Tolkien’s Legendarium has long since inspired videogames. While we cannot pinpoint a single Middle-earth game that could be considered particularly mindblowing or groundbreaking, many of then find themselves as developing a cult status among certain circles. The Battle for Middle-earth 1 and 2, for instance, are two RTS games that still have people playing online matches to this day; the 2003 adventure game The Hobbit, which adapts the book of the same name, has enjoyed an unexpected wave of interest by the speedrunning community; The Lord of the Rings Online MMORPG, which has a compact but fervent playerbase; and the more recent Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War duology, which has achieved mainstream appeal due to its addictive Arkham-like combat and enticing Nemesis system (although they take so many liberties with Tolkien’s world that one wonders if these games should have been set in their own IP instead. But I digress).

However, there is one game among all of these that seldom gets discussed. Released in 2011, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North failed to reach any kind of relevancy. It released in the same month as Skyrim and shortly after Dark Souls, which is a death sentence for any fantasy-inspired RPG. It was also removed from online storefronts just a few years later, which makes it impossible for people to randomly stumble upon it, except maybe in a second-hand videogame store. War in the North (or WitN, as I will abbreviate it going forward), however, is a better game than one would expect. In this article, I will explain how this game successfully uses and expands upon Tolkien’s Legendarium in a meaningful manner, and uses it as the framework for a game that is still rather fun to play. It is a review that is more focused on the lore and worldbuilding aspects of the game, although I will briefly touch upon the gameplay and technical sides too.

And I guess we can start with that. After all, what kind of game is this? Well, WitN is an action RPG, set in mostly linear levels where you need to get from A to B by killing everything in your way. You control one character in a party of 3, where the other two can be either controlled by the CPU or controlled by your co-op partners. The console versions allow split-screen, but the PC version requires online players. Weirdly enough, and despite the game being unlisted for years now, the servers are still online as of the writing of this article. Each player can use a melee attack and a ranged attack, plus a set of skills that consist of special attacks and buffs. Your usual RPG elements are present, such as an inventory system, potion crafting, buying/selling items, and levelling up your skills. There is also a wheel-based dialogue system, not too different from the one found in Mass Effect. There are no big choices to be made, but you can use the dialogue system to further inquire people about things in the world. It is nothing mindblowing in terms of gameplay, but it does its job. “Adequate” might be the best way to describe it.

In terms of its technical prowess, it’s also nothing too remarkable. The graphics are average for the time, but they are successful at portraying a visually interesting version of Middle-earth. The game is firmly set in the continuity of Peter Jackson’s movies, and while there isn’t a lot of overlap, the few shared locations between them - Bree and Rivendell - are faithfully recreated. Some NPCs are movie characters, such as Gandalf and Aragorn, and they also resemble their movie counterparts. Weirdly enough, Radagast appears in this game, and his depiction is very similar to the one we saw in the Hobbit movies… except that the first Hobbit movie came out one year after this game. Corporate synergy, or just a coincidence? We may never know. My major critique about how this game fits into Peter Jackson’s continuity has to do with the voice actors, who fail to imitate their movie counterparts. I understand that rehiring Viggo Mortensen and Ian McKellen and others would be a tall order, but some of them are so dissonant in their portrayal to the point of breaking your immersion - which is unfortunate, as the cast is otherwise stacked with top-tier voice actors, such as Laura Bailey, Tom Kane, Fred Tatasciore and Jennifer Hale.

Now let’s get to the actual meat and bones of what we do here in this blog: look at the story and the lore. Our trio of adventurers is comprised of three original characters: the Man, Eradan, a Dunedain Ranger and an acquaintance of Aragorn; the Elf, Andriel, a Loremaster from Rivendell and an apprentice of Elrond; and the Dwarf, Farin, of Erebor. It is a well-rounded cast that pays good tribute to the major Tolkienite (is that a word?) theme of previously unfriendly races working together towards the common good. These characters aren’t very well developed, though, and they already start the adventure as friends and stay that way for the entire game. I suppose it is more of a self-insert kind of thing, where you can take these characters as relatively blank slates.

The plot itself is centered around the events happening in the northern areas of Middle-earth around the time of the Lord of the Rings. In fact, the game kicks off in Bree, at the Prancing Pony, with Aragorn introducing us to our main quest, which implies that this game starts just a few days before the four hobbits arrive in Bree. We are sent by Aragorn to the ruined city of Fornost in order to track down a new disturbance surrounding an increasingly high number of Orcs in the region, as well as rumours of a powerful sorcerer among them. In there, we find that this sorcerer is Agandaûr, a Black Númenórean. From this point onwards, the plot is fairly straightforward, and it comprises on a hunt across the northern part of the continent, as our heroes try to find and stop Agandaûr and his plans.

While the story is relatively simple, it shines when it comes to integrating it with the larger Tolkien legendarium. For instance, Lord Elrond’s sons, Elladan and Elrohir, are also on the hunt for the sorcerer, and will help you throughout the game. You also get to visit fabled locations, such as Mount Gundabad, and learn a lot about Dwarven history. You also find a long lost Dwarven hold called Nordinbad, and their culture is so perfectly represented there that you could be fooled to think this was an original Tolkien creation. I even thought this was one of the many Dwarven clans established by Tolkien, only to go on a Wiki deepdive and be rather shocked to learn they were an original creation. You even meet a dragon at one point, and you turn him into an uneasy ally by flattering him, as opposed to just killing him in a boss fight or something. That is the same tactic pulled by Bilbo in the Hobbit, and it’s great to see it here. Every new location and addition feels like a natural extension of Tolkien’s world, and that is the highest praise a derivative work such as this can ever hope for. It is a resounding success.

Further praise goes to the dialogue between you and the many NPCs in the game. There are four hub areas that you can travel back and forth from: Bree, Rivendell, Sarn Ford and Nordinbad. Rivendell, in particular, is filled with interesting NPCs, and your first arrival there coincides with the arrival of the hobbits and Gandalf (although they are gone off to Mordor once you leave and come back). Still, you can talk people the likes of Bilbo, who tells you so much about his experience with dragons, in exchange for your help in revising his poems; you can inquire characters over a variety of things, and get responses that go from namedropping the biggest dragon to ever exist, Ancalagon, to Arwen’s relationship with Aragorn, to finding the shards of Narsil just lying around in their pedestal. Even the Great Eagles get some spotlight, as one of them, Beleram, will help you throughout your adventure. And he speaks!

All in all, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is a fantastic Middle-earth game, even if only an “ok” game when looked at from an outsider’s persective. If you’re not into Tolkien’s Legendarium, there isn’t much in here for you, as there are better and more accessible co-op fantasy games out there. But if you would look like to see a prime example of using an IP in the right way to tell an original story, then you need only look at this game. Every single Middle-earth videogame should strive to have the same level of respect as this one has towards its source material, and they should expand upon that material while preserving the original themes - something this game does pehraps a bit too well, to the point of being predictable. But that isn’t always a bad thing.