Licensed video games have gained a reputation over the years for not always being of a high standard. This definitely isn’t true of all video games based on films or TV shows. A few Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games were great, as are titles like Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3. Upcoming remasters like the Jurassic Park Collection show that there’s still love and demand for these types of games. The Lord of the Rings has been a bit hit-or-miss in terms of quality, but titles like Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle Earth: Shadow of War had slick presentation, tight Assassin’s Creed-like gameplay, and innovative new features like the Nemesis system. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King which were released on the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube were also solid titles that massively impressed graphically and are part of many people’s experience of Lord of the Rings more generally. However, to what extent did the last two Lord of the Rings games that I’ve mentioned have an impact, and are they underappreciated when people talk about games of that era? Even though licensed games only rarely become critical hits, did The Two Towers, and The Return of the King hit the mark that they aimed for?
The Gaming Scene Around The Year 2002
Back in the early 2000’s, the PS2 was without a doubt the dominant platform. The Xbox and GameCube were battling it out for second place. The Xbox was the most powerful of the consoles, the PS2 had the greatest diversity of games, while the GameCube had some of the best exclusives. In terms of licensed games, back then almost every movie had a video game tie-in. As games were usually smaller projects than today, and cheaper to make, there were many more retail titles being released than there are today. Also, online stores where you could download retro games or new ones hadn’t really become a thing yet. The only option was to go to the shop to purchase a physical version.
This is all relevant to set the scene of how these LOTR games were going to be perceived. The first installment of The Lord of the Rings had recently hit theaters. There was massive hype around the franchise. These were the most big budget films ever made and they caught the imaginations of audiences everywhere.
How The EA LOTR Games Massively Impress Visually
Graphics in the early 2000’s were most commonly slightly above the level of N64. Simple 3D models. The PS2 seemed amazing when it released as it was probably the most powerful system to be released up to that time. But when you actually saw clips of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers before its release, it looked unbelievable with how realistic it was.
People consistently bring up The Two Towers when discussing great visuals of the PS2, GameCube, and Xbox games. It’s impressive how the lighting and reflections on armor, weapons,and shields give the game a realistic look. The graphics are probably some of the best seen on the Xbox, PS2, or GameCube. This is especially true of the first game, The Two Towers. The camera follows the player more tightly than in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and as a result, it seems like you’re closer to the action. Diverse environments and good textures help to create a feel almost identical to the movies, but it’s the motion capture animations that sold the game. Even now in 2023, the games still look impressive.
Tight Gameplay
The gameplay loop of both The Two Towers and Return of the King consists of missions where you move through environments slashing and firing arrows to kill orcs, goblins, trolls, and other enemies. There are light RPG elements and it is all done with great presentation and there is a sense of awe (or there was at the time at least). There are also some puzzle elements, but generally, the gameplay could be compared to Diablo or Heroes of Ruin on the 3DS. At the time, the gameplay was criticized as being ‘mindless’ but really, if you were a Lord of the Rings fan, these two games were some of the best experiences you could have had on this generation of consoles. I remember both games didn’t review well in the UK video game magazines, yet now they are looked back on fondly. The thing is the animations, graphics, and ‘weight’ of the hack’n’slash gameplay were impressive to everyone. The games got difficult as you played through them. If you put the hours in, you would improve your skills (as well as boost your stats), and if you played enough there were loads of cool unlockables.
Other Lord Of The Rings Games?
The quality and polish that Stormfront Studios put into the two Lord of the Rings games that I’m discussing in this article is rarely seen amongst licensed games. EA had the rights to Lord of the Rings at this time (to the movies at least), and oddly for them, most of the Lord of the Rings games that they produced turned out really well (including the turn based RPG The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age). Even their GameBoy Advance versions of The Two Towers, and Return of the King were solid, Gauntlet-like action RPGs.
Vivendi had the rights to the books at this time and released The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2002 for PS2, Xbox, and GBA. The PS2 and Xbox versions were action/adventure games, less like Diablo than EA’s versions. They also didn’t review as well. The GBA version was a turn-based RPG littered with bugs and again didn’t live up to hopes.
So The Two Towers, and The Return of the King were exceptional licensed games, but were they really trendsetters in this area, or did something before that truly set the trend of high-quality licensed games?
GoldenEye Truly Set The Standard?
GoldenEye 007 was developed by Rareware and released on the N64 in 1997. It was a seminal console first-person shooter. The secret behind its success might have been that it was originally an on-rails shooter, so a lot of work was put into the hit detection and enemy reactions. Then, because the developers realized that they had time to polish the game, they made it so that it had exploration elements and was no longer from a fixed perspective. What really made this game so good were the enemy reactions to being shot, and how satisfying it was.
GoldenEye 007 was a massive hit and not only a good licensed game, but one of the best games on the N64. It was based on the James Bond film of the same name, and released only a few years before the Lord of the Rings films. It’s often regarded as the best licensed game ever made, and influenced games like Halo and Call of Duty. In comparison to The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, GoldenEye 007 had a better critical reception, and had a bigger impact on its genre. Even though it could be argued that the initial impression from visuals was more impressive with both Lord of the Rings games.
The Turning Of The Tides
Overall, the two PS2, GameCube, and Xbox Diablo-esque Lord of the Rings games were critically underappreciated for their time. The impressive animations and visuals make them some of the best-looking games on their respective systems. In retrospect, they are valued as polished, solid action RPGs with loads of cool unlockable content. However, they had less of an impact compared to GoldenEye 007 in terms of influencing future game design.
People that grew up with these two games will always be taken back to the early 2000’s when they play them. Since streaming media is now exploring Middle-Earth more deeply than it has in the past, maybe we’ll see some more interesting games based on Lord of the Rings. The recent Gollum game seems to have been a flop. But maybe we’ll see a game staring a good orc for once at some point in the future.
Did EA actually get something right once upon a time? Could they again? Or are there better licensed games out there we missed? Let us know in the comments!
