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Video games set in Middle-earth are video games based on the fictional world of Middle-earth, created by J. R. R. Tolkien. The primary Middle-earth works of J.R.R. Tolkien are The Hobbit (published 1937), The Lord of the Rings (1954-5) and The Silmarillion (1977). From the early 1980s to the present, several video games have been developed based on one or other of these works. The developers of these games include EA Games, Sierra and Melbourne House.
Official games
Early efforts
In 1982, Melbourne House released The Hobbit, a text adventure game for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 computers, among others. It was based on the book of the same name. Melbourne House went on to release The Lord of the Rings for the same computers in 1986. This was, however, an "illustrated adventure" as opposed to a text adventure. A BBC Micro text adventure released around the same time was unrelated to Melbourne's titles except for the literary origin. In 1987, Melbourne House began to release a number of titles based on a licence from the Tolkien Estate. The first of these was Shadows of Mordor, another text adventure, followed up by War in Middle-earth, a turn-based strategy game, for the Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga and Atari ST. In 1990, Interplay, in collaboration with Electronic Arts (who would later obtain the licences to the film trilogy), released Lord of the Rings Vol. 1, a role-playing game (RPG) based on the events of the first book (The Fellowship of the Ring). A second and third instalment were planned, but the third was never released because Interplay couldn't decide whether to do it as an RPG like the first two, or as a strategy game. Interplay's games mostly appeared on the PC and Amiga, but later they did a Lord of the Rings game for the Super Nintendo, which played nothing like their PC games and instead was more like The Legend of Zelda.Film trilogy revival
Thereafter, no official The Lord of the Rings titles were released until the making of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy for New Line Cinema in 2001-2003, when general enthusiasm for the story peaked again. Electronic Arts obtained the licences for the three films, although they only produced games for The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Sierra Entertainment, having lost out on the film licences, obtained the licence to produce games based on the books (as opposed to the film trilogy) from Tolkien Enterprises instead, entitling them to use the story, but not material from the film.This gave rise to an unusual situation. Electronic Arts produced no adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring, but Sierra did. However, they did produce adaptations of The Two Towers and The Return of the King, whereas Sierra did no such thing. This produced a "complete trilogy" of games (albeit unofficial). Sierra's entry to the series received average reviews, and Electronic Arts' entries received rave reviews, although Peter Jackson has criticized EA for leaving him out of the development process and has declared that he is unhappy with the quality of the titles.
While Sierra Entertainment's access to the book rights prevented them from using material from the film, it permitted them to include elements of the Lord of the Rings books that were not in the films. EA, on the other hand, were not permitted to do this, as they were only licensed to develop games based on the films, which left out elements of the original story or deviated in places. Fans' opinions differ on the better of the two styles. Some prefer EA's action-oriented hack and slash-style games, which tend to pass on large segments of the story and place a reliance on film clips and the film's music, citing the almost cinematic quality that the game produces as similar to the film. Others preferred the Sierra adventure title, which, while featuring less action and epic battles than the EA title, cover the story in greater detail and offer a more cerebral challenge.
Sierra's consequent adaptation of The Hobbit also received average reviews. It is unknown which developer/publisher would assume the task of adapting a film version of The Hobbit to a video game, especially since Jackson chose to work with Michel Ancel and Ubisoft on King Kong in light of his displeasure with EA.
Post-film trilogy efforts
The popularity of real-time strategy (RTS) titles led Sierra and EA to independently produce two RTS games. Sierra produced War of the Ring in 2003, based on the books. The title was well received by the press, but some criticized the derivative nature of the game. Some fans also took issue with the many liberties taken with the source material. A year later, EA released The Battle for Middle-earth, based on the films. The title was given rave reviews in the gaming media and sold well. However, as with War of the Ring, some fans took issue with the liberties taken with the books.EA then released an RPG in 2004 entitled The Third Age, based on the universe portrayed in the films, though not the original story. It was based on an original story that runs parallel to the events of the movies. The game received average reviews, with many quoting the poor quality of the story in relation to its source. The game also contains a range of unrelated situations that divert from the original plot, such as the final melee combat versus the Eye of Sauron.
In July 2005, EA was granted the rights to develop games based on the books, alongside the separate agreement for games based on the New Line Cinema films. EA released The Battle for Middle-earth II on 2 March 2006. While it sold well, some fans, as ever, took issue with the liberties taken with the books, as with its predecessor.
Future games
EA is working on a game called The Lord of the Rings: The White Council. IGN expects The White Council to continue on from the side-story of The Third Age.An online MMORPG by Turbine, Inc., entitled The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar and endorsed by Tolkien Enterprises is also in production.
Unofficial games
Aside from officially licensed games, unofficial games have also been made. One of the most lasting is Angband, an open-source game based loosely on the Silmarillion. Another is Shadows of Isildur, a free to play RPI MUD. Having started in the year 2460 of the Third Age, SoI allows its players to become a character on the side of either Gondor, or Mordor.
Many Tolkien-inspired mods and custom maps have been made for many games, such as Warcraft III and Total War.
References
"Middle-earth in video games"