Lord of the Rings Video Games, Ranked Worst to Best
J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy book series The Lord of the Rings has long been an inspiration for videogame designers, with the first game adaptation (of The Hobbit) arriving in 1982, to be followed by dozens of additional game adaptations over the next four decades. The arrival of Peter Jackson's film trilogy in the early 2000s only accelerated the game industry's rush to put Middle-earth on consoles, PCs, and mobile devices. And the games are still coming, with two new titles released during the first half of 2023 alone.
Some of those games have been well received by critics and gamers alike, while others were far from precious. In the gallery on this page, we rank every Lord of the Rings video game adaptation (of both the books and the films) released in the modern era of gaming, starting in 2002. The games are ranked from worst to best by their Metascores, which reflect the consensus views of professional game critics.
Note that titles must have at least four reviews from professional critics in order to have a Metascore. (That four-review cutoff means that many mobile-only games, including the recently released The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth, are not listed here.) If a game was released on multiple platforms, only the version receiving the highest quantity of critic reviews was eligible for inclusion.
PlayStation 4, 2017
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Xbox One, PC
The sequel to 2014's Shadow of Mordor couldn't quite match the latter's level of acclaim but received solid reviews nevertheless. Developed again by Monolith Productions, Shadow of War features similar action-adventure gameplay set in Middle-earth in between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (and drawing inspiration from both the books and the films), with players taking on procedurally generated enemies via the game's expanded "Nemesis System." In fact, there's more of just about everything in the sequel—so much so that more than a few critics complained of bloat (as well as a subpar narrative). And there was also at least one complaint about Shadow's gamification of slavery. But some reviewers found Shadow to be superior to its predecessor.
In addition to numerous smaller DLC packs, a major story expansion, Blade of Galadriel, followed in 2018, while another expansion, Desolation of Mordor, was released a few months later.
“Middle-Earth: Shadow of War is a massive game that feels a lot like its predecessor, but now it’s filled with even more things to collect and more missions to finish. But when does a game contain too much? As I reached the end of the campaign, the good times I had turned into a series of chores. Luckily, players can avoid most of the busywork by not worrying about the online conquests or the endgame, but for those that do? Be prepared to grind for it.” —GameCritics
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