As much as I love and have such nostalgia for LOTRO, Return of the King as #1 cannot be denied. Not only was the gameplay solid and the action exciting, but there were some great unlockables from the extra characters to all the DVD Extras extras. A fantastic supplement if you didn't get Extended Edition boxsets
I rented The Lord of the Rings game for SNES not knowing anything about the books and then my mother explained to me all about it and the Hobbit. And it's not even on this list 😢
2:26 - Aragorn's Quest 4:26 - Shadows of Mordor 6:30 - Riders of Rohan 8:21 - Fellowship of the ring: A software adventure 10:15 - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 13:55 - The Lord of the Rings: Conquest 15:40 - Lego The Lord of the Rings 17:19 - Aragorn's Quest (2010) 19:10 - Lord of the Rings Vol 2: The Two Towers 21:38 - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2002) 23:31 - Lord of the Rings Vol 1 25:47 - The Crack of Doom 28:05 - The Lord of the Rings: Conquest (2009) 30:22 - The Lord of the Rings: Tactics 32:34 - The Lord of the Rings: War in the North 34:45 - Guardians of Middle-Earth 36:48 - The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age 38:43 - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)(GBA) 40:27 - The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Ring 42:08 - The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game 43:47 - The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (2004) 45:26 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (GBA) 46:59 - Lego The Lord of the Rings (2012) 49:05 - The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth 51:05 - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 52:57 - The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth 2 54:55 - The Lord of the Rings: Online 57:03 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Save your bandwidth.
@Someone-lg6di it's set in between the hobbit and lotr so it doesn't count, technically you could say that shadow of war could be included as the end of the game is set during lotr
It needed a bit more polish I think, that and the freeplay modes needed more fleshing out, biggest complaint though is that it felt like it had one voice actor do all the voices, which made it feel like you were watching a grown man sat with action figures shaking them around as he said the lines. Enjoyed the game, but it needed more. Though if you mean the handheld, that was solid.
I loved this game too i accidentally bought battle for middle earth (2 i think in 2008/2009) i was mega disappointed but that wasnt my kind of game at all, but when conquest came out i loved it, yes it was clunky, yes it was a bit annoying play in the classic rpg classes of unknown characters like the random scouts or mages that spawned into large scale battles but for all the annoying moments i had in this game, i thoroughly enjoyed walking through the shire as a big ass sauron destroying hobbits, oh and those precious moments where you got to play as a member or the fellowship, this is up near the top of the list for me, Lord of the rings return of the king is in my top 3/4 it was going to be 1 until i remember the shadow of mordor and shadow of war games that i really liked
I absolutely agree, I had so much fun with that game. I feel like its placement on this list was a little unfair. He gave other games credit for being able to enjoy being part of the key battles from the movies, and I think Conquest did that very well, for me at least.
@@thegreatape884 I agree with the notion that the story was lacking, the voices were a bit dry, and overall the characters and dialogue didn't make me connect with any of them (except for Beleram, love that eagle) but I really liked playing it co-op and it was a pretty nice experience nonetheless. Of course a lot of people see it through the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia but I still like the game, even after playing it as recently as a couple months ago. I feel like there's potential for the concept, but it didn't quite reach that potential. Hence why a lot of people who played it wish there was a remake.
Ah man, I loved the Third Age. I had forgotten about that game, and now you got me wanting to play it again. Felt like Final Fantasy X with a LOTR skin.
BFME should get a bit more credit here I feel! Seeing a group of units turn around and face a hero and start cheering when they approach them felt extremely new and fresh at the time, and almost revolutionary for me in the RTS genre!
The Lord of the Rings Online is the best recreation of Middle Earth to date. A huge map which has been expanding since 2007 and still receiving updates. Yes, the graphics are dated compared to current triple A games, but the landscapes still look good, and if your idea is to explore the world of Middle Earth, this is your best bet.
And all of that for free, even the paid expansions can be bought with currency that you can earn in-game. In todays era of full price games that almost require you to buy extra stuff, Lotro's free-to-play system is truly remarkable, the best in the industry in my opinion
I'd play lotro nonstop if it weren't for occasional lag spikes that make it unplayable at times. I rlly wish they could get that mess cleaned up one of these days. It pushes me away every time.
Because of work, I log now and then, trying to advance from time to time. I have played since 2016 and so far, my dwarf reached Rohan and level 100 recently. And it truly is the best recreation of Middle Earth. I love the details and caring developers put into the game, the beauty of landscapes, the way they respect lore while introducing and creating quests and enemies, and the overall feeling of how huge Middle Earth is. So far, there's no place in-game I found to feel non belonging to Tolkien's myth. Sure it has it's defects and shortcomings, but the overall recreation of ME compensates them by a large margin for me
@@fredbcks It truly feels the perfect balance between developers and players. I started buying almost all content just by doing deeds. But when I payed for some of the last expansions, I never felt robbed or cheated.
Sadly the transatlantic ping wasn't considered when turbine added mounted combat so while it was a thing that worked sometimes often it became a laggy mess of rubberbanding, usually when one of the higher level mounted targets and other players lurched into proximity and the connection could keep up with the various bodies moving at speed.
War in the North will be stuck in my mind forever since it was the first game where you could cut off heads, legs and arms! Plus the RPG factor was maybe simple but still very fun to gear your characters. My dwarf turned into just having axe to full war battle armour with a huge axe! It was badass!
So this one is basically impossible to find right? BFME 2 and expansion legitimately? I've got a 360 but I currently only have a steam deck for a computer.
@@jfox24 to get them on disc you have to fork out a LOT of money - that's why most people download from GameRanger (or used to). That way you can also play them online as EA closed the servers a long time ago. I was lucky enough to have bought them both on disc as they were released in the shops.
@@jfox24 Uggh! We had 8 legal copies of it back in the day (there was a big group of friends that we got to play and pitch in for copies, had extra computers that could barely run it lol) but we lost almost all of the boxes with the codes. Was a huge bummer.
