Lord of the Rings Video Game Retrospective | An Exhaustive History and Review

A complete history of the entire Lord of the Rings Video Game franchise - covering every single game ever made - from the Atari and Super Nintendo all the way through to the Xbox One and PlayStation 5.

35 games in just over 5 hours - each given the attention they deserve!

It's a history documentary. It's a franchise retrospective. It's a multi-part video game review - but above all, it's a love letter to the strange world of Middle Earth licensed video games.

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CHAPTERS

0:00 - The Road Goes Ever on and On
5:01 - Lord of the Rings on MS-DOS and Atari
9:53 - J R R Tolkien's Fellowship of the Ring Vol 1
19:09 - The Fellowship of the Ring
32:29 - The Fellowship of the Ring GBA
38:35 - The Two Towers
50:02 - The Return of the King
1:07:12 - Two Towers & Return of the King GBA
1:14:34 - The Hobbit
1:28:35 - The Hobbit GBA
1:34:06 - The Third Age
1:51:56 - The Third Age GBA
1:57:46 - Lord of the Rings Tactics
2:03:42 - Battle for Middle Earth II (plus all LOTR Strategy games)
2:23:44 - Lord of the Rings Conquest
2:37:46 - Lord of the Rings Conquest DS
2:45:01 - Aragorn's Quest PS3/Wii
2:55:18 - Aragorn's Quest PSP/DS/PS2
3:00:05 - War in the North
3:17:56 - Guardians of Middle Earth
3:27:40 - Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
3:49:53 - Shadow of Mordor: Lord of the Hunt DLC
3:52:44 - Shadow of Mordor: The Bright Lord DLC
3:57:17 - Lego The Lord of the Rings
4:07:01 - Lego The Hobbit
4:15:47 - Middle Earth: Shadow of War
4:37:04 - Shadow of War: Blade of Galadriel DLC
4:42:40 - Shadow of War: Desolation of Mordor DLC
4:50:00 - Lord of the Rings Adventure Card Game
5:00:08 - Now Far Ahead the Road Has Gone

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Credit for the incredible thumbnail goes to the immensely talented - @MicahTheBrave

All media in this video is used for the purpose of review, commentary or criticism and is defined as fair use under US Copyright law.
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#LordoftheRings #Retrospective #Review

[magninecul]

Return of the King ps2, the level where you play as Gandalf protecting the walls of Minas Tirith is one of my most prominent gaming memories. Defending the walls, kicking down the ladders, ‘falling back’ with all the Gondorian soldiers and trying to keep them alive (not a requirement to complete the level but I always tried to keep as many alive as I could!)

You know there are those classic youtube videos which you go back to re-watch over the years? Well, you’ve just created a new one.
You’ve made a classic right here, This is going to be one of those uploads that I will be re-watching 3 times a year, even when that ‘Uploaded a day ago’ becomes ‘uploaded 10 years ago’. The quality of this video far exceeded expectations, not only are you good at this, you are also demonstrating growth as a content creator. Keep up the forward momentum.

[JoshForeman]

As a footnote: I worked at Synergistic Software in '97. We were owned by Sierra at the time and had just finished the expansion to Diablo. (Diablo Hellfire) We were told that Sierra had the rights to make a LOTR game, and so we started production on a Diablo style LOTR game. I was making a pretty cool tile set for the Mines of Moria when Sierra decided to shut the project down and made us focus on sports games. A bunch of the people who were working on it moved over to Sierra to work on Gabriel Knight 3. I quit. It was a real bummer. Hearing your report here makes me wonder if Sierra actually did have the rights, or were maybe in negotiation for them, and the decision to shutter the game happened because the deal fell through...

[extraplain]

Battle for Middle Earth, The Third Age, Shadow of War, War in the North, Return of the King, War of the Ring... so many incredible games over the years.

[zzxp]

I had so much fun with Return of the King on the ps2. Is crazy to think there was once upon a time we have a massive drove of movie based video games but only a few were worth a damn. They were basically the mobile games of our era.

[wheatwhisky]

Just want to heads-up that I just recently discovered this channel and it has been an absolute joy of seeing a content creator making a long retrospective series without much distracting editing; your video style encapsulate the sense of an academic university lecture, where the silent background and only hearing your voice describing along with the captured video footage is very captivating and attentive-seeking.

I commend you for taking all your valuable time and efforts for these series. Looking forward to your next project.

