War in the North is back on modern consoles for $20

Aspyr is currently pushing a promotional campaign for The Lord of the Rings: War in the North Legacy Edition following its surprise shadow-drop on August 11. The game is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store. It costs $19.99, with a 10 percent launch discount running through August 24.

Seven years off the digital storefronts

Snowblind Studios originally developed the game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era in 2011. It was a three-player cooperative action RPG running parallel to the main Tolkien narrative. You played as Eradan the Ranger, Andriel the Loremaster, and Farin the Champion fighting Agandaûr in the northern regions. The campaign includes appearances from established characters like Gandalf, Aragorn, and the sons of Elrond, alongside original creations like the dragon Urgost.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment published the original release, but licensing agreements expired in February 2019. The game vanished from digital storefronts entirely.

Snowblind pioneered this exact brand of console hack-and-slash with Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath on the PlayStation 2. War in the North was their final major project before Warner Bros. Merged the team into Monolith Productions in 2012. The combat relies heavily on timing and positioning, rewarding players who coordinate their attacks rather than just mashing buttons.

The original game earned a dedicated cult following mostly because of its visceral co-op mechanics. You could share loot, revive downed teammates, and trigger combo multipliers together. Playing it solo was always a bit of a slog because the AI companions were notoriously unreliable at prioritizing targets.

The path to this re-release goes through Embracer Group. The conglomerate acquired Aspyr under its Saber Interactive wing, and later bought the Middle-earth literary IP rights via Middle-earth Enterprises in 2022. That corporate alignment allowed Aspyr to partner with Warner Bros. To bring the game back. Aspyr has also indicated this is the start of a broader initiative to remaster classic Lord of the Rings video games.

60 FPS and character hot-swapping

This is not just a straight port of the 2011 code. Aspyr moved the game to a native 64-bit architecture and bumped the performance target to 60 frames per second. The studio also added mid-game character hot-swapping. This is a massive improvement over the original release, where you were locked into one hero for long stretches.

The multiplayer networking now runs on Epic Online Services, replacing the defunct original matchmaking. PlayStation 5 and Switch players also get gyro aiming controls for ranged attacks. The UI party status bars have been updated to better track your teammates during chaotic fights.

Snowblind's combat system was always satisfying, and having proper modern networking means the three-player co-op is actually functional again. At $20, it is priced reasonably for a fifteen-year-old game with networking updates. European Switch owners will need to wait a few more days, as the eShop release in that region is scheduled for August 18.