Honestly I love the frustration from the games controls, it had me trying new methods for attack, the attack chains aren't as difficult as most say, and the whole button mashing gives my dad, who is not as good at games as I, a chance at actually fighting the enemy, in fact I'd go as far as to say it was revolutionary, at least for the lord of the rings, where else do you get to play as the balrog and destroy the shire, play as Sauron and slaughter the elves of Rivendell or the hobbits again, and even on the heros side has you getting to control more than the fellowship, such as Elrond, Eowyn, and even Treebeard, which is awesome being able to get revenge on Saruman and Grima, also war in the north hits the same spot in my brain, it's clunky yet simple controls and the story just gives me a chuckle, three people, containing a dwarf, human, and elf, are capable of breaking down entire armies, bring down nazgul, trick a dragon, and do it without needing any help outside of Elladan and Elrohir, and that help is sparse. I like them.
Battle for Middle Earth 2 'Rise of the Witch King' is a slept-on competitive RTS MASTERPIECE!!!!!!! And because of this, it's the greatest Middle Earth videogame of all-time
The third age for ps2 will always be my favorite lotr game. I remember playing it long into the nights, grinding xp to get new moves for my characters:)
I remember playing Two Towers and Return of the King on my GameCube as a teen (the games made, funnily enough by EA, also for PS2), and they were pretty great hack and slash games. Probably the best LOTR games before Shadow of Mordor came out.
I have such good memories playing those games. I went back to play a year ago or so, the games did not age that well unfortuneately. I would love to see a remake or modern LOTR games in that style.
ROTK's combat feels SO good. It's really a shame that we don't see a lot of this type of combat and sound design anymore. Everything has to be soulslike these days.
I have to say Gollum is truly one of the games of all time. The story was, the characters were, the gameplay was, the level design was, the progression system was, and the graphics were
The War in the North was a game I played with my brothers and for some reason is beyond memorable to me, getting to play unique characters that werent in the movies was something really exciting to me. And the fact that it was multiplayer is always a plus for me, playing with them two was very fun and chaotic and I think thats where most if not all of those memories come from, not necessarily the game lol Regardless, we found it fun! we still talk about it sparsely these many years after playing it
Oddly enough, War in the North has been stuck in my head for over 10 years now. At the time it was crazy to be severing limbs so graphically, paired with fun rpg elements, and diversity in gameplay. Been wanting to play it again for a long time!
@@majorgear1021 indeed!!! i dont geth people saying that it sucks, when its the best lotr game ever made after the classic two towers and return of the king and bfme2 ofcourse
Agreed I loved War in the North as well and look back on it and think about it and the good times I had playing it. I played through it multiple times myself and with a cousin. I loved The Return of the King on GBA and on Xbox, The Third Age on Xbox, and BFME2 on 360. I had countless hours into The Return of the King on GBA and The Third Age on Xbox.
@@ItsShockwave the third age is the shit. I mean how many lotr games let you fight the Balrog alongside gandalf? Or for that matter LET YOU PLAY AS THE BALROG. Honestly evil mode was such a fun idea. Even if some of the fights are really mean lol.
I can't believe that right after a few mentions of Boromir's death, they didn't mention he doesn't die in Battle for Middle Earth, instead travelling up to Edoras with the group and then to Minas Tirith with Gandalf and Pippin, and fights in the final battle as well. (Well he can die permanently, but it's actually harder than him not dying)
in the good campaign he survives amon hen canonically and makes it to the black gate, in the evil campaign boromir, merry and pippin die at amon hen by lurtz and his group
Fellowship, Two Towers, Return of the King, and Third Age on the PS2 were all exceptional. I played the shit out of each of those games. Fellowship was most definitely the most difficult, thought Two Towers was the most forgettable (yet I still remember certain levels with great detail). This video really makes me want to whip out my PS2 and give them all another gander for the first time in over a decade (though I probably played Return of the King at least once in the past several years).
Also, I don't think they mentioned the multiplayer aspect of RotK... That was what really put it over the top. I have so many memories of screaming at my sister to hurry up as the Paths of the Dead collapsed. Or choosing to play as Pippin instead and making her play as Sam in Ungol.
if you can look past the monetization models and store button, lotro is simply fantastic. especially now with the landscape difficulty options - to date one of my favorite games ever made
lotro has always been a wonderful janky ride, but one I have loved since 2007 . One of the best gaming investments I ever made was paying for VIP status for (if memory serves) £77, before it all went FTP. Just means across all these years I pay no more money, but get the full account experience, and all the lovely monthly points to spend on random crap in the store! It really is a fantastic representation of book Middle Earth as well (with the necessary extra bits thrown in to pad) I also love that after 16 years I still only have 1 character, and she isn't even at the current level limit! You know what, as an avid LotR gamer, I agree fully with you and I think I might put lotro as my number 1!
Battle for middle earth with the elven alliance mod was amazing. How they amped up the campaign to have a genuinely overwhelming Helms Deep defence in the campaign was just class.
I loved third age,loved seeing the aftermath of the fellowship's journey, the only thing that let it down was the final battle,definitely jumped the middle earth shark equivalent
@randomedits878 They even used the line from Aragorn of marching on the Black Gate so the way they ended it was unexpected to say the least. Otherwise I enjoyed the story for the most part, love the turn based gameplay(especially being a big fan of Final Fantasy X) and I like the uniqueness of each character gameplay wise. The inclusion of the legacy characters as guest members was also a nice touch.
@TheGman4747 yeah it was definitely a sharp turn,I loved the story too,and loved how things you'd equip would actually show on the characters as well,it was a really fun game,and very immersing overall
My favourite LoTR games are the BFME series (1,2 and ROTWK), Third Age and The Two Towers and Return of The King. I had forgotten about LoTR Conquest, which I am surprised as I loved that game, spent I don't know how many hours in it
The Return Of The King on PS2 is a game that my father bought for me when I was a kid. He used to play ahead to be able to guide me, on the ps2, we didn’t know or have money to buy a memory card, so we always had to keep the game on, not to lose the save, many years later i was able to unlock all character, upgrade everything and beat the game, it was and still is the best game I ever played. The level with the undead king, the spider boss fight, the siege levels, everything was amazing and it brings back a lot of memories.
@@HAFBeast91 True, but every time the power went off, I had to start the game from scratch. In my early years at school I got myself a card and progressed to the Mythril weapons and started to get good scores on the missions
I LOVED The Third Age as a kid, being equally obsessed with Final Fantasy and Lotr. Also loved the two towers and rotk games, rotk was also great because it had multiplayer!
