For many years, different game developers have made their own takes on The Lord of the Rings. Tolkein's highly influential fantasy novel is certainly rich material for video game design; its long, rich narrative is perfect for an intense action-adventure game or an RPG. Some developers have retold The Lord of the Rings directly, while others have crafted original characters in the world of Middle-earth, and each of these games builds on the world in their own way. However, there's a different style of game that The Lord of the Rings rarely inspires. Few games allow players to craft their own character and explore Middle-earth on their own terms.
It's not surprising that few LotR games give players that much liberty. After all, The Lord of the Rings' fame and success is partially thanks to its timeless characters, who can be reused as video game protagonists over and over again. Nevertheless, it's time for a studio to craft a game that lets players make themselves part of The Lord of the Rings. Avalanche Software's upcoming Hogwarts Legacy is doing something similar for the wizarding world of Harry Potter, giving players unprecedented control over their experience at Hogwarts. The Lord of the Rings has more than enough lore to inspire a similar singleplayer RPG.
Imitating Hogwarts Legacy's Concept
Just like The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter has a long history of video game adaptations, but these adaptations usually focus on Harry, Ron, and Hermione's adventures rather than encouraging players to create an original character. There are certainly exceptions to the rule, like Niantic's defunct AR game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, but the Harry Potter video game library is filled with playable adaptations of the books and the movies. That's what makes Hogwarts Legacy so distinct from its predecessors. Rather than trying to engage with the core story of Harry Potter, Hogwarts Legacy takes place around a hundred years before Harry's time, meaning players can make their own characters and experience new stories about Hogwarts. Without the usual filter of Harry's experiences, Hogwarts Legacy ought to offer fans a fresh look at the wizarding world.
By imitating that principle of Hogwarts Legacy, a new Lord of the Rings RPG could do the same thing. LotR's narrative is filled with wonderful character arcs, exciting battles, and mountains of compelling lore, but because most LotR video game adaptations focus on known characters, players don't often get to see or hear new stories about Middle-earth. Instead, fans play through the stories that they already know. A new Lord of the Rings game needs to give players access to a less restricted perspective. Monolith Productions' Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel were a step in the right direction, since the protagonist Talion was an original character, but there's still room for an LotR game that's wholly built around a character of the player's design. Hogwarts Legacy gives players free rein to interact with everything from magical beasts to dark magic, and a similar LotR game could do the same.
Middle-earth's Video Game Potential
A Lord of the Rings RPG could experiment in a lot of ways, including with its time period. For instance, the time of The Lord of the Rings itself seems highly lucrative, since it would allow players to interact with famous LotR characters and get involved with the mounting War of the Ring, but there are lots of other interesting times in LotR history that a game could adapt for a fresh perspective. Much like how Hogwarts Legacy takes place generations in the past, a LotR game could explore Sauron's first rise to power, letting players create an original character who gets involved in a narrative similar to The Rings of Power. Players could still meet notable characters like Elrond, Isildur, and Sauron while carving out a story for themselves.
Hogwarts Legacy seems determined to sell itself on the variety of activities that players can participate in, but a Lord of the Rings RPG with a custom character could offer similar variety. If players can wander Middle-earth freely, then they could interact with the many cultures of Tolkien's world, which opens up all kinds of interesting side projects and skillsets. Players could learn smithing with the dwarves of Erebor, study horseback riding in Rohan, and play minigames at hobbit parties.
Above all, The Lord of the Rings provides a wonderfully detailed open world where players can constantly discover things. Because of its ancient history, players could find countless dungeons that hint at Middle-earth's many past sagas and contain powerful weapons full of their own stories. The Fellowship's stories are too set in stone to allow for many detours, but a new game with a custom protagonist could let players set out in whichever direction they like, rather than sticking to the beaten path. Exploring Lord of the Rings' world freely, without the weight of a famous character's backstory and destiny, would amount to a totally different LotR game experience.
Expanding Lord of the Rings Video Games
For now, game developers seem content to keep exploring established Lord of the Rings stories, rather than focusing on finding new narratives or letting players tell their own stories. Daedalic Entertainment's The Lord of the Rings: Gollum uses an extremely famous character as its protagonist, but focusing on Gollum makes the game unique in its own right, since Gollum rarely gets to tell his own story. That level of experimentation at least inspires some hope that other developers will try to find surprising new concepts for Lord of the Rings video games.
After all this time, though, it really seems like a new AAA Lord of the Rings RPG with custom characters is overdue. There's already compelling evidence that it could succeed. The Lord of the Rings Online, Middle-earth's very own MMORPG, has survived and thrived since 2007. However, MMOs aren't for everyone; those who prefer not to play multiplayer RPGs would love to see something similar to Lord of the Rings Online distilled into a singleplayer experience. Hogwarts Legacy provides some notable examples for how that could be done, so hopefully at least one developer will take inspiration from Avalanche's work and take another look at The Lord of the Rings.