The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth launches today on iOS and Android devices, and the hero collecting game from EA and Capital Games aims to tell new stories in the world Tolkien built.
If you're familiar with Capital Games' other major mobile game, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, you'll find yourself rather comfortable in the team's vision of Middle-earth. A hero collecting RPG game at its core, Heroes of Middle-earth aims to inject some story into the mix, giving the player control over battles from both the books of The Lord of the Rings, as well as asking the question "What if?" throughout many hinge points in the timeline.
According to EA's VP of mobile RPG and 4x games Malachi Boyle, the partnership the studio has with Middle-earth Enterprises allows them to tell tales that are "fresh and authentic to JRR Tolkien's works." To that end, The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth aims to bring players into the role of a Ringbearer, controlling a Ring of Power that allows them to see visions across the timeline of Middle-earth.
The team is taking Gandalf's words that there are "many magic rings" in the world and running with it.
The backdrop of everything is that a shadowy figure weilding his own Ring of Power aims to corrupt storylines that "hold together the fabric of Middle-earth," according to Jay Ambrosini, design director on the game. This struggle plays out with the player, through the power of their Ring, controlling the heroes to fight the corrupting force that is aiming to splinter the stories we love.
Visually, I think Captial Games has done a great job of intepreting Tolkien's world here. The ruined Numenorean-in-Exile keep of Weathertop looks how I'd imagined it reading the books, even if it's just a small slice of the ruined crown of Amon Sul. The banks of the Hoarwell are lush, while the Elven haven of Imladris looks as though it was crafted with a care only Elves can bring to the world.
Character models are stylized, similar to the treatment the Star Wars: Gakaxy of Heroes characters got. I don't mind it much, it works for a mobile game. What I'm immediately glad to see is that characters are instantly recognizeable. The weathered look of Strider and the homely look of Frodo instantly jump out in the first moments. Even characters like Elrond and Eowyn are distinct enough to not look like carbon copies of their movie counterparts, but still recognizeable to anyone with only a cursory knowledge of Tolkien's world.
Recongizeable heroes, as well as compelling heroes to collect, is at the core of what The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth aims to bring to the table here. Since the conceit is that you can reach across time and space to pull characters from different ages and team them up, there are many characters only hinted at in Tolkien's literature that could make an appearance. From the shores of the Gladden Fields, Isildur might escape his fate and make it to his seat in Annuminas, or we could even see characters such as Beren and Luthien, only mentioned in passing in the text but play an important role in many of the stories that make up the fabric of Middle-earth itself.
This is perfectly encapsulated by the fact that the narrator and your guide throughout Heroes of Middle-earth is Eärendil, a legendary figure from the First Age (and Elrond's father). This is a character mentioned only a few times in the text of The Lord of the Rings, recounted in a poem and called upon when Frodo holds aloft the Phial given to him by Galadriel. Eärendil acts as a guide to the game mechanics, helping to overcome the shadowy figure at the center of all this.
Collecting Middle-earth's Finest
The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth is, at its core, a character collecting RPG. The heroes make or break the experience. Heroes of Middle-earth takes that a bit further and aims to inject the personality and feel of the character Tolkien created into how the character itself operates on the field.
An example of this is in how the faction of Rohan plays out. While known for their powerful and iconic cavalry, the de-horsed units of the Rohirrim work together to slay foes. This is seen by Rohan units calling to others to help them with attacks. Eowyn's designation as a Shield Maiden of Rohan gives her the ability to help protect and fortify allies around her.
I had the chance to check this out myself ahead of today's launch. An intro questline, the Road to Rivendell, sees Frodo and Strider aim to reach Rivendell and bring the Ring to Master Elrond. Where the rest of the Hobbits are is never explained, but Frodo and Strider work to defeat the orcs and Nazgul in their path.
Strider is strong, using his inspiring leadership to help draw the attention of the bad guys. His passive ability allows for Frodo to enter stealth whenever someone lands a critical strike on an enemy. This interplay feels like it plays into the story of each character. Hobbits had the ability to hide themselves even in plain sight if need be, and you can be Aragorn, Ranger of the North is going to do everything in his power to ensure that his charge is unscathed.
Combat is turn based with each character attacking in turn. As you complete missions in each questline, Heroes of Middle-earth bestows the various currencies that make these free-to-play mobile titles function, as well as materials used to craft items for each hero. As more experience is gained, your player level will also increase, unlocking more energy to spend on completing quests. Characters and players level independently as well, meaning you'll need to actively level up each hero as you gather enough resources to do so.
I really appreciated the ability to speed up animations as well, making a quick session inbetween work assignments or on breaks rather easy to get through. Like many mobile titles there is an auto-play function, but I found myself not using it much, both because I felt I needed to play it myself, but also when I did use it i wasn't sure the auto-play was making the right decisions on how to get through each combat.
For example, one scene next to the Hoarwell, the auto-play focused on the weakest enemies first, using my character's special attacks on them while ignoring the monstrous troll bearing down on Frodo. Naturally, I would have attacked it first and with those specials. While I won the wave, it felt like it took more health from my characters to do than if I had just controlled it from the beginning.
