RiftMode
The north doesn’t welcome you. It never does. The cold comes at my face like something personal, like the wind has a reason to push back, and I lean into it anyway because stopping isn’t something I can afford right now. Snow kicks up around my boots in loose, spinning circles before the gusts scatter it all sideways, gone in an instant, the way things tend to disappear out here. The ruins have been standing long enough that nobody alive remembers what they were. I can feel that just looking at them. The broken walls jut up against the sky in rough, uneven shapes, and the whole place carries that particular silence that only comes after something terrible has already happened and settled into the ground. My footsteps hit the stone and the sound goes nowhere, swallowed by how wide everything is out here, the valley dropping away beyond the cliffs into something that looks almost bottomless from where I’m standing.
A Great Eagle is working the air above me. I’ve been watching it. The way it moves through the wind, barely adjusting, all that mass and those wide wings cutting clean through the cold, it doesn’t belong in a place this broken down, and yet there it is. It calls out once, the sound cutting right through the noise of the storm, and without really deciding to, I find myself tracking its shadow across the snow below me. North of here, smoke is climbing. Not the kind that rises clean and straight. This stuff bends and twists in ways that make you look elsewhere, curling back on itself, moving against the wind. The clouds above it have gone dark and heavy, that ugly bruised color that sits low on the horizon and makes the whole sky feel like it’s pressing down.
If what I fear takes over, then this war can never be won, and is already lost. I must not feed my fears. The people…the lands…Middle-Earth, it all needs the protection against all that is evil. I must overcome any fear and them with every ounce of blood left in me or die trying.
Features include:
- Choose Your Orc-Bane – Seamlessly swap between three uniquely skilled characters with Eradan, the stealthy Dúnadan Ranger, Andriel, the magical Elven Loremaster, and Farin, the tank-like Dwarven Champion.
- Build a Fellowship in Co-Op – Play in a group of up to three players online or two players in local split-screen*, working together with your friends as you fight for the survival of your fellowship and all of Middle-earth!
- Deep RPG Progression – Customize your hero and party members with unique skills, abilities, and gear to complement your playstyle. Collect powerful weapons and armor, and even command the mighty Great Eagle Beleram to strike from the sky and turn the tide of battle.
- Iconic Cameos & Locations – Encounter familiar faces like Aragorn, Gandalf, and Elrond as you journey through lore-rich locations such as the Elven sanctuaries of Rivendell and Lórien and the foggy paths of Mirkwood.
- A Darker Middle-earth Full of Peril – Experience a mature story featuring brutal warfare and blood-soaked battlefields in a world gnawed by ruthless Orcs, deadly Wargs, spectral Barrow-wights, and the dark sorcery of Agandaûr’s forces.
- Character Hot-Swapping – New in this edition, swap between characters on-the-fly, adding the ability to fully assign equipment, skills, and abilities for computer-controlled allies for the first time.
- Additions & Enhancements for Modern Consoles – Enjoy modernizations like 60 FPS support*, Triggering Secrets (see other characters’ secrets, like hidden supply caches, no matter who you’re playing as), the ability to lock-on enemies, and UI/UX optimizations such as visible Health, Mana and EXP bars, autosaves and additional save slots, and gyro/motion sensor support on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, along with bug fixes.
What rising forces in the North seem poised to reshape the balance of power? What elements in the northern terrain reveal that the land itself is bracing for upheaval? How does the encroaching darkness across the horizon signal a shift in the world’s underlying balance? Find out with The Lord of the Rings: War in the North – Legacy Edition, out now for the Nintendo Switch 1 & 2 (Nintendo Switch 2 coming to EU Nintendo eShop on August 18, 2026) on the Nintendo eShop, PC via the Epic Games Store, GOG, and Steam, PS5 on the PlayStation Store, and Xbox Series X|S on the Microsoft Store.
Enjoy the trailer — until the Rift opens again, know that you’re appreciated.
