Play J.R.R. Tolkiens War in Middle Earth (Lord of the Rings) Online

Game Overview

War in Middle-earth is one of those old-school MS-DOS games that somehow makes you feel like you're actually in charge of the whole War of the Ring—for better or worse. You start off staring at this giant map of Middle-earth, trying to figure out whether to send Aragorn to rally Gondor or keep Gandalf alive long enough to do something useful. The interface takes some getting used to (it is from 1988), but once it clicks, you’re suddenly weighing whether to risk Frodo sneaking into Mordor or just throwing everything at Sauron’s armies head-on.

What’s cool is how it mixes big-picture strategy with little RPG moments—like when Legolas gets ambushed by orcs and you’re frantically trying to keep him alive. The battles are chaotic in the best way, especially sieges where you’re desperately holding Minas Tirith with whatever troops you’ve scraped together. Yeah, the graphics are pixelated as hell, but there’s something weirdly satisfying about seeing your tiny Rohirrim charge into a blob of pixelated Uruk-hai. Just don’t expect it to go easy on you—Sauron plays dirty.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".