Being a character collection RPG, you'll be able to assemble a squad from throughout Middle-earth's history, and in theory it could see the Free People's fight alongside the forces of Mordor on the same squad should you choose. While the Capital Games team said that squad bonuses and more will be more impactful if you work within the faction bonuses each character has, it's possible to see Frodo fight alongside a cave troll against the Shadowy Figure at the center of the plot. It's a game - and one that hardcore players will likely min max to find the best combinations down the road.
But does it feel like authentic Tolkien?
One of the touchstones the development team kept coming back to in a press preview last week was how they are aiming to tell stories that feel like they would fit in the world Tolkien created. Part of the conceit is the "What if?" angle here, where the team wants to explore scenarios that might have played out differently in the lore. Examples given were angles such as, "What if Galadriel had taken the Ring when offered and become the Dark Queen?" Or "What if Smeagol hadn't taken the Ring?" or even "Who were the Nazgul if they hadn't been corrupted by the Rings?"
Capital Games also touched on fleshing out more of the underutilized characters and even factions in Tolkien's lore, such as the Easterlings and the ageless Tom Bombadil.
Because the license that EA is operating under is only for the main novels, their appendices and The Hobbit, the tales from the Silmarillion here are off the table for the most part. But there is a ton of material that could be gleaned to create interesting "what if" scenarios. What if Isildur destroyed the Ring? What if the Witch-king of Angmar failed in his conquest of Arnor? What if Thorin survived the Battle of the Five Armies, or Smaug for that matter? What really happened to Eärnur, the last king of Gondor before Ellessar restored the line?
What if Balrogs actually had wings?
There's a lot of room to create their own scenarios to play with.
However, in practice, what played out on my phone screen didn't quite fit the bill here. Arwen herself was corrupted by the Shadowy Figure, fighting Strider and Frodo on behalf of the Orcs. That itself doesn't feel like a "what if" scenario, rather shoehorning an iconic character into the sequence. The idea also that I'm taking part in the iconic battles of Middle-earth sort of falls flat from the get go when the opening questline leaves the fight with the Nazgul to the Fords of Bruinen (with Arwen dealing the Morgul Blade wound to Frodo instead of the Witch-king). It all feels out of place and just not rooted in the source material at all.
One area that Heroes of Middle-earth also falls short of feeling like Tolkien is through its writing. The Lord of the Rings is hard to adapt, and Tolkien has a style all his own for sure. But adaptations have done amazing jobs before in creating story and dialogue that feels like it could have come off the pages of The Lord of the Rings books (namely The Lord of the Rings Online). Here, unfortunately, it falls well short and it's jarring next to the iconic characters on screen.
Don't get me wrong, though. The team at Capital and EA does pull quotes from the book at times for its characters. During the first quest in the second part of the campaign, Elrond begins quoted from the Council of Elrond, asking what they must do with the "trifle" Sauron fancies.
However, within moments that is shot in the foot by the scene deviating wildly, with Galadriel (who wasn't at the Council) stepping forward and claiming the Ring for herself. My eyes haven't stopped rolling.
As a result, because the overall dialogue doesn't feel rooted in Tolkien's world, despite the liberal use of Aulë, it doesn't feel inherently authentic or Tolkienian overall. It simply feels like a hero collector wrapped in the garb of Tolkien's world. And that, by itself is fine. I'm all for new Lord of the Rings-themed media existing in the world. It doesn't have to be exactly lore accurate to be fun and draw players in to the experience. You don't have to always try to appeal to the lore hounds like myself to make a good Lord of the Rings game.
In fact - I'd recommend you don't. But when making these games please don't try to sell it as authentic Tolkien either in the same breath. Tell me like it is: it's a fun game in a Lord of the Rings wrapper. And that's fine. Really.
What shouldn't be lost overall is the spirit of Tolkien's works, even if the Balrogs have wings in the end. The team is already looking ahead at what comes next, with the Mines of Moria raid on the horizon. While exact details weren't given to press in last week's briefing, I could definitely tell the team was excited for when they are able to share their interpretation of the long dark of Moria. Honestly, what was palpable the whole time was just how excited everyone seemed to be to be working on a Lord of the Rings game, and that passion will carry through to the end product, even if it's not always going to follow the strict rules of Tolkien's sub-creation.
At its core, then, despite missing the mark on feeling rooted in Middle-earth itself, Heroes of Middle-earth is a competent collector RPG on mobile. It runs great on my iPhone 14 Max, the visuals really drawing the eye. It does have all the usual trappings of free-to-play monetization, though in my preview time with the soft launched build it didn't feel like I was going to need to purchase anything to progress. Though, obviously, your mileage might vary there the longer you play. If you've played Galaxy of Heroes, though, it'll feel familiar.
In the end, if you're looking for a new character collection RPG to fill your time, The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth is one to look at. Launching today, it's available on both iOS and Android devices using the Google Play store. If you're looking for true-to-the-book Tolkien here, you're going to be disappointed. But if the "what if?" angle appeals to you and you enjoy character collecting, Heroes of Middle-earth can definitely fit the bill.
Full Disclosure: Access to the game with a founder's bounty of in-game currency was provided by Electronic Arts for the purposes of this preview.