LotRO was very special when it came: music, environment, quests and Turbine's take on classes were stellar. It also encouraged roleplay and exploration and each race had a very unique starting experience. The party combo system was really solid as well. I still remember how fucking tense it was to try and sneak into Angmar... I only played up to the Mirkwood expansion so I at first thought the character creation screen was wrong: High Elves and Beorningas, but I adding races and classes is a staple for expansions (although adding High Elves is a mite ods, because I remember at the time of release there was much debate about it and the summary was this: it'd be impossible to balance the Noldor with other races - and lorewise, there are Noldor mingled with the Elves of Lórien and Rivendell already). The Warden and Rune-keeper caused the stir then they came afterall.
You had forgot about The Lord of The Rings Conquest main unbalanced class is actually the scout's backstab is actually an instant kill to all combat NPCs (except for some creatures). So, the most powerful heros and villians can easily be backstabbed and die much quicker than you had originally thought. Did that against Sauron, and the animation is quite interesting.
Lotr war in the north is still to this day one of my favorite games of all time even though I haven’t played it in half a decade. It’s a real shame that it’s not possible to play it on any new gen console.
I got a good laugh out of the Balrog from War in Middle Earth being pointed out. That thing was bad and at the time my cousin referred to it as the flaming gummi bear.
25:29 I had that game and, OMG, what a pain to play. It was mainly a dungeon crawler that allowed you to be above ground only once in awhile, but one of the most difficult things was getting the other hobbits to follow you (Frodo). You were supposed to be able to double tap the direction button to get them to follow you but if enemies were near they sometimes didn't listen and you wound up running in their direction listening to them getting hit hoping you could get there before they died. But the worst part was the save code which was several lines (6 or more I think) of letters in some random order. You had to write all of this code down to get back to where you left off playing last. Woe be to the player who wrote even one letter wrong because you were totally Fubared at that point and would have to go back to an earlier save. The artwork was nice though.
34:30 war in the north was one my fav games all time idk why but used to come home from school and play it everyday over and over one of the most memorable games for me
I remember when The Return of the King came out, I was young enough to only get one or two games a year. I played that game so much, I ended up completing the co-op version of the game on the hardest difficulty alone, controlling two controllers at the same time.
my votes and memories are with Two Towers and Return of the King, great games, I feel like those paved the way for games like Shadow of Mordor, etc... had that Arkham style combat, great stuff.
Great list as always. Now I'm wondering how many games exist, that take place in a period outside of the events of the LotR trilogy. Any chance for a list here?
The Lotr game I spent the most time with was "the two towers" and "return of the king" for GBA. Was just a Diablo clone but perfect for coop play with friends and made very fun to collect the artifacts and rare items, also levelling and getting stronger was really rewarding.
Lotro was/is such a great MMO i startet back 2008, it was "My Vanilla WoW" my jump in the MMO Genre, the world was great, i like the roll system (Tank, Healer, Support, DPS) it just aged porly but i still play today sometimes to relax and chill out
BFME 2 has some of my fondest memories, One of the better rts games i've played, playing with friends, defending helms deep or any other of the fortresses from their onslaught, only outdone by the Third Age Total War mod. By Far my favorite. The Two Towers was also really good and memorable. Something i find a bit strange though, I honestly don't remember Return of the King all that well, but its one of those games i'm sure i've played.
I remember playing an absurd amount of War of the Ring and The Third Age when I was younger. I wish they would release them on steam or some other digital platform. Hard to find copies of them anymore and if you do they're usually massively overpriced
Maybe it's just me but I LOVED the GBA Two Towers, Return of the King and The Third Age games. Partially because I only had a GBA but they also just had their own charm to them. I'm a sucker for games like that. Getting weapons and trinkets were just so cool to come across given they were random and all.
I would recommend the third age and MOS mod for Medieval 2 total war. THe best, most immersive RTS experience I've ever had in LOTR. It has some rough edges but it's so good.
The Two Towers was one of my favorite games on PS2. That was one of the games I had to get when it came out because it was just that good. So underrated. 🙅♂️🙅♂️🙅♂️
Hell yeah! We had that for GameCube and Ioved it. The Return of The King was pretty fun too, but some of the audio got a little rough. At The Black Gate, Gandalf sounds like he’s shouting from a locker room
(@ War in the North) "Would players remember their experience with it for years to come? Absolutely not"... hard disagree there. I remember playing this game with a mate multiple times when we were teenagers. Was a great hack and slash. I can see it being medicore or even subpar as a solo game, but it was brilliant, simple fun as a co-op game.
Solid list but I will reject this list. Lord of the Rings Conquest is fantastic even today. It held up in ways many titles didn't and deserved a place in the top 5.
Good take on the games, thanks for the video. I still remember The Hobbit on my Spectrum with affection. However, you didn't mention the very best apect of LOTRO, the story telling. I've played it since 2007 and still do every day. The story telling is epic. A recent expansion tells the story of the Elven rings way better than the Rings of Power, but then that wouldn't be difficult. By the way, "ringers" is a term I 've never heard before and never want to hear again :D
I don't know many others opinions on conquest but it might be one of my favorite games of all time. I do admit I have loads of nostalgia for it and haven't played it in many years. This game is what brought me and my brother together. I hardly ever talked to my brother or even interacted with him but when this game came out we couldn't stop playing it. I'm talking hundreds of hours of couch co-op / pvp. We would act out battles from the movie or make up our own fights. This game was my childhood and I have nothing but respect for it.
Missing the Battle for Middle Earth 2: Rise of the Witch King Expansion on this list. And the amazing mods that have come from the game make it even better.
I quite liked both Interplay games and was sad, when they scrapped the third. You could play by the book literally. You could navigate around Moria page by page. But there were many other possibilities. The music was very good, especially on the CD version. And the CD version used cutscenes from the Ralph Bakshi cartoon.
I know it was not the original design for the game, but I would just like to mention Third Age Total War as a potential honorable mention here. It is a full conversion mod for Medieval 2 Total War Kingdoms and is, in my opinion, the best Lord of the Rings strategy game ever made.
