opinion: A montage of Middle-earth in the Unreal Engine alone is enough to make my heart beat. But it also shows what Lord of the Rings fans really need at the moment.
Sometimes it is almost unbearable for me. Little videos surface on YouTube at regular intervals. Videos in which fans go to great lengths. Because here the fantastic world of Middle Earth is staged in the style of the Jackson films – and in game graphics.
The Unreal Engine 5 now makes it possible for many people out there to produce at least impressive little films. And in a graphic splendour that we used to expect only from baggy triple-A productions. What is unbearable for me here is that it is always just a beautiful fantasy. A dream of a Lord of the Rings game that finally draws me immersively into its world again. A world I love more than any other. Except it never happens.
Now another trailer edited together by fans has surfaced. And here I am gripped by a particularly great longing. But first take a look for yourself and despair:
What is this video?
Quite fancy to look at, isn”t it? At least for me, this triggers some great emotions as well. The trailer, as I said, of course does not show a real project – at least nothing on this scale. In fact, it is the work of a team that did not build these scenes shown. Rather, the trailer is a compilation of many, many individual videos.
A few of these productions have already been shown here. For example, some time ago we reported on the Shire in Unreal Engine and there were also scenes from the fan remake of Lord of the Rings: The Conquest to marvel at in the trailer.
What the trailer manages to do now, however, is create a sense of a cohesive world. While other videos focus on individual areas, like Helm”s Deep, the Shire or Minas Tirith, this trailer suggests to me a game that showcases the diversity of Middle-earth. And in a look that I would expect from an expensive production with a Lord of the Rings licence.
Except there”s nothing like that being produced at the moment. There is not a complete ebb, after all, Gollum and more recently Return to Moria are planned – which I am actually looking forward too. But Lord of the Rings fans just want more.
It lacks sparkle
I”ve written before about how Lord of the Rings should learn from Star Wars. That it”s important to give fans what they want in the simplest way possible. And Lord of the Rings fans in particular are so passionate and so influenced by the Jackson films that an uncomplicated concept with a lovingly elaborate look can already trigger great feelings.
Fans want to go back to Middle-earth! We also want to explore again with great love the places we may have seen on the cinema screen as children. For me, it”s not so much about a huge open world with high-end graphics. It would be enough to pull me more or less stringently through this world. Even in the action-adventure game Return of the King, I loved just sneaking through Osgiliath with Sam or standing on the walls of Minas Tirith as Gandalf. Even the gameplay-awful Lord of the Rings: The Conquest at least gave me the option to explore familiar places like Rivendell.
I did like Mordor”s Shadow and Shadow of War, but in the end that also drifted heavily into fanfiction and hardly gave me any locations I know from the films. Yet that is such a simple need. And the large number of Unreal Engine projects shows how many people long for it, and also how many views these YouTube videos generate.
It could all be so simple.
