The Lord of the Rings’ New Low Bar for Gaming is a Blessing and a Curse

Highlights

• The Lord of the Rings has had a history of hit-or-miss gaming experiences, with few falling in the middle ground.
• Monolith’s Middle-earth games have been considered the most successful or notable Lord of the Rings games in over a decade.
• The low standard set by recent Lord of the Rings games like Gollum presents an opportunity for future games to exceed expectations or at least be received better.

The Lord of the Rings has never been tremendously prominent in gaming outside a few scattered entries that happened to make a profound impact. The Lord of the Rings has always been popular as the pinnacle of fantasy storytelling and world-building, and its IP has made for a history of hit-or-miss gaming experiences where not many installments fell into a middling category, either being considered fantastic or lackluster. Licensed and original games alike have been beloved, and therefore the quality of one or the other is no longer predictable.

Interestingly, there’s still so much potential that a Lord of the Rings game could have in contemporary gaming whether it adhered strictly to licensed adaptations or branched out to attempt original stories and extrapolate on known lore. Both attempts have been made several times now, and arguably the most successful Lord of the Rings games to come out in more than a decade were Monolith’s Middle-earth games. The Lord of the Rings’ latest games were fumbles, yet the low bar they have set could ironically be what helps the next Lord of the Rings game thrive.

The Lord of the Rings’ IP Risks Becoming Creatively Bankrupt in Games

Gollum, Return to Moria Represent the Sad State of The Lord of the Rings

Speaking of Lord of the Rings games that have been highly criticized lately, Return to Moria isn’t the bottom of the pack. Players have still expressed that they enjoy its immersive survival-crafting elements, and for many that might be enough even if vital quality-of-life ingredients are missing from its recipe. Meanwhile, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum isn’t being defended by anyone and fails to take a tenable stance itself.

Basically every aspect of Gollum is underwhelming, beginning with the fact that a Gollum game was the least creative decision that could have been made and ending with the fact that certain voice lines and emotes are locked behind a paywall. The newest Lord of the Rings game to be announced was Weta Workshop and Private Division’s Tales of the Shire, and next to nothing was revealed about it aside from it being a cozy game.

Now, with Gollum having plummeted expectations when it comes to a Lord of the Rings game, future endeavors can only meet that same awful standard or be far better, putting them in an awkward position. It seems hard to believe that a blunder as bad as Gollum could be repeated, meaning that there’s a greater chance that the next Lord of the Rings game will at least be received better than it.

The Lords of the Rings Needs a New Shadow of Mordor, Return of the King

That is indeed a low bar, and ideally the next Lord of the Rings game would be able to meet the excellent standard of games like Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor or The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King instead. Tales of the Shire may not be the game to exceed those expectations depending on how quaint it’s intended to be, but that shouldn’t stop a new Lord of the Rings game from doing so. Shadow of Mordor and its sequel were popular for several reasons between their rhythmic counter-based combat and patented Nemesis system, while Return of the King was easily one of the most well-crafted licensed movie adaptations in gaming history, complete with engaging co-op and a fun progression system.

The best course of action would perhaps be to try another original story in Middle-earth for developers to explore new characters apart from those that regurgitate the same iconography. However, a modern remake of Return of the King or The Third Age would also be widely agreeable with current-gen graphics and gameplay considered.