PS3 Lord of the Rings Action RPG War in the North Suddenly Returns, Out Now on PS5

After EA's purchase, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a bunch of Aspyr remasters of EA's old games in order to recoup the cost of purchase. Would be awesome of the LotR trilogy of games got a remaster, those were fun.

@Shepherd_Tallon I don't want to be overly cynical, but the surprise release does suggest that the publisher's banking on people snapping this up on impulse.

The original game bombed, if I remember right. Would definitely advise caution, as the article says.

the trailer also mentions ps4, idk why only ps5 is written in the post

If they’re trying to recoup costs then they should be remastering LotR Two Towers and The Third Age

Interesting shadow drop! I still have the special edition PS3 copy. It's an okay game, certainly far from perfect, but at the time I had fun playing couch co-op with my (now) wife 👍

Wake me up when they remaster this goat:

Edit: @RoliePolie91 you get it

Having played this on PS3, I can also say I was underwhelmed when I got it home and tried it solo. It was a fun experience playing through the whole thing once in co-op, though. If you're a trophy hunter, you'll probably get very bored unless you gave a fellow trophy hunter you get on well with for a chat through the tedious requirements.

Lotr the two towers was the best game I've played from the Tolkien saga, followed by the battle for Middle earth.

If we could get these games on modern consoles, that would be nice!

I got excited for a second mixing up this game with Battle for Middle Earth. I hope we get that sometime.

Yeah this one might actually finally make a profit on modern consoles, if only because they don’t really make those sort of game anymore. Return of the King was definitely the better game.

I thought this was that weird turn based RPG they released a while back. Just looked that one Lord of The Rings: The Third Age.

That game wasn’t very good but I’d like a rerelease of it - I have some good memories of playing through that game when I was younger.

I'll buy this one as soon as I can as I really liked it back on Xbox 360 and even played through it multiple times with a friend in split-screen.

@fasoooli
Because this website LOVES favorizing the PS5, no matter what.

Somehow Sauron returned.

Yeah a pass this wasn't a good game.

If you're a big LotR fan, the game is faithful enough and fun enough to pull you through, but it's not a great game, otherwise.

Unless you're really invested in Tolkien, I'd skip it.

I had this game and yet I am struggling to remember playing it, was probably couch co-op played. But I just can't remember, so it clearly had little impact on me and was quite forgettable. Yet I remember the PS2 LOTR games, even the ***** one.

Wow, this certainly wasn’t on my bingo card for August

I think I am missing this one. Will pick up soon.

I still have my 360 copy of this. Let me know when Battle for Middle Earth, Two Towers, and Return of the King shadow drop, those will be day one!

Be wary cause of no press previews.

Would rather have the ps2 classic the two towers

Get Shadow of Mordor instead.

@fasoooli It’s 2026 we’re almost upon the PS6 time to let last gen go

I had fun with the co-op of this. The story isn't anything special, and the action is a bit withdrawn, but a good co-op is always welcome to me.

@Oram77 definetly a great game that was

The game is awesome dumb fun, but I bet it's still plagued by the infamous quest dropping bug.
See here: https://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/topic/125650-please-read-first-if-starting-a-new-game-or-restarting/
But I think I'll get it anyways 😄

This game was amazing for couch co-op of 3 people. Now I can finally get rid of my PS3 copy!

I actually loved this game back when it came out. It came out during a time I was obsessing over LotR. I was recently reminiscing about this gem and am so happy to revisit it. Take my money, Tolkien.

You shall not (game) pass!!!!

That PS3 to ps5 decompiler is working overtime these days.

The games industry sometimes indulges shoveling out mediocrity as a surprise, and War In The North is one of those times.

Talk about coming out of nowhere! What's next, a remaster of Rise of the Argonauts?

@4th_at_EVO the game is still ported to ps4 as written in the video's title, op should've just mentioned ps4 too in the post

Would love a surprise drop of Shadow Of Rome one day loved that game on ps2.

€21,59
It has split screen co-op

Review perhaps?

