Aspyr shadow-drops a War in the North Legacy Edition for $19.99

Aspyr has released The Lord of the Rings: War in the North Legacy Edition, a remaster of Snowblind Studios’ 2011 co-op action RPG, out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC through Steam, the Epic Games Store, and GOG for $19.99, with a 10% launch discount running through August 24. The Switch and Switch 2 versions land on the EU eShop on August 18.

This is the same game from back in the day, now with the modernizations a 2011 title needs to be worth revisiting: character hot-swapping on the fly, refined enemy lock-on, 60 FPS, autosave and extra save slots, gyro support on PS5 and both Switch models, and bug fixes. The co-op still runs up to three players online or two in local split-screen, though the original Switch is left out of both local co-op and 60 FPS. The story sits off to the side of the Fellowship: three heroes, a Ranger, a Loremaster, and a Champion, taking on Agandaur, a servant of Sauron gathering an army in the ruins of Fornost.

War in the North was never a critical darling. Reviews at release were middling, and the Xbox 360 version averaged 61 on Metacritic, mostly for its linear stretches and repetitive fights. But a three-player Middle-earth brawler that had drifted out of easy reach is back at twenty bucks, and it is on GOG, which means a DRM-free copy that stays yours. Aspyr calls this its first Lord of the Rings release and says more classics from the franchise are coming, so this is worth watching for what shows up next.