We all have it don’t we? A dream game? Imagine this scenario: you are put in charge of developing a brand new game, it can be anything you choose, developed by any studio, and money is no object. So what game would I choose to make in the given scenario above? Well I’m glad you asked! My game would be a 100% open world RPG, set in the greatest fictional universe ever conceived by man: Middle Earth. That’s right, a Lord of the Rings open world RPG! Picture Elder Scrolls: Skryim, but with Tolkien!
No limits….no barries….just pure exploration
To be clear, the game wouldn’t occur during the Lord of the Rings storyline, but somewhere in the start of the third age. The fact that such a game doesn’t already exist astonishes me. I mean it’d be absolutely perfect wouldn’t it? The lore is jaw droppingly massive, with endless source material to pull from. There is really no limit to what you could do with such a game. As for the developers, I’d have to choose Bethesda. The minds behind Elder Scrolls and Fallout, they’re the only devs I would trust to bring such a massive and detailed world alive.
So much lore
Gameplay wise, I’d use Skyrim as a model. Keeping the fluid combat and first person perspective, accompanied by the open world exploration. The world would be created from a map of middle earth, obviously. Ideally the map span all the way from the snowy peaks of Ered Luin to the black lands of Mordor itself……I know such a scale would hardly be possible, but hey, it’s my dream game remember? Now that I think about it, for gameplay reasons it would be permissible cut in the distance in half with Ered Luin being the left most corner of the map, mirkwood being all the way on the right, and Rivendell serving as the bottom.
As for story, well there wouldn’t really be a story….not a central story at least. Instead, story would dynamically be handled region to region. For example, as you start talking with people in the shire and doing quests in that area, the story will expand and envelope in that area. If you were to then move to Fangorn forest, the local story there would begin to develop. It would be total open world, no real game ending or beginning, no real “central quest.”
So there you have it! My dream game. What do you think? More importantly, what’s your dream game? I’d really, really like to know! Tell me in the comments, or better yet, link me a follow up post!
Gamer Ramble 