The lord of the rings mmo is the total immersion that any LOTR fan has ever wanted. Want to get back into playing this. Best part of the ledgendary weapons is you can give them names as well. The character creation is very detailed and it will even help you build authentic Middel Earth names giving prefixes and suffixes with meanings for the various races. U can also look for more online. It is really almost pay to play but if you do all the side "deeds" it will give you turbine coins as well as help u buff ur character. Once I stated clearing "deeds" like grinding slayer deeds my character was alot better for it. Mines of Moria is a long. I probably didnt complete everything plus I think there is some stuff open and then u can buy the expansion. I made like 3 to 5 characters 1 my main, made it through to the other side and my 2 others are in there now or was when I stopped playing or at least in Ergion.
What's your favourite The Lord Of The Rings game, fellow Ringers? Should we rank EVERY Tolkien-adjacent video game in a future video? 🥬⚔🏹
I mean… It’s only fair. You’d have my support. And my sword.
Haven't played any yet, but there are a few I'm wanting to try out. I'd also love to see a list of Medal of Honor games ranked worst to best.
As much as I love and have such nostalgia for LOTRO, Return of the King as #1 cannot be denied. Not only was the gameplay solid and the action exciting, but there were some great unlockables from the extra characters to all the DVD Extras extras. A fantastic supplement if you didn't get Extended Edition boxsets
Yes, "i'd buy That for a dollar."
Not really, but i would certainly watch it for free on UA-cam and let some adds run.
😄👍
I rented The Lord of the Rings game for SNES not knowing anything about the books and then my mother explained to me all about it and the Hobbit. And it's not even on this list 😢
2:26 - Aragorn's Quest
4:26 - Shadows of Mordor
6:30 - Riders of Rohan
8:21 - Fellowship of the ring: A software adventure
10:15 - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
13:55 - The Lord of the Rings: Conquest
15:40 - Lego The Lord of the Rings
17:19 - Aragorn's Quest (2010)
19:10 - Lord of the Rings Vol 2: The Two Towers
21:38 - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2002)
23:31 - Lord of the Rings Vol 1
25:47 - The Crack of Doom
28:05 - The Lord of the Rings: Conquest (2009)
30:22 - The Lord of the Rings: Tactics
32:34 - The Lord of the Rings: War in the North
34:45 - Guardians of Middle-Earth
36:48 - The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age
38:43 - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)(GBA)
40:27 - The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Ring
42:08 - The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game
43:47 - The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (2004)
45:26 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (GBA)
46:59 - Lego The Lord of the Rings (2012)
49:05 - The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth
51:05 - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
52:57 - The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth 2
54:55 - The Lord of the Rings: Online
57:03 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Save your bandwidth.
Why was shadow of war and mordor no included
@Someone-lg6di it's set in between the hobbit and lotr so it doesn't count, technically you could say that shadow of war could be included as the end of the game is set during lotr
I was only here to see how LOTRO did, so I really appreciate you, lol
You're a good person! thank you! This youtuber is obviously too lazy to do the timestamp thing on the timebar(?) so thanks again!
Thanks for doing what the creator was too lazy to do
Battle for Middle Earth has to be even higher, it's legitimately one of the best LOTR games
Battle for Middle Earth is my favorite game of all time. And I have been around since the beginning of Nintendo.
Absolutely!
Absolutely agree. I play it to this day.
I'm not mad to its score though. it is pretty high in the list and personaly I enjoyed it way more than BFME 2
It's indeed one of the best lotr games.
With age of the ring and edain mod!!!!!
Lord of the Rings Conquest was one of my favorite games.
It was extremely simple, but it was one you could play at home with your buddies.
so boring tho, different views, but same thing to do over and over again.
It needed a bit more polish I think, that and the freeplay modes needed more fleshing out, biggest complaint though is that it felt like it had one voice actor do all the voices, which made it feel like you were watching a grown man sat with action figures shaking them around as he said the lines. Enjoyed the game, but it needed more. Though if you mean the handheld, that was solid.
Have you heard of the fan remake? It was called conquest reimagined but I think they’ve renamed it to ‘shadows of the past’
This game was awesome and so much fun! Only reason it’s so lowly rated here is probably due to the guy having not played it 😢
I loved this game too i accidentally bought battle for middle earth (2 i think in 2008/2009) i was mega disappointed but that wasnt my kind of game at all, but when conquest came out i loved it, yes it was clunky, yes it was a bit annoying play in the classic rpg classes of unknown characters like the random scouts or mages that spawned into large scale battles but for all the annoying moments i had in this game, i thoroughly enjoyed walking through the shire as a big ass sauron destroying hobbits, oh and those precious moments where you got to play as a member or the fellowship, this is up near the top of the list for me, Lord of the rings return of the king is in my top 3/4 it was going to be 1 until i remember the shadow of mordor and shadow of war games that i really liked
I loved Conquest despite its flaws.
Yeah same it was peak
Battlefront middle earth? It was awesome.
I absolutely agree, I had so much fun with that game. I feel like its placement on this list was a little unfair. He gave other games credit for being able to enjoy being part of the key battles from the movies, and I think Conquest did that very well, for me at least.
It was funny because all the complaints I heard were also true about SWBF2
agreed, me and my mate played the co op to death aswell as battling each other as good vs evil. highliy underated imo
I love War in the North. Super underrated game.
Yes! Great game and interesting different perspective. Though the villain is a bit lacking as a consequence
Based
@@thegreatape884I think they were talking about War in the North, not the Shadow games.
@@thegreatape884 I agree with the notion that the story was lacking, the voices were a bit dry, and overall the characters and dialogue didn't make me connect with any of them (except for Beleram, love that eagle) but I really liked playing it co-op and it was a pretty nice experience nonetheless. Of course a lot of people see it through the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia but I still like the game, even after playing it as recently as a couple months ago.
I feel like there's potential for the concept, but it didn't quite reach that potential. Hence why a lot of people who played it wish there was a remake.
@@thegreatape884 Eh, critics don't really know what they're talking about. For proof, Shadow of Mordor was well received.
how dare you put conquest so low 😢
I opened this video just to find out where this one game placed 😓
Ah man, I loved the Third Age. I had forgotten about that game, and now you got me wanting to play it again. Felt like Final Fantasy X with a LOTR skin.
