Lord Of The Rings: War In The North Legacy Edition | PS5 Review

I will not say that I am the biggest The Lord of the Rings fan, since I do not know a lot of the lore behind J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece. But I really enjoy the series, especially Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy, which is my favorite. So I was surprised that I had never heard of the 2011 video game, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, until the shadow drop of the Legacy Edition from Aspyr Media. I had to jump on the opportunity to play this version. While I enjoyed it overall, it definitely shows its age despite the changes made to modernize the game.

For the Uneducated (Like Myself)

If you are like me and have never heard of LotR: War in the North, or never played the 2011 version, this section is for you.

LotR: War in the North takes place along the same timeline as the Fellowship, but follows Eradan, Andriel, and Farin, who are attempting to stop one of Sauron’s lieutenants: Agandaur. Agandaur is building an army of orcs and trolls to gain control of the north—the three travel throughout different regions of the north, such as Fornost and the Ettenmoors, across eight chapters.

This is very much a PS3/Xbox 360-era 3rd-person, linear, hack-and-slash adventure. If there is an open area, you can expect that there will be a battle with many different enemies, usually having an unnecessary number of enemy waves. If you have two friends, you can play co-operatively. Otherwise, you can play this solo with AI controlling the other two characters.

For the Educated

If you had played the 2011 game, these are the major changes made to improve the game:

• Ability to seamlessly swap in-game between each character when playing solo
• Target-locking
• HUD shows visible mana, health, and EXP
• Proper auto-save function
• Full support for 60 FPS with enhanced resolutions

What I Enjoyed

Overall, I have had a lot of fun with LotR: War in the North. I enjoy the feel of a PS3/Xbox 360 era hack-and-slash game, especially in a The Lord of the Rings setting. I loved following Eradan, Farin, and Andriel while the Fellowship is occurring, and also got to see the Fellowship at Rivendell during the quest. It was a good experience and felt like a meaningful expansion of the lore. The story started slowly, but I really started to enjoy it after the first couple of chapters. Finally, the experience is definitely more enjoyable co-operatively, but the ability to swap between characters makes the solo experience worth playing.

What I Did Not Like

As I alluded to, the beginning of the game is very slow, especially the first chapter, which took probably fifteen to twenty minutes longer than I expected. The chapters start to condense after the first two, but I didn’t look forward to playing that first chapter again with my friends. The beginning also feels very similar when it comes to combat, as each character does not have many abilities and takes a while to progress before they become more distinct.

My biggest complaint is the solo experience, especially having to deal with the inventory as much as I did. It felt like I was in the menus for 20% of my solo playthrough. Some of that time was spent equipping the best equipment, but I would have to do that for each character, as well as determining if that character could use the item. Then, I had to do the same thing when buying and selling items. It really slowed the pace and dragged out the experience.

Finally, I briefly spoke about it earlier, but there were often an unnecessary number of waves in most battles. I often thought the battle was over, only for there to be another wave of enemies. I did not mind the feeling of going from battle to battle, but I felt that each encounter took at least a wave longer than necessary, especially at the beginning.

Final Thoughts

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North – Legacy Edition was an overall fun experience on the LotR lore. It definitely had the feeling of a PS3/Xbox 360-era hack-and-slash adventure, both good and bad. The story is overall good, with fun combat, especially in co-op. The solo experience can be bogged down by the time you spend in the menus. If you enjoyed the original, they made some well-appreciated improvements. If you have not played it, you really need to be in the mood for that era of hack-and-slash combat, or looking for a fun cooperative experience. If you fall into either group, $19.99 USD is well worth it for the twelve- to fifteen-hour experience.

To hear me talk more about Lord Of The Rings: War In The North Legacy Edition, be sure to listen to August 26th, 2026 episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 1:06:12 time stamp.

This review is based on a PS5 copy provided by Sandbox Strat for coverage purposes. As of this writing it is exclusive to that platform.