If the Amazon Lord of the Rings TV show feels a long way off, the Gollum game isn’t taking your fancy and you still need to get your Tolkien fix, an old classic might be ready to scratch your fantasy-gaming fix.
Lord of the Rings Online, the veteran MMORPG now headed up by Standing Stone Games, is having a huge content giveaway to lure in lapsed and new gamers alike.
Up until November 30, you’ll be able to claim access to all of the game’s currently available quest packs, absolutely free. You’ll need to download the game and access its built-in store, where the coupon code LOTROQUESTS2021 will unlock the mammoth stash of content.
In addition, the free-to-play game’s premium expansion packs, like Mines of Moria and Riders of Rohan, are also heavily discounted, giving you the opportunity to nab the entire Lord of the Rings Online package at its most affordable price ever.
You can grab the game through Steam, or via the Lord of the Rings Online website.
Analysis: an epic, if ancient, quest
Now fourteen years old, The Lord of the Rings Online has enough grey hairs to rival Gandalf’s beard. Released during the height of the noughties MMO rush, it was a popular and ambitious title, capitalizing on the halo effect that Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings cinematic trilogy had on J.R.R. Tolkien’s work as a whole.
While never reaching the player count highs of World of Warcraft, players enjoyed the game’s pastoral vibe and dedication to (as best as possible) staying true to the spirit of the franchise. It attracted a strong role-playing community that, while diminished, remains loyal and vibrant to this day.
And despite its age, Lord of the Rings Online is still pumping out new content – a Gundabad-themed expansion is still slated for release this year, with this free content likely intended to reignite wider interest in the game.
With a huge swathe of content available for zero pennies under the free-to-play model and updates to DirectX11 visuals giving the game a new lick of paint in the past couple of years, it’s the perfect time to test the waters once again.
