Perfect Lord of the Rings Game

[76561198255982369]

First of all, as a warning....this will be long winded, only read if you care.

To start this off, ill let you know, i am a huge lotr fan, the books, the movies, and the games. Ive read all the books a couple dozen times...even the not so good christopher tolkien books. Ive watched all the movies easily 200 times. Ive played all and enjoyed all but two of the lotr games ever made. Most importantly, however, i am waiting for a fully open world sandbox rpg lord of the rings game. Before i start describing what i want, i will let you know my opinion about all the lotr games that have been released so far that i played. (Note:all games will be given an overall rating out of six stars, 1=hate,2=OK,3=Like,4=Good,5=Great,6=Best Possible)

#1. LOTR-The Fellowship of the Ring=PS2
What i liked: It was a lord of the rings game.

What i didnt like: the graphics,the gameplay,the dialogue, and the over sloppy feeling of the game.

Overall Rating **

#2 LOTR-The Two Towers=PS2
What I liked= Graphics,Gameplay,Weapon Perk System

what i didnt like=hack'n'slash,repetitive, too dark, basically like watching a bad version of the movie.

Overall Rating ***

#3. LOTR-The Return of the King=PS2
What i liked= slightly more diverse gameplay than previous game, slightly better graphics,weapon perk system.

What i didnt like= hack'n'slash,repetitive, too dark, basically like watching a bad version of the movie, and i hated the king of the dead levels.

Overall Rating **

#4. The Hobbit=PS2
What i liked=less linear storyline than previous games,good dialogue, long game, replayable

What i didnt like= bad graphics, buggy, no dragon battle, no customization options at all.

overall Rating ****

#5. LOTR-The Third Age=PS2
What i liked=WEAPON AND ARMOR CUSTOMIZATION

What i didnt like= cheap imitation of original story, turn based combat,linear storyline

Overall Rating ***

#6. LOTR-Battle For Middle Earth I,II, and II RotWC-Windows
What i liked= graphics, great gameplay, macro battles were fun, long campaign, great replay value.

what i didnt like= lack of immersion due to player separation from combat, no tangible gains.

Overall Rating ****

#7 LOTR-Conquest=PS3
What i liked=Graphics, option to be good or bad, first game on new platform, online options

what i didnt like= storyline suffered due to multiplayer options, lack of immersion due to limited single player customization, little to no and lame dialogue.

Overall Rating ***

#8. LOTR-Aragorns Quest=PS3
What i liked=Nothing

What i didnt like=Everything

Overall Rating *

#9. LOTR-War in the North-PS3
What i liked=WEAPON AND ARMOR CUSTOMIZATION, new storyline covering something different, fun levels, good character development good graphics.

What i didnt like= rip off fellowship, linear storyline, lack of immersion, buggy, hack'n'slash, no dlc or dvelopment after release.

Overall Rating ****

#10 LOTR-Online=PC
What i liked= The first 20 minutes i played

What i didnt like= Generic MMO Graphics, Cookie Cutter MMO Characters, Pay to Play aspects, Repetitive mission/objectives, laggy, buggy, overall sloppy design, no clear objective or reward for playing.

Overall Rating *

#11 LOTR- Shadow of Mordor=PS4
What i liked=Great Combat System, Unique unexplored story line and map, interesting dialogue, open map world, limited weapon customization, fun dlc, story driven game.

What i didnt like= Short campaign, no option to build a stronghold...or at least a camp in a cave, missed opportunity to make army out of freed slaves, relatively small map.

Overall Rating *****


NOW...FOR THE IDEAL LOTR GAME DESCRIPTION

What a lot of people seem to overlook when it comes to possible storylines for a new lotr game is time. Many people always complain that there is no possible way to make a good open world sandbox rpg game because the war of the rings story doesnt allow that amount of freedom. To that i say bull****, we are talking about middle earth here, there are a million ways that you could build an important character and have him/her take part in both, conflicts or events that happened in the books/movies, and original stuff. Many people would also argue that the only way to make it work would be to go back in time to before the third age, while this may work, it would lack most of the iconic characters and locations that so many people have fallen in love with.But....putting that thought aside, i have a solution, that is deceptively simple.

SOLUTION=
Make the game start at the destruction of the ring. In Tolkiens history of middle earth it shows that, there are still millions of orcs, goblins,uruks,wargs,trolls, and evil men scattered throughout middle earth. So therefor enemies and conflict would be no problem. there are some vague descriptions of historical events in the epilogue, but no specific recounting of what all happens after sauron falls, so you could make a million different storys/battles/quests without conflicting with any tolkien lore. A game like this could be truley open world making it easy to explore all the places that we love, (like gondor, the shire, rohan, and mirkwood) and all the places that we would love to see more of (moria,erebor,the misty mountains, arnor,or eriador)
GAMEPLAY=
Fully open world, with sandbox features. First start off with a fully customizable character, pick the race,build,hair color/style,facial features,sex,country of origin. secondly, have the option to build a home/castle/fortress(or at least find and rebuild one of the millions of ruined fortresses scattered throughout middle earth). Also give the option to build, and army, or at least a sizeable force to help defend your fortress, and also to hep build, and fight other bad guys. if fall out 4 can make it work, i dont see why it couldnt work here.
STORY LINE=
Make the character be dropped into a battlefield with his brother/sister the battle is an alliance of men of gondor,dwarves of erebor, and elves of mirkwood fighting a new enemy...call him whatever you want, ie.= red fingers the cruel, or dharzog wet willy...etc. who is leading an army made up of fragments of all sorts of baddies, men, orcs, lizards...etc. have a tactical mistake made by the good guys lead to the death of your brother/sister at the hands of the bad guys, after this battle the player can then chose to pursue either good or evil ways....or a mixture of both.

