Forgotten Lord Of The Rings video game looks like it’s making a comeback
Fans have found evidence of a potential remaster for an obscure Lord Of The Rings game, which originally debuted on the Xbox 360.
The Lord Of The Rings was once a prolific source of decent video games, from the hack ‘n’ slash movie tie-ins of the early 2000s to 2014’s Shadow Of Mordor.
There are other entries beyond that, ranging from strategy titles like 2006’s The Battle Of Middle-earth 2 to turn-based role-players like The Third Age, but over recent years games based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy have become less common or, when they do crop up, they’re terrible, like 2023’s The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum.
However, it seems there might be plans to bring back a Lord Of The Rings game from yesteryear, but it isn’t the one you’re perhaps hoping for.
As found by Reddit user JudgmentKazz, the Steam metadata for 2011’s The Lord Of The Rings: War In The North has had its name changed to ‘Slinky’. It’s unclear why this has happened, but it’s speculated that it could be a codename for a new project.
Additionally, if you look under the ‘Cloud saves’ tab on SteamDB, you can find a folder which contains the name ‘Aspyr’. This is a developer known for remasters, who recently worked on the Legacy Of Kain collection and Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered.
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The Lord Of The Rings: War In The North was originally developed by Snowblind Studios (makers of Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, who were laterl merged with Shadow Of Mordor developer Monolith Soft) for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and Aspyr has never previously been associated with the game.
If this is true, War In The North is an odd choice for a remaster. It’s an action game where you could choose between three playable characters, namely a Ranger, a Dwarf, and an Elf, but none of them were recognisable characters from Peter Jackson’s movies. The biggest selling point was the ability for three players to team up online.
That might be precisely why it’s being remastered, since there are no licensing issues over using the likenesses of the movie actors. Additionally, this was one of the first Lord Of The Rings game developed under Warner Bros. Games, who acquired the rights to make games based on the movies and books from Electronic Arts and Vivendi, respectively, in 2009.
Even if it’s a problem with licensing, War In The North is still an odd choice for the remaster treatment. At the time, the game faced a mixed reception and was a commercial failure, so we’re not sure many people have fond memories of its existence.
If developer Aspyr is behind it, don’t expect a significant overhaul in its graphics or stability. The studio doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to online support either, as seen previously with the buggy launch of Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection.
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