Return of the King was a great game

Yikes, that looks like someone put sugar free candy sprinkles on a turd

Will pick up on GoG because this screams of getting delisted down the road and Sony can't be trusted. Also, it's only £15.05 there DRM free.

@ShogunRok I suspect the reason for saying this is "solo optimised" is because the game is riddled with bugs in the co-op mode. I finished this on the 360 some year ago and the co-op mode took me 3 different playthroughs to finish with my brother as each time we encountered a different game breaking bug which meant we had to start the game from scratch. basically if you play in co-op you must make sure the lead player is the same through the co-op play through if you swap lead player it will go wrong. I doubt aspyr have fixed any of the legacy bugs. Given their track record.

I took the hit, everyone. I'm a big fan of all things Tolkien and Middle-earth, so I jumped on it. It's bad. And "solo optimized" is an outright lie. I was dead within minutes of the first mission because the AI companions just stood around while I got swarmed with orcs and pelted with arrows. Big regret on this one, and that's what I get.

IIRC this was the final game from Snowblind Studios of Snowblind Engine fame, which is the engine behind some of the greatest water rendering on the PS2. They also did the original Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance (although not it's sequel) as well as Champions of Norrath and it's sequel Return to Arms. I would love a remaster of those last two.

I played this one when it came out, and I remember it being fine. But it was just "fine"- a 6 out of 10 game thats fun enough to play if you like ARPGs and Tolkein. Serviceable, but it has big "this is no ones favourite video game" energy.

A disappointing last game for one of my favourite PS2 developers- they got folded into Monolith after this came out.

It's not a remaster. Quality reporting

It would be really cool to see that one PS2/Gamecube era Lord of the Ring game that was like a re-skinned FFX get a remaster/re-release.

@Deadhunter thank you for your sacrifice for the good of the community🫡

Still holding out for a rerelease of lord of the rings conquest

Won't lie, for a second I thought the White Council came back from the dead lol

This article reads like it was written by AI. Hopefully I'm wrong.

@woopox Er... I can assure you it wasn't. Unless I'm an AI. Who knows at this point.

@ShogunRok Have we ever seen Rob and AI in the same room before 🤔

lmao I literally just bought this two weeks ago at a used game store.

I was already feeling trolled by some unseen force that keeps having Sony release games I already own on PS+. Now I gotta deal with it for physical purchases too?

@ShogunRok the video title also mentioned ps4 but you only wrote ps5 in this post

I’ll probably pick it up just to support digital sales.

@woopox as someone who works in the advertising industry every single writer is definitely using AI.

I still remember seeing it was made with the dark alliance engine. I thought I was getting LOTR: dark alliance. Oh how wrong I was. It was alright for what it was. And the bugs sucked I never got any really bad ones but do remember a few niggles here and there.

Holy 🤬!!! The way I absolutely loved this game when it was out back then! Just platinum’d A Plague Tale: Requiem and wasn’t sure what to play next. Found it!

Nothing inspires worse terror than Sauron... unless it's a retro game release by Aspyr featuring all new bugs alongside those that might’ve already featured!😱🤯😂

If we are going to talk about the really good LOTR games and I mean really good then

. The Lord Of the Rings The Two Towers It is really good when on PS2 trust me it was good
. The Lord Of The Rings The Return Of The King just as good at the previous one if not slightly better
.The Lord Of The Rings The Third Age The FFX turn style rpg was really good prob my fav game of the three I listed

I want this to happen more. More random unexpected remasters please!

Just bought it - played it to death in 2012. Can anyone private coop online? We create a private match but invites don’t come through to each other. Want to play with just one other player and the AI as the third character. Anyone any ideas? Cheers

@Ajbr8687 I remember buying that to play with my mate because it was classed as a 2 player co-op on the box. You each had 3 of the 6 characters and just had to pass the controller to each other to take turns. They completely mis-sold the co-op but I still enjoyed the game and might revisit it at some point.

Believe it or not, this is one of my favourite games. Had tons of fun playing split screen with my best friend back in the day.