I still pull out my PS2 for the third age prolly every few years and a couple other gems like dq8, xenosaga. Such a fun play
@@dustinvanwinkle5078 DQ8 is so good mate
As I understand it, there were some in the development team for Third Age who has previously worked at Square and were a part of development on FFX.
@@dustinvanwinkle5078DQ8 is great and Xenosaga series as a whole is probably my all time favorite, next to Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Complete.
I played through this with my mate coop when I was a kid and I remember it being so hard back then.
BFME should get a bit more credit here I feel! Seeing a group of units turn around and face a hero and start cheering when they approach them felt extremely new and fresh at the time, and almost revolutionary for me in the RTS genre!
The Lord of the Rings Online is the best recreation of Middle Earth to date. A huge map which has been expanding since 2007 and still receiving updates. Yes, the graphics are dated compared to current triple A games, but the landscapes still look good, and if your idea is to explore the world of Middle Earth, this is your best bet.
And all of that for free, even the paid expansions can be bought with currency that you can earn in-game. In todays era of full price games that almost require you to buy extra stuff, Lotro's free-to-play system is truly remarkable, the best in the industry in my opinion
I'd play lotro nonstop if it weren't for occasional lag spikes that make it unplayable at times. I rlly wish they could get that mess cleaned up one of these days. It pushes me away every time.
Because of work, I log now and then, trying to advance from time to time. I have played since 2016 and so far, my dwarf reached Rohan and level 100 recently. And it truly is the best recreation of Middle Earth. I love the details and caring developers put into the game, the beauty of landscapes, the way they respect lore while introducing and creating quests and enemies, and the overall feeling of how huge Middle Earth is. So far, there's no place in-game I found to feel non belonging to Tolkien's myth. Sure it has it's defects and shortcomings, but the overall recreation of ME compensates them by a large margin for me
@@fredbcks It truly feels the perfect balance between developers and players. I started buying almost all content just by doing deeds. But when I payed for some of the last expansions, I never felt robbed or cheated.
Sadly the transatlantic ping wasn't considered when turbine added mounted combat so while it was a thing that worked sometimes often it became a laggy mess of rubberbanding, usually when one of the higher level mounted targets and other players lurched into proximity and the connection could keep up with the various bodies moving at speed.
War in the North will be stuck in my mind forever since it was the first game where you could cut off heads, legs and arms! Plus the RPG factor was maybe simple but still very fun to gear your characters. My dwarf turned into just having axe to full war battle armour with a huge axe! It was badass!
War in the North was excellent.
BFME 2 also had the excellent Rise of the Witch-King expansion, which takes it to No.1 in my opinion. Absolutely unreal game.
Definitely. I didn't like bfme2 at first... And then it's expansion fixed so many issues
It's so good.
So this one is basically impossible to find right? BFME 2 and expansion legitimately? I've got a 360 but I currently only have a steam deck for a computer.
@@jfox24 to get them on disc you have to fork out a LOT of money - that's why most people download from GameRanger (or used to). That way you can also play them online as EA closed the servers a long time ago. I was lucky enough to have bought them both on disc as they were released in the shops.
@@jfox24 Uggh! We had 8 legal copies of it back in the day (there was a big group of friends that we got to play and pitch in for copies, had extra computers that could barely run it lol) but we lost almost all of the boxes with the codes. Was a huge bummer.
This LOTR Conquest slander is unreal. Conquest was an unbelievably fun game. Super unique as well. Deserves to be much much higher
This video is honestly really bad. MS-DOS games being put over it, the 2002 Fellowship game ranking higher, and Aragorn's Quest
I... Would rate it lower. It wasn't even fun
Absolutely yes. Also this list is trash for saying war in the north is great too
Honestly I love the frustration from the games controls, it had me trying new methods for attack, the attack chains aren't as difficult as most say, and the whole button mashing gives my dad, who is not as good at games as I, a chance at actually fighting the enemy, in fact I'd go as far as to say it was revolutionary, at least for the lord of the rings, where else do you get to play as the balrog and destroy the shire, play as Sauron and slaughter the elves of Rivendell or the hobbits again, and even on the heros side has you getting to control more than the fellowship, such as Elrond, Eowyn, and even Treebeard, which is awesome being able to get revenge on Saruman and Grima, also war in the north hits the same spot in my brain, it's clunky yet simple controls and the story just gives me a chuckle, three people, containing a dwarf, human, and elf, are capable of breaking down entire armies, bring down nazgul, trick a dragon, and do it without needing any help outside of Elladan and Elrohir, and that help is sparse. I like them.
@@TruthHunterTeenhow bro feels after saying this:😈😈😈😈😈
War in the North was one of my favorite games growing up, the “wonky AI” actually makes me feel very nostalgic and I still play it today
Totally.
War in the Noth wasa great game.
Don't let the studio-paid critics confuse you.
Battle for Middle Earth 2 'Rise of the Witch King' is a slept-on competitive RTS MASTERPIECE!!!!!!!
And because of this, it's the greatest Middle Earth videogame of all-time
You ignored Conquest's HUGE online community back then. The multiplayer experience was one of the best and I still crave for it.
The fact a remake hasn't been made by now that actually completes the game and brings back online is a crime against the art of video games itself.
@@scatered1 Where do I need to subscribe to your petition?^^
conquest was my childhood
The ALM1GHTY and “isKING” clans will rise again!!!!
@@scatered1someone is making a remastered version and making it KIND of open work (a more open and interactive map)
The third age for ps2 will always be my favorite lotr game. I remember playing it long into the nights, grinding xp to get new moves for my characters:)
Lotr conquest being this low is criminal 😥
Pretty harsh I thought!
This whole list is a joke, he put the DS version higher than the game itself
I remember playing Two Towers and Return of the King on my GameCube as a teen (the games made, funnily enough by EA, also for PS2), and they were pretty great hack and slash games. Probably the best LOTR games before Shadow of Mordor came out.
Those games are so good. They’re really solid beat-em-ups with some really cool bonus content. I used to watch the actor interview clips all the time.
@@BareBandSubscription same :) loved all the bonus stuff!!
and after
SoM has terrible replay, might as well skin it Assassins Creed
I have such good memories playing those games. I went back to play a year ago or so, the games did not age that well unfortuneately. I would love to see a remake or modern LOTR games in that style.