IN CONCLUSION:
Retake moria
rebuild the north
explore the wild
Conquer the Misty Mountains
Destroy Gondor
Slaughter some elves
Build a kingdom
Serve the King
Be Kind
Be Cruel
Be a Hero
Be a Villain
Steal All the horses in Rohan
Kidnap a hobbit
Worship a Dragon
Make alliances
destroy nations

THE CHOICE IS YOURS

[wiktor]

I haven't read this but I would say Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is the best LOTR game, and i would know because i've played a total of one LOTR game.

[000000000000]

I see your point, you'd like a Lord of the Rings game set at the Fourth Age, right? I agree, we don't know (at least I can't remember) what happened (events) after Aragorn was crowned king of Gondor.

[76561198255982369]

Yes, gandalf....i believe the fourth age to be ideal for an open world lotr game. The book gives vague events....aragorn has legolas and gimli have their folk repair minas tirith...aragorn rebuilds the north...the shire is declared a soveriegn nation under the protection of the king....merry eventually goes back to rohan....pippin eventually goes back to gondor....sam is mayor like eight times. What is more important are the things left untold...who defeats the millions of bad guys left over? What happens to moria? Where do the nomadic plainsmen of rohan end up (Ghan buri Ghan)? What about the evil men of the east? Whos going to deal with the goblins of the misty mountains?

[000000000000]

Yeah I believe that would be really interesting to see in a open world game. By "evil men of the east" you mean those haradrim guys right? Mumakil riders etc? I believe they even have an entire culture of themselves we don't know, just like men of the west, elves and dwarves, but this is just a detail of a lot of things we'll never know.
Middle-Earth for what I remember of it's map, is not shown entirely, what would be there? More lands? More people? Creatures? I've never read The Silmarillion (I'll soon), but I believe it talks about Númenor and it's fall? Is Middle-Earth the only continent? I mean, I know about Valinor, but I think you got my point.

[76561198255982369]

The silmarillion covers so much more than just numenor.....it covers the entire history of the world from the creation by the illuvitar to the rise of sauron....i would suggest reading it to any true tolkien fan....And yes, i speak of the haradrim, the point is...there is so much lore left unexplored in tolkiens vast world....it makes it irresponsible for video game makers not to pursue this mission.

[76561198255982369]

Also...as an easy alternative to the game i have already described.....If you really wish to play during the war of the ring, pick a different storyline....Much how "War in the North" focused on a different enemy with similar events going on at the same time...and some interaction with the main characters.....May i suggest the conflict that we know was going on in Dale/Laketown/Erebor/Mirkwood/ and the Beornings' land....we know an impressive conflict was going on because they mention in the books that they are involved in their own war with a lieutenant of sauron,and that is why you dont see army of northern men,dwarves, and woodland elves riding into gondor to save the day. All we know is that between the death of smaug and the fellowship of the ring,thousands of men and dwarves settled in that area and built strong kingdoms...and the woodland realm was already an extremely strong nation with thousands of highly skilled warriors. If all of these people were kept busy during the whole war of the ring, it must have been an impressive war.....and i feel it could make a huge open world rpg.

[WoundedPlayer]

One of the disappointing things, for me personally, is the desire of so many Middle-earth games and mods to turn up the fantasy and drift away from the lore and spirit of Tolkien's world.

It's one of the reasons I helped created The Fourth Age: Total War - The Dominion of Men. Yes, it is turn-based (on the campaign level), but it is set in the Fourth Age and is a very sophisticated and lore-friendly mod.

It would appeal to the more mature Tolkien fan, most likely. You can watch a video review on the web site at http://thefourthage.wikidot.com/

[MNRSLH]

b

[76561198272373561]

Dominion of Men is set after the age of good versus evil. Now each kingdom has more choises of how they will expand or who they will trust. Greed and evil exist in the hearts of all men so trust no one. This is one of the best Total War mods!

[Merlin]

hey, i just found this discussion and I gotta say that i share your dreams of an open world RPG, would be delighted to hear from u guys

[sick duck]

I only played battle for middle earth. it was pretty great because it was such a slow and dumbed down example of the RTS genre which I like because I'm terrible at RTS. I'd say it's half way between starcraft and league for complexity but I am bad at these games and probably off the mark.

[000000000000]

Originally posted by Sneakydeath:

hey, i just found this discussion and I gotta say that i share your dreams of an open world RPG, would be delighted to hear from u guys

Good to see new posts on this thread, can't believe I kinda forgot about it, shame on me...

Originally posted by nobody:

I only played battle for middle earth. it was pretty great because it was such a slow and dumbed down example of the RTS genre which I like because I'm terrible at RTS. I'd say it's half way between starcraft and league for complexity but I am bad at these games and probably off the mark.

Love this game, sadly it's forgotten in the sands of times (at least in my social circle). Have you played the first or the second? Or both?

[Merlin]

Originally posted by Caillou:

Well there will be battles/strongholds/armies to some degree in Shadow of Mordor's sequel, Shadow of War.

yeah, i really am looking forward to SoW but it's still not the perfect rpg-kinda game if u know what I mean^^

[Captain Morgan]

My ideal Lord of the Rings games, are 2 (the two towers) and 3 (return of the king) for... GAME BOY Advance! They are of the Diablo-clone genre, isometric top down hack and slash, lootfest games, with items of different quality/types/stats, fast paced action, level ups, skill trees and stats growing. They are a bit old and their graphics dated, but they cut the deal, especially for old timers who remember the Diablo (and especially the diablo 2) era fondly.

Also, there were some very old games at Snes on Lord of the Rings. 1 with the hobits escaping was very interesting.

The hack and slash action game for pc was also interesting, but it honestly could be better. The older games were the real deal, for me and for the older people.