Aspyr has re-released The Lord of the Rings: War in the North without prior announcement, returning the 2011 action RPG to sale roughly seven years after it was pulled from Steam. The Legacy Edition is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, priced at $19.99 and discounted to $17.99 until August 25.
The re-release adds hot-swappable characters, refined enemy target locking, a reworked interface, an autosave feature, 60fps support and a batch of bug fixes. It keeps the original's online co-op, and Aspyr lists local split-screen play alongside an optimised solo mode.
War in the North originally launched in November 2011 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, developed by Snowblind Studios and published by Warner Bros. It drew middling reviews — IGN scored it 7 out of 10 — and sold poorly, arriving in the same window as Skyrim and Modern Warfare 3. Snowblind closed in 2012. The delisting process began in late 2018, and SteamDB records the game leaving Steam that February, PC Gamer reports. Warner Bros. never explained the removal publicly, though expiring licences are the usual cause.
The game tells what its marketing calls the untold story of Agandaûr, a servant of Sauron who raises an army in the ruins of Fornost while the Fellowship moves south. Players build a party of three heroes — the ranger Eradan, the elf Andriel and the dwarf Farin — and can swap between them mid-fight, each with separate skills and upgradeable weapons and powers. The eagle Beleram can be called into battle, and the campaign passes through Rivendell, Lórien, the Lonely Mountain and Mirkwood, with appearances from Gandalf and Elrond. It was the first Lord of the Rings game rated M for Mature, taking a grittier tone than the films and prefiguring Shadow of Mordor.
Aspyr's press release confirms the Legacy Edition is licensed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and is the studio's first Lord of the Rings title, and closes with a tease that further Tolkien re-releases are planned.
Fans can look forward to even more classic releases by Aspyr from the beloved franchise in the future!
Aspyr has not said which games would follow, and the ownership picture is tangled: the studio is owned by Embracer, which also controls Middle-earth Enterprises. Many of the best-remembered Lord of the Rings games of the 2000s were published by EA rather than Warner Bros., which leaves their rights status unclear. Embracer has announced plans to spin Middle-earth Enterprises and other assets into a standalone company, Fellowship Entertainment, with chief executive Phil Rogers, chief operating officer Lee Guinchard and chief financial officer Müge Bouillon taking the same roles at the new business. Two other Embracer studios are working on original Tolkien projects: Warhorse is making a Lord of the Rings RPG, and Crystal Dynamics is reported to be developing one as well.
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