Join gaming leaders live this May 20-21 in Los Angeles to examine the strategies needed to adapt and excel in an ever evolving landscape, featuring insights from leading voices and thought leaders in the industry. Register here. In his office, Lee Guinchard has a bunch of paraphernalia honoring J.R....
The only JRR Tolkien game I care about is the fully immersive VR experience where you tell bedtime stories to a young Christopher Tolkien who calls you out on any minor continuity errors you make.
They've never had the best track record. The (first?) one on SNES was hot garbage, not sure if there was (an official) one before that. Your trepidation is warranted.
There was a ZX Spectrum graphic text-adventure game of The Hobbit in 1982 by Beam Software. It won a Golden Joystick award in '83. It had two followups that were even more well received in The Fellowship of the Ring (1985) and The Shadows of Mordor (1987).
The older LotR Two Towers and Return of the King were decent Hack and Slash fun for the time. Shadow of Mordor got good reviews but I never had the pleasure.
I loved the first one but the 2nd one just couldn't keep me engaged. I played it for like a week then put it down and never felt the urge to pick it back up again.
The combat in those games is very addictive, it's just so smooth and enjoyable. So like you said I also don't think they would need to change much as the gameplay is already top tier.