Lord of the Rings, Vol. 1 is a computer fantasy role playing game based on the first volume of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. This game was originally released by Interplay in 1990 though there was a later CD edition released as well. It was available on DOS based PCs, the Amiga, FM Towns, and PC-98 (the latter two being platforms available in Japan).
I have mixed feelings about RPGs based on books. If I’ve never read the book, then I guess it doesn’t really matter. However, in the case of Lord of the Rings, I had read the books before the game existed. This affects your game experience because not only are you already familiar with the world, but with the specific story. However, the good news is that the game does add other significant side quests that aren’t in the books so you won’t be familiar with everything even if you have read the books.
This game is played from a top down perspective and combat is turn based. This is very open ended game and you can roam wherever you want and complete various quests. Of course the main quest has to also be followed at some point in order to complete the game. This is my personal favorite style of RPG. It is reminiscent of the Gold Box AD&D games as well as other popular computer RPGs of the time.
This game generally got positive reviews at the time it was released. The open ended nature and additional quests means that there is a little something for everyone here. The main storyline is largely intact from the book if that’s what you are looking for but there are also different quests and various ways to get there. Whether you’ve read the books or not, this should be an enjoyable game if you like RPGs of this style.
The special edition CD-ROM version that came a long a couple of years later enhances the game somewhat. The most important thing it adds is an automapping feature. While I really like a lot of old school RPGs, I always found the ones that make you do your own mapping a bit more tedious than I would like so this is a welcome enhancement. It also adds a soundtrack and cutscenes from the 1978 Lord of the Rings cartoon. I don’t care much about the cutscenes but the soundtrack is nice.
If you do want to give this game a try, you’ll have to find an original copy or one of the re-releases that came along a few years later. There was the above mentioned special edition that was also packaged with The Two Towers as well as a Interplay 10 year anniversary collection that included this game. Both of these were released in 1993 and I don’t think there have been any subsequent releases.
Screen shots above are from the DOS version of the game. The ad at the top features the box art which was done by the Brothers Hildebrandt.
