Everything we know about Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth

Get ready to jump back into the vibrant world of Middle-earth with Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth, the newest game inspired by the fantastic literary work. We’ve already had dozens of games based on all the books in this series, including The Hobbit, as well as experiences that explore other stories not yet told in those original texts, with the most notable being Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel Shadow of War. However, the mobile space has not had a big hit with this IP as of yet.

Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth looks to change that. This ambitious new free-to-play game wants to bring the high production value, scale, characters, story, and fun gameplay of other titles into the palm of our hands. Like many things in Middle-earth, a lot of information about this upcoming game is still shrouded in darkness. However, after plumbing the books and scrolls of Minas Tirith and consulting our council, we offer you everything we know about Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth.

See more

Release date

Publisher EA has yet to reveal a release date for Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth. We do know that there will be some sort of beta for the game sometime in summer 2022, but there’s no word on how long that will last or how it will lead into the full release.

Platforms

Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth is only stated as coming to mobile platforms. We assume this means iOS and Android, but both are technically not confirmed yet. We don’t anticipate it coming to PC either, at least at launch.

Trailer

Unfortunately, Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth hasn’t had a single trailer, video, or other form of footage shown yet. This isn’t too uncommon for some mobile games, but we would think that a huge IP like the Lord of the Rings would warrant some footage when revealing the game. That said, we do expect a trailer to drop at some point before release.

Story wise, details are sparse. Middle-earth Enterprises’ Chief Brand and Licensing Officer Fredrica Drotos stated that they aim to create a “game soley inspired by Middle-earth as described in the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien to its fans,” and that the game will have immersive storytelling and a “wide roster of characters from across the vast universe of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. It appears that the game will span the entire timeline of the books, as well as possibly expanding to show events before and after as well. Until more is revealed, we can only guess at this point.

Gameplay

Again, all we have to go on for how Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth will play is based on some descriptions. At the core, the game will be a “Collectible Role-Playing Game that brings the fantasy and adventure of The Lord of the Rings to existing fans and new audiences alike in a strategic, social-competitive experience.” For more details, we know that battles will play out in turn-based encounters with a large cast of characters and collection systems. We assume the social-competitive experiences mentioned mean the ability to team up, as well as battle against, other players online.

To us, this sounds like some sort of party-building RPG where you can collect new iconic characters to add to your team to fight through the most iconic battles in the series. Getting those characters, though, is likely where the monetization system will come in. Again, this is just our speculation, but it sounds like a gacha-style system will be incorporated here.

Multiplayer

Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth will have multiplayer by nature of it being promoted for having social and competitive elements. What these modes will be exactly remains to be seen.

DLC

Being a free-to-play game, Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth will at least feature some form of storefront to sell microtransactions, whether it be in the form of characters, missions, or materials that you use to access new content. If the game is successful, EA will likely continue supporting it with new content for the foreseeable future.

Pre-order

Being a free-to-play game, there won’t be any pre-order options for Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth. However, there will be that beta period at some point, though we don’t know who will be able to access it or how as of yet. Once we do, we will let you know so you can try it out ahead of release.

Editors’ Recommendations