Buyer beware with Aspyr, they absolutely butchered the Battlefront ports.

More fool me and my mates for buying them day 1 only for them to be broke for weeks. Wish Sony had a better refund policy 🙄

@PanFriedSoup Loved Two Towers. That last section where you have defend the gate against relentless attack. That with the OST was epic!

Why can't they just have made a awesome LOTR RPG already? I've tried so many and they've all been garbage.
Harry Potter did it , so frustrating

@Wiceheid Yes, after Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance , Snowblind was asked by Sony to take their Everquest IP and produce a dungeon crawler (hence why BG: DA2 wasn't handled by them though it did use their engine)
That gave us the sublime Champions of Norrath and Return To Arms. I think after those games, Snowblind hinted at them working on a LOTR RPG but at some point I think they get acquired by Warner Bros and this eventually plopped out. To say it was a disappointment was an understatement and left a lot of fans wondering how good a Tolkienverse top down crawler could’ve been.
Still play BG:DA1 & 2 on the PS4 from time to time.

@Danbottomburp Once is in development by War Horse Studios (Kingdom Come Deliverance)

Fun fact, the original game was developed by a studio in my hometown in Washington state and they went on to merge with Monolith who went on the make the Shadow of Mordor/War games.

@Fishysensei which is funny considering the Xbox version is just cheaper.

Absolutely adored this game and The Third Age on ps2

The depiction of the eagles in War in the North is so good!

I thoroughly enjoyed the original on ps3!! Upgrading and collecting weapons armor etc.. storyline and how it paralleled with the known LOTR story (from movies) was fascinating.. hack and fire arrows and spells but also detailed conversations that impact play and outcomes.. tough challenges tho levels may be linear to some.. I found it to have tons of replay value. The one LOTR games I looked forward to a relaunch more than any other lol. Finally. People will love it. Good graphics and details in the original so it shiujd be even greater!!! This and MGS4, lets go!!!

@Futureshark 😂😂😂

@General_Spiller I don't think it's working atm. Wouldn't even let me create a private game.

@BentIeyma we created an open drop in drop out no problem and we had randoms join in but no private. Hopefully a patch is in the works

It was rough but a gem for sure. Glad it's getting re-released.

But yeah Conquest, Third Age, Battle for Middle Earth 2 (as 360 version unless m,any are PC versions as the base). The PS2 era movie or other novel adaptation games. Whatever they can offer but yeah limited licensing I assume for a few years maybe.

But as far as I could tell it said PS5, Series and Switch 1 & 2. So basically current gen and Switch carry over for a few years basically is how it looks to me. Basically like many retro releases keeping Switch 1 around in the 1 to 2 or 3 years range then moving on is how it looks.

Indies are the only PS4/Xbox One releases at this point, Sports games I think moved on or still are. Just Dance no clue either. PS4/Xbox One has been going for a while more then any others other then maybe Famicom repairs or Gameboy release with Pokemon extending it a bit longer before Gameboy Color and of course ending it all with GBA after.

But 12 to 15 years isn't common at all and that's not counting classic consoles or anything at all either.

Back on topic though.

It's quality of life here and there is fair for solo play. But yeah hack n slash/beat em up RPGs and such for co-op, online play and more. Was common back then.

Wasn't my thing but I respected it for sure.

I got Conquest as well and I mean that also needs to be on back compat or something. It and War in the North weren't for Xbox and that's kind of sad but not surprising. I don't think they were for GOG either.

But licensing is licensing so it is what it is.

I haven't checked the PS2 era ones as much either the strategy one from that era. I have Fellowship and Hobbit (Hobbit game was weird and great in it's own way) and they are fair too.

I haven't played Two Towers or Return of the King and don't have them yet.

@ilyn I just saw another post that they were going to look at other games so maybe they’ll rerelease it after all!

I didn’t know coop was a thing there - pretty cool. If included on the new on maybe I’ll play it with my son to introduce him to Turn based RPGs