ROTK's combat feels SO good. It's really a shame that we don't see a lot of this type of combat and sound design anymore. Everything has to be soulslike these days.
I have to say Gollum is truly one of the games of all time. The story was, the characters were, the gameplay was, the level design was, the progression system was, and the graphics were
True, I loved the bit where Gollum said “It’s golluming time!” And Gollumed all over mordor
😂
@@thatoneguy4515 you clearly didn't play it. You just made that up. The scene was "It's preciousing time".
can honestly say without a doubt, gollum is truly one of the games.
How it did was so for sure.
The War in the North was a game I played with my brothers and for some reason is beyond memorable to me, getting to play unique characters that werent in the movies was something really exciting to me. And the fact that it was multiplayer is always a plus for me, playing with them two was very fun and chaotic and I think thats where most if not all of those memories come from, not necessarily the game lol
Regardless, we found it fun! we still talk about it sparsely these many years after playing it
Divide & Conquer mod for Medieval II Total War = the absolute BEST LOTR gaming experience
Oddly enough, War in the North has been stuck in my head for over 10 years now. At the time it was crazy to be severing limbs so graphically, paired with fun rpg elements, and diversity in gameplay. Been wanting to play it again for a long time!
That’s because it’s the best LotR game ever made.
Those special kills were so good....now I just wish I could actually complete a set lol
@@majorgear1021 indeed!!! i dont geth people saying that it sucks, when its the best lotr game ever made after the classic two towers and return of the king and bfme2 ofcourse
Agreed I loved War in the North as well and look back on it and think about it and the good times I had playing it. I played through it multiple times myself and with a cousin. I loved The Return of the King on GBA and on Xbox, The Third Age on Xbox, and BFME2 on 360. I had countless hours into The Return of the King on GBA and The Third Age on Xbox.
@@ItsShockwave the third age is the shit. I mean how many lotr games let you fight the Balrog alongside gandalf? Or for that matter LET YOU PLAY AS THE BALROG. Honestly evil mode was such a fun idea. Even if some of the fights are really mean lol.
Hey, I played War in the North six years ago and totally remember the great experience I had!
I can't believe that right after a few mentions of Boromir's death, they didn't mention he doesn't die in Battle for Middle Earth, instead travelling up to Edoras with the group and then to Minas Tirith with Gandalf and Pippin, and fights in the final battle as well.
(Well he can die permanently, but it's actually harder than him not dying)
I always wondered if him dying at Amon Hen would have him perma-die, never had it happen.
in the good campaign he survives amon hen canonically and makes it to the black gate, in the evil campaign boromir, merry and pippin die at amon hen by lurtz and his group
Fellowship, Two Towers, Return of the King, and Third Age on the PS2 were all exceptional. I played the shit out of each of those games. Fellowship was most definitely the most difficult, thought Two Towers was the most forgettable (yet I still remember certain levels with great detail). This video really makes me want to whip out my PS2 and give them all another gander for the first time in over a decade (though I probably played Return of the King at least once in the past several years).
Also, I don't think they mentioned the multiplayer aspect of RotK... That was what really put it over the top. I have so many memories of screaming at my sister to hurry up as the Paths of the Dead collapsed. Or choosing to play as Pippin instead and making her play as Sam in Ungol.
if you can look past the monetization models and store button, lotro is simply fantastic. especially now with the landscape difficulty options - to date one of my favorite games ever made
lotro has always been a wonderful janky ride, but one I have loved since 2007 . One of the best gaming investments I ever made was paying for VIP status for (if memory serves) £77, before it all went FTP. Just means across all these years I pay no more money, but get the full account experience, and all the lovely monthly points to spend on random crap in the store! It really is a fantastic representation of book Middle Earth as well (with the necessary extra bits thrown in to pad) I also love that after 16 years I still only have 1 character, and she isn't even at the current level limit! You know what, as an avid LotR gamer, I agree fully with you and I think I might put lotro as my number 1!
Omg it’s ghost charm
Battle for middle earth with the elven alliance mod was amazing. How they amped up the campaign to have a genuinely overwhelming Helms Deep defence in the campaign was just class.
I loved third age,loved seeing the aftermath of the fellowship's journey, the only thing that let it down was the final battle,definitely jumped the middle earth shark equivalent
Same here. I think I got vertigo from how sudden it was. Honestly was expecting the party to participate in battles at the Black Gate
@TheGman4747 that would have made a lot more sense! I think they could have found a better final boss that would still fit in canonically
@randomedits878 They even used the line from Aragorn of marching on the Black Gate so the way they ended it was unexpected to say the least. Otherwise I enjoyed the story for the most part, love the turn based gameplay(especially being a big fan of Final Fantasy X) and I like the uniqueness of each character gameplay wise. The inclusion of the legacy characters as guest members was also a nice touch.
@TheGman4747 yeah it was definitely a sharp turn,I loved the story too,and loved how things you'd equip would actually show on the characters as well,it was a really fun game,and very immersing overall
@randomedits878 For sure, I'll never forget nearly shitting my pants when the Balrog took out my whole party when I played as a kid haha
My fellowship game froze in Moria. To this day I haven’t been able to get through. I could never discover the problem
You delved too deep in Moria, Durin's Bane corrupted your file.
My favourite LoTR games are the BFME series (1,2 and ROTWK), Third Age and The Two Towers and Return of The King. I had forgotten about LoTR Conquest, which I am surprised as I loved that game, spent I don't know how many hours in it
The Return Of The King on PS2 is a game that my father bought for me when I was a kid. He used to play ahead to be able to guide me, on the ps2, we didn’t know or have money to buy a memory card, so we always had to keep the game on, not to lose the save, many years later i was able to unlock all character, upgrade everything and beat the game, it was and still is the best game I ever played. The level with the undead king, the spider boss fight, the siege levels, everything was amazing and it brings back a lot of memories.
PS1 and PS2 were so damn reliable it didn't hurt to leave it on anyway.
@@HAFBeast91 True, but every time the power went off, I had to start the game from scratch. In my early years at school I got myself a card and progressed to the Mythril weapons and started to get good scores on the missions
You kept the game running for years without memory card? Now that is real
dedication!
@@majorgear1021 yes, we didn’t have any money for a memory card back then
I LOVED The Third Age as a kid, being equally obsessed with Final Fantasy and Lotr.
