Tolkien Video Games Through The Years

Few authors have inspired as many video games as J.R.R. Tolkien. The fantasy author has given us all another world, and thankfully quite a few developers have recreated that world in video game form. So let’s all appreciate the work that has gone into bringing such a vast world to life.

1982’s The Hobbit was the first video game to take us to Middle-earth. This illustrated text adventure introduced a revolutionary new way to experience the genre, rather than having to use two word phrases to interact with the game you were able to use complete sentences.

Tolkien games really came into their own in the 21st century, and it really got kick off with the release of the Peter Jackson movies. A few games were released to go along with the films but The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring wasn’t related to the Peter Jackson movies, sadly it wasn’t as good as everyone had hoped. The game failed to capture the feeling of Tolkien, it felt more like a run-of-the-mill hack and slash RPG.

Everything changed in 2007 when The Lord of the Rings Online was released. It finally brought middle-earth to the masses, and thankfully it stuck. This game has been more successful than imagined, it helps that it actually captures the feel of the books and can immerse you into the world.

The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest came out in 2010 to mixed reviews. This action game relies heavily on the film material but also pulls from the Tolkien’s books. The game’s major flaws mainly had to do with the limitations that were placed on it, the game having to be very family friendly being one of the limitations. Even with the flaws the game is very fun, and should be played by everyone.

With all of the MOBA love going around why not get The Lord of the Rings involved, hell it already has the heroes clearly labeled. Well with the help of Monolith Productions middle-earth was MOBA-ized with Guardians of Middle-earth. For the content they pulled heavily from the film trilogy, the Lord of the Rings one, not The Hobbit trilogy.

What’s an epic film series without a LEGO game to lampoon it. In LEGO The Lord of the Rings they bring the perfect amount of humor to the epic series. I mean who wouldn’t laugh at Lego Gandalf as he comes to pieces against the Balrog. Thankfully they knew how to make a LEGO game true to the original material, so the spirit of the film series was kept intact.

The Hobbit series wasn’t safe from the LEGO treatment, in 2014 they released their version of the beloved tale. I mean, who doesn’t want to see a giant LEGO dragon, and then having to defeat the aforementioned monstrosity. The series is ripe for parody, thankfully this is a very honest and respectful jab at the series.

Coming very soon is the release of the most recent addition to this list, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. If it lives up to the hype it promises to be the best game in the history of gaming, so no high expectations there. The game takes place in between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, thankfully for us all the developers of the game are going above and beyond to make sure that the game is as true to Tolkien as possible.