The first attempts to set up a video game in Middle-earth, the stage on which Tolkien’s art was laid, was in 1982. Less than ten years had passed since the death of the British author, and the attempt at Melbourne House was to create textual adventures from Lo Hobbit, then to continue with The Compagnia dell’Anello in 1986, with the Shadows of Mordor in 1987, ending with La Rottura del Fato. A first attempt by Interplay – the company that in the early ’90s made the role playing game take shape – try again in 1990 with the support of Electronic Arts, ready to redeem trilogy rights at Cinema.
The project unfortunately came down with the second volume dedicated to Le Due Torri , published on PC and Amiga, while the version for SNES was set in such a way that it could almost emulate The Legend of Zelda, which at that time began to become known and appreciated by the international market. Needless to say, all attempts did not succeed, despite the intentions of Brian Fargo, founder and first key player of Interplay before Tim Cain and Chris Avellone, were more than praiseworthy.
It was necessary to wait for Peter Jackson’s dream to come back to The Lord of the Ringsand Tolkien in multimedia works, to restore vital lymph to the fantasy saga created by the English author. In 2001, after the Society of the Ring, the New Zealand director, who in 2004 with the closure of the trilogy also bumped into the Oscars with a historic triplet, completely subverted the way of seeing and imagining The Middle Land. Orlando Bloom, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Cate Blanchett became the spokeswoman for what was chosen as the most exciting movie saga in the 2000s, allowing everyone to discover and rediscover the charm of The Lord of the Rings . Electronic Arts Rights As we had already anticipated, Electronic Arts was playing on the cinematic rights of Peter Jackson’s saga, producing immediately
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, published in 2002 and 2003 respectively: through certain battles, many missions were given the opportunity to fight in the Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and Isildur plays, which in the prologue dressed in tutorials fighting the forces of Sauron the Mordor. Afflicted by a lack of longevity, the title managed to conquer some of the users, galvanized from the period centered heavily on the Tolkien saga, bringing the characters for the first time in the video game world as Peter Jackson had told them and chose them. his, however, declared himself dissatisfied with the work he had done.
The choice of Electronic Arts to use rights only from the second film forward left the Company of the Ring fully revealed, which was then told by Sierra: However, not being able to draw on film material, the Californian company had to settle for the rights of Tolkien Enterprises, which allowed the company to work on nude and raw history.
On the one hand, part of the trilogy was based on a much more immediate game style, devoted to spectacularity, but lacking the main elements on which Tolkien’s work was based; on the other hand, there was a title without the cinematic elements, but that was awkward in the surroundings told by the English writer, with much more significant historical elements and faithfully reproduced.
In short, a dichotomy that does not solve neither in favor of either, until Electronic Arts started to beat more force on ‘The Lord of the Rings . Shortly afterwards, in 2004, to pick up the success of Peter Jackson’s success at the Oscars, the Third Age , a role-playing game set in the same way during the stories told in the movie, but from the eyes of completely new and original characters: The Berethor , a member of the Minas Tirith Fortress Armed Guard and Idrial, elfa at Galadriel’s service on all.
With a turn-by-turn system and story interwoven by scenes taken directly from the movie, The Third Agewas acclaimed by critics as a highly successful product from the gameplay point of view, save a few hiccups in the excessive use of movie scenes and characters that had not created any kind of breach within the heart of the user.