Also loved the two towers and rotk games, rotk was also great because it had multiplayer!
LOTRO player since 2010 - best way to hang out in Middle-earth with friends 🙂
And honestly some of the best world building and lore of any game or show
One does not simply ignore a triplejump video.
I did
..
For about an hour
No, but UA-cam is apparently Gandalf when it comes to notifications because notifications shall not pass.
It is folly....
Ah, a good meme and comment in one. Fantastic :)
facts tho
LotRO was very special when it came: music, environment, quests and Turbine's take on classes were stellar. It also encouraged roleplay and exploration and each race had a very unique starting experience. The party combo system was really solid as well. I still remember how fucking tense it was to try and sneak into Angmar... I only played up to the Mirkwood expansion so I at first thought the character creation screen was wrong: High Elves and Beorningas, but I adding races and classes is a staple for expansions (although adding High Elves is a mite ods, because I remember at the time of release there was much debate about it and the summary was this: it'd be impossible to balance the Noldor with other races - and lorewise, there are Noldor mingled with the Elves of Lórien and Rivendell already). The Warden and Rune-keeper caused the stir then they came afterall.
I didn't realise two people were speaking until 2:18 when they introduced themselves LMAO
You had forgot about The Lord of The Rings Conquest main unbalanced class is actually the scout's backstab is actually an instant kill to all combat NPCs (except for some creatures). So, the most powerful heros and villians can easily be backstabbed and die much quicker than you had originally thought. Did that against Sauron, and the animation is quite interesting.
My best friend got The Two Towers for his birthday and I was blown away when we played it for the first time. I've always wanged to replay it
Lotr war in the north is still to this day one of my favorite games of all time even though I haven’t played it in half a decade. It’s a real shame that it’s not possible to play it on any new gen console.
I got a good laugh out of the Balrog from War in Middle Earth being pointed out. That thing was bad and at the time my cousin referred to it as the flaming gummi bear.
Where is Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War?
Not lord of the rings.. it’s set before then.
Would the ability to play as a chicken who can walk from The Shire to Gondor change the rankings at all for LotRO?
Or tossing a chicken off of Minas Tirith
25:29 I had that game and, OMG, what a pain to play. It was mainly a dungeon crawler that allowed you to be above ground only once in awhile, but one of the most difficult things was getting the other hobbits to follow you (Frodo). You were supposed to be able to double tap the direction button to get them to follow you but if enemies were near they sometimes didn't listen and you wound up running in their direction listening to them getting hit hoping you could get there before they died. But the worst part was the save code which was several lines (6 or more I think) of letters in some random order. You had to write all of this code down to get back to where you left off playing last. Woe be to the player who wrote even one letter wrong because you were totally Fubared at that point and would have to go back to an earlier save. The artwork was nice though.
I understand the limitations on the rankings but not including the monolith middle earth games is a tragedy.
As someone who doesn't even care for MMOs anymore, LOTRO is still my favorite LOTR games, and easily in my top 10 favorite games.
It's largely because the world building and lore is so good coupled with a great sound track
The Third Age is one of the most underrated games of all time.
It most certainly is,I spent many a night playing TTA on PS2. Plenty of "Longbottom Leaf" was consumed during gameplay.
34:30 war in the north was one my fav games all time idk why but used to come home from school and play it everyday over and over one of the most memorable games for me
A Triple Jump video is never late. Nor is it early...it arrives precisely when it means to!
I remember when The Return of the King came out, I was young enough to only get one or two games a year. I played that game so much, I ended up completing the co-op version of the game on the hardest difficulty alone, controlling two controllers at the same time.
Lord of the rings conquest went hard wtf was tbis guy talking about?
Haven't heard many people talk about the GBA versions of the Third Age, Two Towers, and Return of the King. I got so many hours out of those as a kid.
Two Towers on GBA used to really piss me off when I was like 7. Good times.
I’ve played a lot of third age gba, it’s great
@@HappyCupsInc yeah man, it was so good. It really was my gateway into other SRPGs like Fire Emblem later on.
@@brainrotbob1 yeah it had some pretty difficult parts! I remember crutching on the ability to call companions to fight with you.
Battle for middle earth was a worthy successor to Heroes of might in magic III in endless multiplayer battles… ah, the memories
How exactly? One is RTS other is turn-based
I was like, "He better have The Return of the King as Number one, that game was way better than almost anything we got based on a movie.
my votes and memories are with Two Towers and Return of the King, great games, I feel like those paved the way for games like Shadow of Mordor, etc... had that Arkham style combat, great stuff.
Well deserved first place. Return of the King was amazing
Great list as always. Now I'm wondering how many games exist, that take place in a period outside of the events of the LotR trilogy. Any chance for a list here?
The Lotr game I spent the most time with was "the two towers" and "return of the king" for GBA. Was just a Diablo clone but perfect for coop play with friends and made very fun to collect the artifacts and rare items, also levelling and getting stronger was really rewarding.
War in the North is one of my favourite lotr games, played through it so many times.
War in the North was actually amazing.
It should be made into a feature film.
Lotro was/is such a great MMO i startet back 2008, it was "My Vanilla WoW" my jump in the MMO Genre, the world was great, i like the roll system (Tank, Healer, Support, DPS) it just aged porly but i still play today sometimes to relax and chill out
BFME 2 has some of my fondest memories, One of the better rts games i've played, playing with friends, defending helms deep or any other of the fortresses from their onslaught, only outdone by the Third Age Total War mod. By Far my favorite.
The Two Towers was also really good and memorable.
Something i find a bit strange though, I honestly don't remember Return of the King all that well, but its one of those games i'm sure i've played.
I actually liked war in the north a lot. We made a nice duo, me and my friend.
War in the north is a masterclass in how you respectfully expand a beloved universe. This is achived so rarely, i can take the flawes with ease
the BFME 2 story also works very well in the context of the movies and the apppendixes of the books.
I remember playing an absurd amount of War of the Ring and The Third Age when I was younger. I wish they would release them on steam or some other digital platform. Hard to find copies of them anymore and if you do they're usually massively overpriced
Maybe it's just me but I LOVED the GBA Two Towers, Return of the King and The Third Age games. Partially because I only had a GBA but they also just had their own charm to them. I'm a sucker for games like that. Getting weapons and trinkets were just so cool to come across given they were random and all.
