Prior to 1990, there were a handful of adventure games that basically just recapped the plot ( The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring), and one strategy game that aspired to some RPG elements: War in Middle Earth (1988), which I reviewed in March 2011 briefly before concluding that it wasn't enough of an RPG. Nonetheless, I've always been surprised that there aren't more games based explicitly on the Tolkienverse, especially CRPGs. I even regard the films with two minds, loving them for their visuals but constantly ridiculing them for their dialogue. I respect his place at the forefront of both written fantasy and, through Dungeons & Dragons, fantasy role-playing, but I'm sick to death of Tolkien references everywhere (e.g., games like Moria, Angband, Orthanc the sword Orcrist in NetHack whatever-Hai in a ton of games). I admire the extensive world-building in which he engaged, but I think he was a mediocre-sometimes terrible-writer and I've never been able to force myself to finish Lord of the Rings. Not long afterwards, as Beleg had feared, the Orcs came across the Brithiach, and being resisted with all the force that he could muster by Handir of Brethil they passed south over the Crossings of Teiglin in search of plunder.īut he turned towards Brethil, and at the same time I learned from wanderers in the land that the Black Sword of Nargothrond had appeared there again, and the Orcs shunned its borders as death.My feelings about Tolkien run hot and cold. Most of the orcs in the field heard the newest danger before they saw it, for Bluster and his friends were a noisy lot.įelagund, who had the friendship of Thingol, hearing of all that had befallen the People of Haleth, obtained this grace for her: that she should dwell free in Brethil, upon the condition only that her people should guard the Crossings of Teiglin against all enemies of the Eldar, and allow no Orcs to enter their woods.īut most were now destroyed, or had fled into Brethil, and all that region lay under the fear of Orcs, and of outlaws. If an orc or a goblin had gone into that cave, Bluster would have swatted it dead without a second thought.īadgers were possibly the meanest creatures in the region, even above the orcs, quicker to anger than Bluster the bear and quite willing to take the offensive against any opponent, no matter how large. Their leader, a mighty orc almost twice as tall as the sort of tusker Alusair was used to slaying in the Stonelands, whose much-battered breastplate was studded with grinning human skulls, was grinning at her as one large, grubby finger rubbed along the glyphs of the largest tainted tree Alusair had yet seen. He batted it backward, then stabbed the prone orc behind the ear, snuffing the light in its sunken eyes. She then punched the startled Orvaega in the snout, breaking bone and knocking the orc unconscious, and shoved her into Sewer Rat, which served to knock the runtish meazel backward, spoiling its frenzied attack. Gunny was still breathing but he had a gash the size of a forearm in his side, the heavy blow from the orc having smashed the loricated plate in. Orcs, even Huor, for he would not be restrained, though he was but thirteen years old. I can suspend my disbelief enough to accept that a tiny hobbit could kill a huge orc, but Tolkien stretches it to the breaking point when he adds that the hobbit has never even used a sword before. Leading the way up the forested slope, Daile emerged from the autumn-colored forest, finding herself on the high, rocky crest of granite that Ren affectionately dubbed Dead Orc Ridge. But the vicious sword took that fear and transformed it, bombarding poor Delly with images of her child being massacred by those same orcs, turning her terror into red rage so completely that she was soon running headlong for the camp.
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