Tolkien and Gaming: Games Set in Middle-earth

Games that enter Tolkien's World

Welcome to the final and shortest part of Tolkien and Gaming, which has examined some of the ways in which Lord of the Rings has influenced various types of games. For the conclusion of this series, rather than analyze how games unaffiliated with Tolkien’s work drew inspiration from it, I wanted to highlight a few of the games that actually take place in the world of the narrative.

First let’s look at some of the board games; even without counting some variations of popular board games with a LotR theme (LotR Monopoly, LotR Risk, a chess set, etc.), there is still a wide selection of original wargames which revolve around some of the famous battles of Middle-earth, including the Battle of the Five Armies (not the same edition as the game I mentioned in my first post), Battle in Balin’s Tomb, and Battle of Osgiliath.

There is also an official card game in the Living Card Game genre based on a previous physical collective card game that is now out of print. Gameplay is akin to other games in the same genre such as Magic: The Gathering.

As for other video games, there are over thirty games made for console or PC which are set in Middle-earth. The first goes as far back as 1982 with the release of The Hobbit, an illustrated text-based adventure game for the Spectrum home computer based on the original novel. The game would receive two sequels in 1985 and 1987 in the form of text-based adventures of the first and second half of the story of The Lord of the Rings respectively.

The Lord of the Rings Online (2007) is an MMORPG set in Middle-earth during the events of The Lord of the Rings. At the time of writing the game’s servers are still active, the game having received its most recent expansion in 2023.

Many of the games are based on Peter Jackson’s film adaptations. One example is The Lord of the Rings: Conquest (2009), a multiplayer action game which featured gameplay similar to the Star Wars: Battlefront games. Other examples are the Lego games for LotR (2012) and The Hobbit (2014).

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (2014) is an action-adventure game set in Mordor between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings which features a completely original story. The player assumes the role of Talion, a Gondorian Ranger out to avenge the death of his loved ones and break a curse set upon him. The game was a commercial success and received a sequel with expanded content in 2017. Across the two games the player will encounter characters from the novels, such as Gollum or the Elven smith Celebrimbor, who is only mentioned in the novels and in the game is depicted as a wraith. I was a fan of these games for their engaging gameplay, and I personally found the original stories interesting, but the games are clearly non-canon, and fans of the source material should be able to find certain discrepancies.

The most recent console game set in Middle-earth is The Lord of the Rings: Gollum (2023), in which the player assumes the role of Gollum while he is a prisoner in Mordor; however, the game received overwhelmingly negative reviews for being uninteresting and poorly made.

I hope this brief list has been able to show that Tolkien’s intricately detailed and riveting world has been not only marketable but successful in the gaming world, both for tabletop and video game genres, and will likely continue to be so for years to come.