Just in time for a 2 hour drive!! Thank y'all for always comin' through to stave off the boredom.
I find the lack of shadow of war on here disturbing
I agree, but I suspect it's because of how loosely it ties into the lore-accurate universe.
TBFME 2 wasn't just a great LOTR game, it was a great RTS game, one of the best of its decade. I still have my old PC Anthology copy, it's priceless.
I would recommend the third age and MOS mod for Medieval 2 total war. THe best, most immersive RTS experience I've ever had in LOTR. It has some rough edges but it's so good.
PS2's Third Age is still my favorite Final Fantasy clone of all-time. Long, lots of XP, gear & leveling.
The Two Towers was one of my favorite games on PS2. That was one of the games I had to get when it came out because it was just that good. So underrated. 🙅♂️🙅♂️🙅♂️
Hell yeah! We had that for GameCube and Ioved it. The Return of The King was pretty fun too, but some of the audio got a little rough. At The Black Gate, Gandalf sounds like he’s shouting from a locker room
Oh i miss the days when i spended HOURS playing LOTR The Return of the King in PS2...awesome game and one of the bests i've ever played!
Oh yeah, here we go, Orks time!
I've never fought orks before, but I have seen heroes fight them, so I'm going to give this all the watching I've got
(@ War in the North) "Would players remember their experience with it for years to come? Absolutely not"... hard disagree there. I remember playing this game with a mate multiple times when we were teenagers. Was a great hack and slash. I can see it being medicore or even subpar as a solo game, but it was brilliant, simple fun as a co-op game.
This is very good content, thank you for editing and narrating.
the NARRATION was a little ANNOYING talking like THIS
My Man did Conquest dirty tbh
"War in the north is not worth playing more than once"... Yup, and i finished it 11 times...
Broo me and my roommate beat that game in coop so many times! Lol
Solid list but I will reject this list. Lord of the Rings Conquest is fantastic even today. It held up in ways many titles didn't and deserved a place in the top 5.
Always think of the Gandolf quote 'It's quite cool' when he hands Frodo a copy of Shadow of War
Why do people write "Gandolf" tho ? It's Gandalf...
21:58 this game and Aragorn kick move were awsome expected it in top 10 ngl. Especally the shire nazgul hunt was grate
40:25 the cover was epic
iv never heard of most of these games
A shame they don’t make games like the number 1 ranked anymore. It was my all time favorite and still is… still waiting for such games
Digging this, but I'm still waiting anxiously for a ranking of every Mega Man game 🤞
Nearly had an accident with my drink when the line "from the makers of Desperate Housewives The Game"... now those are some quality dev chops!
Good take on the games, thanks for the video. I still remember The Hobbit on my Spectrum with affection. However, you didn't mention the very best apect of LOTRO, the story telling. I've played it since 2007 and still do every day. The story telling is epic. A recent expansion tells the story of the Elven rings way better than the Rings of Power, but then that wouldn't be difficult. By the way, "ringers" is a term I 've never heard before and never want to hear again :D
I get triggered every time someone calls The Hobbit a children's book. It's too long to be a children's book.
It's like the Chronicles of Narnia, it's meant to be read as a story by parents to their kids not by the kids themselves
Well too bad because it absolutely is a children's book. The language is structured so children can read it.
@@oogrooq No it isn't! It's the same writing style as in the trilogy. It's not like "One fish two fish, red fish blue fish".
@@skjaldulfr I read the hobbit when I was in 5th grade. I'm sorry your reading level is stuck at first grade.
@@oogrooq It's 310 pages long.
I don't know many others opinions on conquest but it might be one of my favorite games of all time. I do admit I have loads of nostalgia for it and haven't played it in many years. This game is what brought me and my brother together. I hardly ever talked to my brother or even interacted with him but when this game came out we couldn't stop playing it. I'm talking hundreds of hours of couch co-op / pvp. We would act out battles from the movie or make up our own fights. This game was my childhood and I have nothing but respect for it.
Please make time stamps next time 🙄
To me Shadow Of Mordor and Shadow Of War are the best. They're my favorite part of the Lord Of The Rings universe.
Missing the Battle for Middle Earth 2: Rise of the Witch King Expansion on this list. And the amazing mods that have come from the game make it even better.
I quite liked both Interplay games and was sad, when they scrapped the third. You could play by the book literally. You could navigate around Moria page by page. But there were many other possibilities. The music was very good, especially on the CD version. And the CD version used cutscenes from the Ralph Bakshi cartoon.
I had an insanely fun time with The Third Age on PS2. I still replay it when I'm at my dad's place. Think I've played through it like 10 times
@keepitsecret-dl1pr Definitely. Berethor and Idrial were incredibly OP
Return of the King was good but BFME1 campaign and BFME2 custom maps were easily the most fun I had in any LotR games up until Shadow of War.
I know it was not the original design for the game, but I would just like to mention Third Age Total War as a potential honorable mention here. It is a full conversion mod for Medieval 2 Total War Kingdoms and is, in my opinion, the best Lord of the Rings strategy game ever made.
LOTRO will always have a special place in my heart.
WKR,
Burglar: Wazaa
Deleted server: Gilrain
I had no idea there were so many LoTR games. Even from before the movies came out.
Last time I was this early, I found the One Ring.
LOTR Conquest and BFME2 were sooo sick, Aragorn’s Quest and Gollum on the other hand not so much😂😭
The lord of the rings mmo is the total immersion that any LOTR fan has ever wanted. Want to get back into playing this. Best part of the ledgendary weapons is you can give them names as well.
The character creation is very detailed and it will even help you build authentic Middel Earth names giving prefixes and suffixes with meanings for the various races. U can also look for more online.
It is really almost pay to play but if you do all the side "deeds" it will give you turbine coins as well as help u buff ur character. Once I stated clearing "deeds" like grinding slayer deeds my character was alot better for it.
Mines of Moria is a long. I probably didnt complete everything plus I think there is some stuff open and then u can buy the expansion. I made like 3 to 5 characters 1 my main, made it through to the other side and my 2 others are in there now or was when I stopped playing or at least in Ergion.