168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Lord of the Rings completely reshaped the fantasy genre in such a monumental way that hundreds of books, games, and movies are still openly inspired by it, even 69 years after its publication. And yet, while so much fantasy can be traced back to LotR, so few games capture the feeling of an everyday person being plucked out of their daily life to experience a newfound adventure. Even games based in its world, like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Shadow of Mordor, play fast and loose with lor𝕴e to depict a power fantasy centred on action, when the series is so distinct because it’s always been about or🅠dinary folk fighting against impossible odds.
So, after finally sitting down and reading the LotR tri𝐆logy, I looked outside the universe for a gaming alternative, and landed on an unusual and nostalgic gem—. Only here,🐬 I’m leaving a prison boat instead of the Shire, and the wizard falls out of the sky and splats on the pavement instead of knocking at my door.
An old darkness is reawakening in the heart of a walled-off citadel built around a volcano; the key to destroying this immortal being is to sever their tie to an ancient artefact; meanwhile, this evil sends out a brooding cult to hunt down a new, unknown hero adventuring to find allies who will aid them in their quest. When the dust settles, this same hero fades back into obscurity. Those sentences describe LotR and Morrowind, only the artefact in Morrowind isn’t a fabled ♔ring, but the heart of an old god.
It’s a quest so clearly inspired by Tolkien that it’s hard not to draw parallels, but Morrowind uniquely evokes the feel of Frodo and Sam’s adventure because 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:you can’t turn back. Their journey is perilous because every action is aꦏ step closer to literal Doom, and they have no choice but to keep plodding towards it. The mere idea of returning to the Shire for safety is a distraction that wastes valuable time. In so many fanta✃sy games, we can jump to and from the hub, or return to towns easily to recuperate, but Morrowind lacks fast travel, so when you’re stranded out in the wilderness, you either keep pushing forward or turn back and admit defeat.
The closer we get to Morrowind’s Sauron equivalent—Dagoth Ur—the more hostile the land becomes. The sky is an oppressive red choked by clouds of thick smog, the trees of what was once a forest are now a graveyard, and the wall stretching around the fortress is clearly n🏅ot of the same design a🌠s the enemy—whatever lies beyond isn’t protecting its home, it was locked away. Once we pass through that gate and finally step foot into the Red Mountain, we’re committing to the end, much as when Sam and Frodo finally ventured into Mount Doom.
The Lord of the Rings is a story about adventure and perseverance. Each book sees Sam and Frodo face a more treacherous path than the last, whether it’s scaling a cliffside as 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Gollum stalks from the shadows, or sneaking through a pitch-black den of a giant spider,෴ surrounded by a fortress of angry Orcs. Going from something as small and humble as the Shire, to sublime cities beyond the scale of their comprehension, to the horrors of Sauron’s domain builds up the momentum of their adventure to a finale that ultimately feels earned.
Red Mountain is our endpoint in Morrowind, our Mount Doom. The adventure is clear from the start, but it’s the in-between that is most important. LotR unfolds its world by letting us see through Frodo’s eyes, this normal everyday Hobbit from a land not unlike our own. It’s as outlandish to him as it is to us, grounding the narrative in a way that mak𒉰es it more approachaཧble and understandable.
Morrowind starts slow—we meet a man in a pretty normal city full of pretty normal folk, much as when Frodo and co. ventured out of The Shire to a tavern in Bree; soon we walk up the steps of a pyramid to meet a glowing god who suspends himself in the air, an otherworldly being whose demeanour is that of someone living outside of normal time, like Bombadil; later, we speak to dark lords like Azurah who wish us good rather than harm, subverting our expectations and our own stigmas, mu🦩ch like when Gimli met Galadriel.
It builds to a point where standing toe-to-toe with a resurrected evil god feels normal because the pacing is so perfect. It doesn't throw us in the deep end with complex lore and an abundance of important characters, it gradually works its way up to that point so that we're ready, even if by the end, we're still that hapless prisoner who stumbled out of nowhere.
Morrowind understands why Frodo’s journey was so endearing—t🌃he end goal was always on the heroes’ minds, but J. R. R. Tolkien still took the time to unpack this new world with us, letting 🧔us find out what—and who—Frodo was saving. Dagoth Ur and Sauron aren’t just some mythical big bads at the end of a series of mindless fights, but the very idea of evil manifest, and while the world is far from perfect and so many of its people as evil as them, we find those worth rescuing who push us further on our journey. And when we finally reach the end and slay Dagoth Ur, with one health potion left and our supplies running dry, that arduous journey suddenly feels worth the trouble. Vvardenfell is saved, long live Frodo!