[danloney]

You've given a whole new meaning to doing a LOTR marathon... I'm in.

[vladzîîîî]

People who said that an elf lord wouldn't steal the ring and become so vicious either don't know or forgot that Celebrimbor is actually Feanor's last descendant.

[QuickTimeFailure]

I had one hilarious moment happen in Conquest. I was attacking the shire and I was suddenly allowed to play as the Balrog.
It was awesome to kill a bunch of hobbits with this flaming beast, but eventually I came to a bridge (specifically the one at 2:37:00)
I figured the Balrog would be too big for the bridge so I decided to cross through the shallow river instead.

The ankle-high river killed the Balrog instantly and I had to go back to being a standard uruk-hai.

[gamerguy]

"War In The North" was one my favorite games to play when I was younger, I never got why so many didn't like it. And even though they didn't need to, they actually have two separate endings for the game. In the "bad ending" Beleram dies in the final battle, but it is possible to have him live through it and celebrate with the trio after your victory. The team didn't need to make two separate endings, but the fact that they took time, despite how small of a change it technically is, well that's something I just can't help but appreciate

[NJM]

As someone who has played LOTRO a lot over the last 6 years, I completely understand not covering it. I have multiple thousands of hours and still haven't seen everything the game has to offer, though I have seen almost all of it. My summary would be that it has some of the best world building of not only any LoTR game, but any game in general. You don't play as any of the main heroes so they were able to make a story that's shares much of the books plot, but also has the chance to branch out and do something unique. I can't express enough how good the writers are. Also, the world is massive and extremely fun to explore. You can visit almost any 3rd age location you could think of. As for the downsides, it's pretty old. Gameplay is dated compared to more modern MMOs. The graphics aren't bad for its age, but it doesn't hold up to the competition. Also some of the systems later in the game can be confusing and non-intuitive. I'd say it's definitely worth checking out for anyone who's a fan of tolkien or a fan of older style MMOs. It's free to play and they have recently made much more content available before having to purchase anything.

[AntiNihilist]

I played and finished Return of the King, and Third Age and I gotta say, they're so good that they make you feel like there's no reason to ever play a Lord of the Rings game ever again. The coop of RotK is legit the best coop game ever. Third Age is so good without even using the LotR main characters, that's an amazing accomplishment all on its own

[imgoingforawalk]

Just an FYI, Belaram doesn't need to die during War in the North. If you don't summon him during the final Agandaur battle, he survives and you get a different cutscene. There also is a PC port, it's just no longer available for purchase.

[SavoxYT]

The modding community for Battle for Middle Earth is thankfully still going strong, so it's reputation will never die. The Age of the Ring mod is basically a third game.

[HunterSilves]

LoTR: Conquest was one of the few games I put hundreds of hours into as a kid - completely solo, as I had no internet. So, my response will be biased. However, I loved it just as much as I loved SW: Battlefront 2 as "battle as a soldier" gameplay, despite the flaws. You mentioned how the warrior can't kill other warriors - that's if you're spamming light attack. Heavy attacks and kicks both break blocking, and your special breaks through it as well. You also mentioned how the scout was useless because of grunts, but I distinctly remember that class being so overpowered that I challenged myself to beat my scout kills with any other class or hero. While invisible, if you simply walk around the grunts and stick to low population pathways and walls, they'll ignore you and stray shots will almost never pull you out of stealth while you walk around behind to get at the archers and mages. You can also use the backstab to one-shot nearly any enemy, even doing massive damage to heroes or ents/trolls. I also seem to remember using the bombs to knock enemies off the map on narrow ledges, and the lingering damage from them does a lot of heavy lifting on high-health targets.

[grimace]

Your biggest flaw with third age being parallel to the film made it one of my favourites. When Merry knocks the skeleton down the well in Moria it lands next to the party. Absolutely loved it 11/10

[PaSa]

So awesome to see a defense of War in the North. It’s a really great action RPG and the multiplayer mode was one of my favorites ever.

[danskdd]

just mad respect for making a 5 hours youtube video

[nes]

Aragorn kinda has the kingly healing power in the books. Actually lore-friendly. Berethors story is probably inspired by some of the silmarillion storys.

[MarValProductions]

War in the North is fantastic. Combat felt accessible yet satisfying. The story was interesting and made the scope of the story we know even bigger. I just wish it was longer.

[McNuttify]

Wow 5 hrs I can't imagine how much work this took to complete. Well done :) .