The Lord of the Ringsfranchise has a storied history in almost every entertainment medium, and we are entering a new era for its film and gaming efforts. As Amazon continues to produceThe Rings of Power, Middle-Earth Enterprises has beenacquired by Embracer Group. Instead of all ofThe Lord of Rings’games being made by Warner Bros., which had been the case for some time, we are now seeing lots of studios make games in the Lord of the Rings universe, providing their own spin on the idea. WhileThe Lord of the Rings: Gollumis doing that on consoles this month, mobile game players are also getting a brand new game.
The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-Earthis on the wayfrom Capital Games and EA, and I attended a preview event for the game ahead of its launch on May 10. This game takes the character-collecting RPG approach established through its previous gameStar Wars: Galaxy of Heroesand gives it a Middle-Earth makeover. What’s most intriguing about the title, though, is that it’s not afraid to ask “What if?” while playing around in the world of this long-running franchise.
When it comes to gameplay, my brief playtime withHeroes of Middle-Earthdidn’t surprise me. It’s exactly what you’d expect from a mobile character-collecting RPG set inThe Lord of the Ringsuniverse. Still, the character-based approach allows Capital Games to play inThe Lord of the Ringssandbox in ways few creatives have been able to. It has more freedom to craft more experimental scenarios with the franchise’s iconic characters, as it’s not as concerned with falling in line with lore.
The premise is that players have discovered a new Ring of Power, which they must use to keepThe Lord of the Ringstimelineintact as a mysterious enemy is trying to throw it in disarray. That setup means that the game can create scenarios that don’t necessarily align with the Middle-Earth canon. Players can makecharacters from different time periods, races, and allegiances team up in a way that wouldn’t work anywhere else. They’ll encounter a Galadriel who was corrupted by the Ring and other characters who may have strayed from the path laid for them in the books and films. Post-launch, some of these alternate versions of characters will eventually become playable as well.
In the age of the multiverse story in media, these kinds of “What if?” scenarios make for a novelThe Lord of the Ringsgame set pieces and give the developers plenty of room to come up with future characters for players to collect. In a press roundtable,Heroes of Middle-EarthDesign Director Jay Ambrosini was undoubtedly enthusiastic about these concepts but said the team is also making sure any of these ideas and alternate timelines that they do pursue feeling respectful toward the world J.R.R. Tolkien established.
“There are so many characters that you look at and see the small little decisions that happen and affect them, and it’s so fun to think about what happens if they made the other decision,” Ambrosini says. “They are fun things to explore and talk about, but the most important thing to us is that we’re telling a genuine Tolkien story and that we’re very faithful to the laws of the world that exist. Good deeds are rewarded with goodness; bad deeds are rewarded with bad things happening. We’re making sure that we’re appreciating and celebrating those pieces of Tolkien’s work.”
That playful but faithful approach is certainly an apt one for a developer to take in this new era forThe Lord of the Rings. We’re likely going to have a lot of different companies working on various versions ofThe Lord of the Ringsin movies, TV, and games, and it may start to feel like a bit of a Middle-Earth multiverse, even if that’s unintentional.Heroes of the Middle-Earthis embracing that possibility head-on, and doing so seems to be the best approach that could’ve taken with what otherwise appears to be a straightforward character-collecting RPG.
The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-Earthis available now for iOS and Android.
