Eight Lord of the Rings games to rule them all

The hour is dark and it seems all is lost, but wait! What’s that appearing on the horizon like Gandalf arriving at Helm’s Deep to save the day? Why it’s the upcoming Rings of Power series, come to satisfy our craving for Middle Earth action and deliver us from the unstoppable hordes of mediocre shows about to overrun all our favorite streaming services!

With the buzz around Amazon’s new show reaching fever pitch as its release approaches with more haste than Shadowfax, we’ve decided to take a look back at some of the great video games that have been inspired by JRR Tolkien’s masterpiece trilogy.

Here it is, one list to rule them all.

Contents:

1. The Two Towers
2. The Return of the King
3. The Third Age
4. War in the North
5. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
6. LEGO Lord of the Rings
7. Battle for Middle Earth II
8. Conquest

1. The Two Towers

After a shaky start with the game adaptation of the Fellowship of the Ring, which was about as fun and engaging as sitting in on an ent moot, the Two Towers was where the game adaptations of the movie series really found their Strider. The game takes you through all the major set pieces of the second movie (and several from the first, including Moria and Amon Hen) and lets you enjoy some beefy, satisfying combat as Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli.

2. Return of the King

The sequel took the winning formula of the Two Towers game and levelled it up in almost every way. The graphics were sharper than Anduril, the swordplay more satisfying than Aragorn beheading the Mouth of Sauron, and to top it all off, this time around you could play as pretty much any character you could think of – from Gandalf to Pippin (just in case anyone was desperate to play as Pippin).

3. The Third Age

This take on Tolkien’s world went down a different path, framing the action as an RPG with turn-based combat. While this could have gone more wrong than trying to fire a warning shot past the bosun’s ear, it actually worked really well and made for a challenging and rewarding adventure with a storyline that ran parallel to the events of the trilogy – you even get to hear Gandalf chew out Pippin in Moria from the bottom of the well after the dwarf skeleton lands next to you.

4. War in the North

This addition to the LOTR game pool had one major innovation that other games had thus far failed to provide – a bit of the old ultraviolence! War in the North let you really go to town on your orc foes, relieving them of their limbs and head like nobody’s business.

5. Shadow of Mordor

Probably the best crafted and most original Lord of the Rings game, Shadow of Mordor has all the glorious gore of War in the North but includes some very unique mechanics that set it apart from its predecessor. You could take control of your enemies (you play as the ghost of a ranger who starts the game getting his throat cut) or use stealth to catch them with their trousers down. The coolest feature of all, however, was the ranking system for the orcs, which saw individuals promoted whenever they killed you, leading to subsequent grudge matches with a real personal edge.

6. LEGO Lord of the Rings

Need we say more? Starting with 2005’s LEGO Star Wars, this series has brought many of our favorite series into the brick-tacular world of LEGO, and the Lord of the Rings edition is just as much fun as the rest. Taking you through all three films and giving you access to a massive open-world Middle Earth to play in, complete with some impressive graphics and the stunning score you’d expect, playing this game is an opportunity that yooouuu shall not paaaaass (up)!

7. Battle for Middle Earth II

All of the games listed so far are great if you want to be a lone hero hacking and slashing away at a few enemies on your own, but what about those huge, sweeping battles that make the movies and books so awesome? Well, if it’s massive armies and epic clashes you’re after, Battle for Middle Earth is the game for you. This RTS behemoth has you commanding entire battalions from any faction you like for some beautiful large-scale chaos.

8. Conquest

Everybody loved the original Star Wars: Battlefront, and everyone loves LOTR. “What if we combined the two?” thought EA, and the resulting concoction is more fun than a night on the Gaffer’s home brew. The game also lets you play as both the goodies and the baddies, and where Battlefront let you satisfy your inner psycho by wasting Ewoks for the Empire, Conquest lets you loose in the shire, where you’re encouraged to butcher hobbits. We’re not sure which is worse.