Lord of the Rings returns as surprise RPG shadow drops, more on the way

One of this week’s biggest surprise releases came in the form of a brand new remaster for a classic The Lord of the Rings game.

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North may have received mixed reviews at launch, but for Tolkien fans it offered another window into the expansive world of Middle-earth and all the stories contained within it.

Although delisted in 2019, the game has now made a comeback thanks to a fresh remaster developed by Aspyr, the same studio that remastered the first six Tomb Raider games as well as several Star Wars games.

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North – Legacy Edition is available now for PC, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

At the time of release, it was considered a commercial failure, particularly due to these mixed reviews, which felt that the storyline and combat were a little lacklustre. Launching about a week before The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim didn’t help matters either.

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More Lord of the Rings remasters are on the way

It seems that Aspyr has now set its sights on The Lord of the Rings IP, beginning with War in the North. However, it has also been confirmed that more re-releases based on the franchise are coming in the future.

“The Lord of the Rings: War in the North™ – Legacy Edition is licensed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and is the first The Lord of the Rings title released by Aspyr. Fans can look forward to even more classic releases by Aspyr from the beloved franchise in the future!” reads the press release.

This does put into question which game in the franchise could be up next. There’s a huge library of games that have been released over the past 30 years set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s rich universe, many of which are currently unavailable to purchase on modern platforms.

For starters, if Aspyr was looking to re-release games from around the same era as War in the North, it could mean we get a remaster of The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, which was basically the Middle-earth version of Star Wars: Battlefront.

Re-releases of The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest and The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age could also be on the cards.

However, if you ask us, it should also look a little further back at some of the games released when Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film trilogy was being released.

If you’re old enough to remember The Lord of the Rings being in cinemas, you’d know that Electronic Arts made several hack-and-slash games based on each movie, as well as two real-time strategies called Battle for Middle-earth.

They were definitely very popular in their time, and are still quite a delight to play through today. We’d love to see Aspyr consider these next.