The New Lord of the Rings Game May Have Already Dodged the Biggest Open-World Game Trap

After denying rumors last year that suggested they were working on a Lord of the Rings game, Warhorse Studios, the team behind the Kingdom Come: Deliverance RPG series, has now confirmed that it is, in fact, currently developing a Middle-earth RPG. For me, this is some of the best news I've heard all year, as I am probably just as much a fan of The Lord of the Rings as I am of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. The open-world RPG formula Warhorse arguably perfected in its KCD series, now being used to bring Middle-earth to life, is something I've been dreaming of since I first heard the rumors, as I'm confident that if anyone can finally do Tolkien's world justice within the gaming space, it's them.

But this is about much more than Middle-earth eventually becoming an open-world playground. As a veteran Lord of the Rings Online player, I've experienced that fantasy world in a seamless space before, and I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent in it. However, my confidence that Warhorse can deliver a Lord of the Rings open-world RPG worth playing is ultimately rooted in what I've already seen them do in Kingdom Come: Deliverance and how that can and likely will translate over to Middle-earth. It's the developer's approach to the open-world formula in general that I appreciate, and I have a feeling it's not going to abandon that philosophy and fall into the same trap that many other open-world games experience such difficulty avoiding.

Warhorse Studios Has Proven It Understands the Value of Discovery

Obviously, Warhorse Studios has proven its ability to craft an RPG that feels authentic and grounded while still offering a playable, entertaining experience. With its emphasis on historical realism in the Kingdom Come: Deliverance games, it gives players a chance to experience what life might have actually been like in the days of medieval Bohemia, from the way people dressed and spoke to the social hierarchies, religious tensions, and everyday struggles that shaped their world. But in crafting such a believable world, it has also shown how much it understands the value of discovery.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is, first and foremost, a world that players can live in. Sure, a narrative arches over it all, but at that story's center is an ordinary protagonist. He is lovable and charming, but he was also intentionally designed not to hog the spotlight. Instead, he is more akin to the shoes players wear while they're exploring Warhorse's faithful recreation of medieval Bohemia. In that context, the open world is the main character, and Henry, the player, is just a side character trying to thrive within it.

Because of that, an immense amount of care went into ensuring Bohemia felt like a world rather than a setting—a world that felt alive, not just because of the dynamic, routine-driven NPCs that populated it, but because of what players could discover as they ventured off the beaten path. In fact, both Kingdom Come: Deliverance games go out of their way to ensure the main quest never gets in your way, resulting in a beaten path that is very easily disregarded in favor of whatever curiosity happens to pull you in the opposite direction. That's where Warhorse's open-world design shines, because discovery in Kingdom Come rarely feels like it exists to pad out a map.

So Much of What's Discoverable in a Warhorse World Isn't Marked on a Map

Unfortunately, too many open-world games fall into the trap of turning their content into a checklist of chores rather than a hidden (or somewhat hidden) list of meaningful discoveries. Maps in these games are often littered with exclamation points and other icons that essentially tell players where to go and what to do. Much of this likely comes from developers not wanting an open world that feels empty, so they avoid negative space when and where they can by shoving another activity or collectible into it. But even then, meaningless activities can make open worlds feel even more empty than they were without them. Ultimately, it all comes down to how that negative space is utilized.

To be fair, there's absolutely nothing wrong with an open-world game having an enormous number of activities for players to do. Rather, the error comes up in how it's executed. For example, Crimson Desert's open world can take players hundreds upon hundreds of hours to complete, and yet it has a way of not making that amount of content feel overwhelming. It accomplishes this by keeping the majority of its content a mystery on the map, thereby encouraging players to discover it themselves. In turn, that frees them from the pressure of doing specific activities while simultaneously ensuring they don't feel like they're leaving anything behind by choosing a particular path.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is, first and foremost, a world that players can live in.

Warhorse's Kingdom Come: Deliverance games are very similar, in that they trust players to find the world by paying attention to it, rather than by chasing every icon that appears on the map. Some of the most memorable moments in these games come from overhearing something strange, following a road simply because it looks interesting, wandering into a camp at the wrong time, or realizing that a seemingly ordinary NPC has a problem that can turn into a much larger story. That kind of discovery makes the world feel like a place that exists beyond the player's involvement, and for an open-world RPG, that makes all the difference.

Warhorse's Middle-earth RPG May Have Already Avoided the Open-World Trap

It's that history that tells me whatever Warhorse is cooking up in terms of a Lord of the Rings RPG is bound to avoid making Middle-earth feel like a theme park of familiar locations and map markers. That is by far the easiest trap for a game like this to fall into, especially with a world as beloved and recognizable as Tolkien's. The temptation would be to fill the map with things players already know, point them toward every major landmark, and make the whole thing feel like a guided tour through Middle-earth's greatest hits. But if Warhorse carries its Kingdom Come philosophy into this project, Middle-earth will likely end up feeling more like a place players slowly come to understand by living in it, listening to it, and letting curiosity lead them somewhere they didn't originally plan to go.

To me, that's why Warhorse's involvement is so exciting. A Lord of the Rings open-world RPG could very easily collapse under the pressure of its own source material, especially if it mistakes scale, references, and recognizable locations for memorable exploration. Warhorse has already shown that it knows how to make an open world feel full without constantly telling players where the fullness is, and that may be exactly what Middle-earth needs. If this new game follows that same design instinct, it may have already dodged one of the genre's biggest traps before players have even seen it.