When thinking about games from the PS3 and Xbox 360 era in dire need of a remaster, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North wasn’t exactly at the top of our list. When Warner Bros. originally launched its licensed action RPG back in 2011, not only was it met with mostly middling reviews from critics, it also had to contend with one of the most influential video games of all-time – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
For the glow-up brigade over at Aspyr to shadow drop an enhanced “Legacy Edition” of War in the North for modern systems seems like such a strange choice. However, upon journeying back to this corner of Middle-earth after so many years, I was surprised to discover just how much I enjoyed playing this massively underrated dungeon crawler.
This is mainly thanks to a number of major overhauls, the most significant being the addition of a character-swap feature. For those who didn’t play the original game, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is a co-op focused RPG that casts players as a human ranger, dwarf warrior, or eleven loremaster, working together to hack and slash through a gauntlet of Sauron’s minions. Each character fills a specific combat role within the party though you can create some overlap depending on which abilities you unlock and how you spend attribute points upon levelling up. In essence, Farin (the dwarf) is a tanky melee fighter who draws the attention of enemy mobs while Eradan (the ranger) excels in stealth and ranged ambushes with Andriel (the elf) on hand to cast support spells.
Being able to seamlessly switch between the three feels like a pretty fundamental feature missing from the original release. Warner Bros. and developer Snowblind Studios were clearly banking on players teaming up online or via local splitscreen without giving a second thought to those solo adventurers. Apsyr’s new Legacy Edition fixes this while also making co-op more accessible, through the introduction of online crossplay and enabling local co-op on PC for the first time.
It really is a shame that War in the North got completely eclipsed by Skyrim. While the latter is unquestionably more ambitious and influential, Snowblind Studios had made a genuine effort to modernise the simple yet addictive dungeon crawler formula it had been honing for years – they previously developed Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance as well as Champions of Norrath and its sequel, Return to Arms. Plenty of that DNA is still here with plenty of hacking, slashing, and sifting through hoards of loot, though they switched from a top-down perspective to a more cinematic third person camera. If memory serves, War in the North was also one of the first RPGs to fuse button-bashing melee with shooter-style gameplay, allowing you to switch between close and long range attacks similar to most modern games like God of War, Spider-Man, or Horizon.
That’s not to say the combat is super deep or diverse. Each level meanders in different ways though they all follow a similar blueprint: leading the party from one scenic vista to the next while occasionally pulling levers to spawn enemy mobs that come in various configurations. As you progress, characters learn a slew of active and passive skills that help mix things up though, for the most part, you’ll be chaining light attacks, blocks, and dodges, waiting for yellow icons to appear above enemies’ heads to signal they’re ripe for a finisher.
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North isn’t a cakewalk, occasionally presenting chokepoints that are teeming with tougher foes that can quickly wipe out your whole squad in a matter of seconds. The game rewards the careful timing of powers as well as knowing when to conserve ammunition and mana. It also rewards players who love to optimise their gear, whether combining particular armour sets or smartly slotting the correct gem in the perfect item slot. This is made easier thanks to the Legacy Edition’s improved menus.
It may be a remaster with 4K visuals and a boosted framerate, but there’s still something very 2011 about the way this game looks with a mostly brown and grey colour palette. While set in the same universe as Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, it’s more frequent in its use of gore with plenty of blood splatters and chopped limbs during combat scenarios. It also features a whole host of familiar characters and while War in the North’s cast of voice actors aren’t able to perfectly emulate their on-screen counterparts, this isn’t something that bothers me as much all these years later. In case you needed another reminder that this game came out in 2011, Nolan North lends his unmistaken vocals to one of the main characters.
Overall, I’m surprised by just how much I’ve enjoyed my time with Legacy Edition – no doubt fuelled by an unearthed nostalgia for old-school hack n’ slash dungeon crawlers. There’s also a nostalgia there for the films and while War in the North isn’t canon, it folds in plenty of lore plucked from elsewhere in Tolkien’s Middle-earth. I had absolutely no plans to ever replay this game yet, thanks to Aspyr’s smart retooling and refining, I now can’t see myself putting it down before I see the credits roll.
