing in the Shire. A bit of farming, hanging out with the Hobbit gang and decorating your Hole. Cosy gaming, in other words. Not my thing, but the market’s huge, and the concept had potential.

However, Tales of the Shire’s just the latest instalment in a tragic history of poor Tolkien adaptations. Gaming fans of the franchise have been left high and dry for some time.

I refuse to accept this, so I’ve embarked on a quest worthy of any LotR nerd: finding the best Middle-Earth video game. It’s a journey through four decades of gaming history, from text adventures to MMORPGs.

The Hobbit (1982)

The journey begins in 1982, when Beam Software proves that Tolkien’s masterpiece can also be honoured with colourful pixels. The Hobbit for the ZX Spectrum is a decent text adventure. For anyone whose gaming career began after 1985, text adventures are interactive stories where you navigate through levels using keyboard commands such as «>GO NORTH» or «>USE DOOR», often despairing at the stubbornness of the parser.

The Hobbit is one of the first games with independently acting NPCs, including your companions. Gandalf can just disappear, appear somewhere else or even die. For 1982, this is revolutionary gameplay. It’s a good start.

The Lord of Rings: Game One (1985)

The first game in the book trilogy follows three years later, picks up where Bilbo’s adventures ended and is somewhat more user-friendly. However, there are some drawbacks with the aforementioned NPC AI. Shadows of Mordor (1987) and The Crack of Doom (1989) followed in the same vein, but they can’t keep up either commercially or qualitatively. As a gamer, I also wonder why I can’t just read the book.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I (1990)

As the publisher of Fallout and Baldur’s Gate, Interplay made role-playing game history in the late 90s. However, the US game developer didn’t develop either game itself, and it would’ve been better off leaving another studio in charge of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I.

The action RPG can be charitably described as ambitious. While the home computer versions are still relatively good, the SNES version is a disaster. Companions constantly get stuck on trees and other obstacles, the controls are tricky and the level design’s about as exciting as The Silmarillion. My search goes on.

A long break and three films

The action RPG J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I got a sequel in 1992, then the franchise lay dormant until The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring hit theatres in December 2001. Peter Jackson gave Middle-Earth a face, a soundtrack, and – above all – a massive marketing budget. Tolkien’s epic was back in the spotlight, and so were the video game adaptations.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2002)

Based on the book, not the film (it’s a long story about rights and licensing, but you don’t want to hear it and I won’t get into it), this is Surreal Software’s attempt at an action-adventure game. The result is… well. You alternate between playing Frodo, Aragorn and Gandalf, fighting wolves, the Nazgul and your own patience. The combat system feels like hitting enemies with a wet towel and the graphics were already outdated in 2002. At least Tom Bombadil makes an appearance, and Gandalf looks like he’s been living exclusively on whey protein for the past 500 years.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

EA secured the film licence and launched the brand partnership with a bang: The Two Towers is a tough hack ’n’ slash game where you – either as Aragorn, Legolas or Gimli – kill tonnes of orcs while Howard Shore’s soundtrack thunders along.

Contrary to its title, the game also covers the most important events of The Fellowship. There are also plenty of cinematics that seamlessly integrate with the gameplay, as well as subtle RPG mechanics. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is the best game in the franchise to date. Will it stay that way?

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Nope. A good year later, the sequel arrives and perfects the fun, fantasy carnage. Two-player cooperative mode! More characters! More epic battles! The game’s essentially an interactive version of the film action. The battle on Pelennor, the defence of Minas Tirith – it all feels like Peter Jackson’s masterpiece, except you’re wielding the sword yourself – or rather drawing the bow – yourself.

It’s also worth mentioning that The Return of the King and The Two Towers are also being released for the Game Boy Advance. Both games are blatant Diablo clones, but hardly inferior to their «big» console siblings in terms of fun.

The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (2004)

It looks like EA said: «What if we took Final Fantasy X and gave it Lord of the Rings cosplay?» It sounds awful at first, but it works surprisingly well.

Around 20 years before Clair Obscure: Expedition 33) demonstrated that great JRPGs don’t necessarily have to come from Japan, in The Third Age, you and a group of non-companions semi-accidentally stumble upon Aragorn and the others. The combat system’s solid, as is the story. For anyone experiencing withdrawal symptoms after finishing the film trilogy, this role-playing game is a successful substitute.

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth (2004)

EA must have said, «What if we took Command & Conquer and gave a Lord of the Rings cosplay?» It sounded great at first, and it actually was.

EA Los Angeles has created THE strategy game based on the films: massive battles, base building, hero units – everything an RTS fan could want. The campaign – which you can play as either good or evil – follows key locations, skirmish mode offers endless possibilities and the presentation is phenomenal. It still warms my heart when I think of the beautiful world map. Or the optional quest where I can save Boromir from the Uruk-hai.

