The latest game to employ the shadowdropping strategy is The Lord of the Rings: War in the North – Legacy Edition, a reissue of the 2011 release of the same name. Cards on the table: I was a big fan of this game when it first came out, and though it definitely had its issues, there was a really solid original title that deserved every ounce of praise it got.
Shadow-dropping games have seemingly become all the rage over the last few years, and it’s easy to see why it’s such an appealing option for developers and publishers right now. Fans and players have no time to scrutinize pre-launch materials, whether that’s trailers or screenshots, and the element of surprise usually generates excitement and hype.
Not A Full Remake Or Remaster, But Fun Nonetheless
In this current age where remakes and remasters are more common than ever, it’s important to explain what the Legacy Edition is in that context. There are absolutely some visual and textural improvements, but they haven’t been remade from the ground-up, so don’t expect something of the same ilk as the recent Campaign Evolved.
Instead, this feels much more like a major update for the existing title, where the emphasis has been on the addition of quality-of-life features, rather than overhauling the experience entirely. While playing, you’ll notice that the displays for all of your bars are there, offering considerably more information about your party’s current status than the original did.
At the same time, you can now lock on to different enemies more easily, and controlling the camera to remain competitive in a fight is a lot easier as a result. The UI has also been refined in the menus, making upgrading your party, changing gear, and picking skills a lot easier overall.
There’s no doubt, though, that the biggest change this time around is the ability to switch between all three members of your party, rather than locking into one at the start of the game. This is a huge breath of fresh air, and it opens up your gameplay to a more tactical approach, where you can take the lead with different characters to really dominate the different enemies you might face.
There is a slight delay as you switch between two of your party, but not to the point where it feels like it isn’t worth doing when in the thick of a fight. At the same time, it also adds a bunch of much-needed variety to the gameplay experience, because playing one style for the entirety of the game can get a little samey when you’re facing your 900th Orc horde.
If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It
The area that remains entirely unchanged in the Legacy Edition is the story, and I’m honestly quite glad about that. While a few additions would have been nice, the narrative is probably the best part of the original release, and there’s little reason to take a hatchet to that when you’re re-releasing a game that many people remember fondly.
If you aren’t familiar with Tolkien’s writings, there was essentially a struggle of equal magnitude happening between Sauron and the forces of good in the North of Middle-earth. It’s into that fray that your party steps, and preventing the Dark Lord from encroaching any further is critical to the quest that we’re much more familar with.
The story starts at the familiar Prancing Pony, where a meeting between Aragorn and your party of a Ranger, Dwarf, and Elf (see the reference?) discuss their best course of action. Recognizable locations and characters come into the story on occasion, serving as nice touchstones for fans as they progress.
Your overall goal is to stop one of Sauron’s top lieutenants, a Black Númenórean named Agandaûr, from taking over the North of the continent. It’s a simple enough premise, but Tolkien’s world is so rich that the original nature of the game’s narrative actually doesn’t feel alien at all.
For Frodo
If you did play the original game, then you should find the minute-to-minute combat quite familiar, but it is noticeably better in this latest edition. As mentioned earlier, targeting is considerably better, and it only really becomes difficult to navigate combat when there are swarms of enemies (which actually makes sense from a realism perspective).
Each character has a melee and ranged option, and these largely feel similar to play, though you will notice minor differences in how they handle. At the same time, it’s probably advisable to spend most of your time on one character initially, as it’s easier to learn the game with one approach.
This is particularly true as you unlock further skills and abilities which require slightly more complicated combination button inputs. It’s perfectly fine remembering how everything works on one character, but if you’re giving them all equal time, it can be easy to forget who does what until you’ve spent a lot of hours in the game.
Exploration comes with loading zones, and you’ll essentially find yourself progressing through different areas, where all the action happens, before the game takes you to the next place. The linear nature of the game is perfectly fine in one sense, but it does occasionally feel restrictive to the point that it’s limiting the magic of Tolkien’s world.
One Game To Rule Them All?
In case you missed the news, when confirming the release of this game, Aspyr Media said they are far from done with The Lord of the Rings as a franchise, likely meaningother old games could be on the way back. There are obviously plenty of brilliant targets for that treatment, but it would be nice to see them take those further than they have here.
This is particularly true of the visuals, which still look somewhat dated, but it would also be nice to have more tangible gameplay improvements, beyond the bug fixes and quality-of-life changes we got here.
If you are already a fan of the franchise, then The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is a brilliant option if you’re looking for something to play for the next couple of weeks. Outside of that, it’s still an extremely solid action RPG that holds up well overall, even if it is a little rough around the edges.
