LOTR: Battle For Middle-earth Reforged looks absolutely stunning

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth: Reforged looks absolutely stunning as devoted fans are working wonders.

The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-earth was first released for PC back in 2004. It’s an amazing real-time strategy game that allows fans to recreate the most epic battles of J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythical universe.

On Metacritic, the first Battle for Middle-earth earned a very respectable score of 82 from critics and 86 from users. Two years later, Battle for Middle-earth would garner a sequel earning similar scores, only this time, the sequel would release on Xbox 360 as well as PC.

Sadly, it’s been 17 long years since Electronic Arts would release a game in this beloved series, so you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Battle for Middle-earth series was long forgotten within the abyss of time.

Well, thankfully, as reported by TheGamer, The Battle for Middle-earth series has not been forgotten by a group of devoted fans that have taken matters into their own hands by remastering the original game of 2004.

The Battle for Middle-earth: Reforged is a project years in the making and even looking at its gameplay reveal from two years ago, it looks absolutely stunning. The project began as an impressive reskin, however, it’s evolved over the years and even the soundtrack is being reworked.

What’s more, just by taking a look at the incredible work being done on the sinister Barrow-wights and the menacing Balrog. Honestly, if someone had told me that this was an official remaster, I’d be none the wiser. It truly is impressive work, to say the least.

Furthermore, not only are the character models and music being reworked but the game's framerate has also been improved at a glorious 4K resolution. The remaster even features denser wildlife and foliage, a new campaign, a ranked system for online play, tournaments and much more. Oh, and all this incredible work is being done voluntarily.

As with any project such as this one, even if the developers are not earning a penny, there’s always a risk of a cease and desist being issued. So hopefully the folks at EA won’t be putting its foot down on this remaster and will let the indie developers work their magic.

Sadly, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth and its sequel are not available on PC Steam, and neither is the sequel backwards compatible with Xbox.

In related news, Amazon’s ultra-expensive The Lord of the Rings show has had staggeringly low viewers, despite already being renewed for a second season.