Justice for Sean «Boromir» Bean and another contender for the title of best Lord of the Rings game.

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II (2006)

More factions! More units! More everything! BFME2 is more complex in gameplay terms, with more sophisticated mechanics and more strategic depth. But somehow it’s missing the cinematic magic of its predecessor. The custom heroes are cool, the new factions are interesting, but it feels more like a good RTS than Middle-Earth legacy. The tactical battles are still fun, though. Unless you’re playing it on the Xbox 360, where the loading times are longer than Frodo’s trip to Mordor.

The Lord of the Rings Online (2007)

In 2007, World of Warcraft was approaching its peak and Blizzard was converting Andorra’s GDP into subscription revenue every month. Everyone wanted a piece of the MMORPG pie.

Developer Turbine decided to take a trip to Middle-Earth and created a virtual fantasy world that thousands still roam around today. After a pretty rocky start, The Lord of the Rings Online switched to a free-to-play model in 2010. This offers a surprising amount of content before you have to part with any money.

The combat system’s archaic, and despite a few updates, the game shows its age. But the quests are well-written and the immersion is unparalleled. You’re part of Middle-Earth’s history and everything that comes with that. Plus, you can wander around as a flute-playing Hobbit and annoy your companions. 10/10.

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North (2011)

A co-op action RPG set in Middle-Earth from the creators of the Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance games? Sign me up! It should’ve been a guaranteed success, but Snowblind Studios already knew back then that War in the North would be their last game as an independent developer. Shortly afterwards, they became part of Warner Bros. and apparently didn’t feel like putting in any more effort.

The game isn’t bad per se, but it’s unspectacular overall. It didn’t sell particularly well either, but that could also be due to the fact that a minor indie hit called Skyrim was released at the same time.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (2014)

In 2014, Monolith Productions (F.E.A.R., The Operative: No One Lives Forever) took on the franchise and – along with Shadow of Mordor – served up the answer to the never-asked question: what if Batman was flying around saving Middle-Earth instead of Gotham?

All respect for the lore goes out the window, and the story’s dictated by fanfiction – Celebrimbor as a ghost buddy, seriously? But the Nemesis system – which turns all boss fights into personal mini-plots – is groundbreaking. Plus, the stealth adventure plays a bit like Assassin’s Creed, which wasn’t a completely overused concept in 2014. Ah, those were the days.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War (2017)

Bigger, better, more microtransactions! While clearly the better game, the sequel starts off by messing things up with an absurd in-game shop that has no place in a single-player game. Monolith took even more liberties with the original book: the timeline makes no sense, an additional ring is forged and Shelob – the giant spider which nearly kills Frodo – is suddenly a horny goth girl, because reasons.

The microtransactions were later removed, allowing Middle-earth: Shadow of War to redeem itself somewhat. Monolith Productions was less fortunate: the studio was shut down that same year.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum (2023)

In spring 2019, German publisher Daedalic announced it was working on an action-adventure game that puts you in the role of fallen Hobbit Sméagol, aka Gollum. My only question at the time was why.

Two years after its release, I still have no idea how anyone could’ve thought a game starring Gollum was a good idea. Granted, he’s an interesting and important character in the saga, but no one in their right mind looks at this schizoid gnome with his three greasy strands of hair and thinks, «That’s it! This sexy daredevil is the ideal protagonist for my game.»

As you’d expect, the quality of the game is on par with the idea – The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is one of the worst games of this console generation.

And what about the Lego games?

A quick side note before I wrap things up. In my search for the best Middle-Earth game, I deliberately left out the Lego adaptations. While they’re adorable and perfect for co-op sessions, I think they dilute the brand too much to really be considered.

There and back again

The first game set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy world was released more than 40 years ago. The virtual Middle-Earth debut remained the best adaptation for over 20 years until EA took on the franchise and delivered several blockbusters in a very short time.

Turbine soon showed that the setting also works in MMORPG form, and Monolith Productions’ duology was a reminder of how much potential still lies dormant in the brand.

What constitutes that «one» game depends largely on your preferences, but for me, no other foray into Middle-Earth matches the brilliance of The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth. EA’s epic blends the unparalleled atmosphere of Peter Jackson’s films with one of the best real-time strategy games ever.

Unfortunately, the game’s no longer available. At least not legally or easily. But that, my friends, is another story.

Rainer Etzweiler

Freelance Editor

rainer@rockstar.ch

In the early 90s, my older brother gave me his NES with The Legend of Zelda on it. It was the start of an obsession that continues to this day.

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