It’s been a long time, and it’s long overdue, but Middle-earth, we will be seeing you soon.
After months of rumors and a slight tease, Warhorse Studios has confirmed it’s hard at work on an open-world RPG set in The Lord of the Rings universe, marking one of the most fitting marriages between developer and IP in some time.
You likely know Warhorse for its work on the Kingdom Come games, the most recent of which launched last year to both critical and commercial success. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II followed up on 2018’s Kingdom Come: Deliverance and was a big hit with all sorts of players.
I haven’t played the Kingdom Come games myself, as I’ve become a bit burnt out on open-world games in general, but they seem to be beloved by all who’ve experienced them. That sort of expertise in the genre seems like it will naturally translate quite easily to the fantasy world of JRR Tolkien.
There have been several Middle-earth games over the past few years, namely the survival title The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, the poorly-received The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, and the cozy Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings game. But this Warhorse game would fit the bill as something that feels like a slam-dunk concept.
Potentially proving and iterating on the Kingdom Come formula while dabbling in Middle-earth’s fantastic qualities like Orcs, Hobbits, and potentially even the One Ring is enough to get anybody excited, much less rabid Tolkien fans who long for titles like Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor or even the classic EA games based on the films.
Not to be outdone, Warhorse also confirmed “a new Kingdom Come adventure” is also in development, with scant details on both projects revealed thus far, and the studio teased it will tell more about both “when the time is right.” So while it may be a while before either game releases, today’s announcement is definitely a welcome one for fans of RPGs everywhere.
