I know this probably sounds strange, but I genuinely cannot wait for players to say that Warhorse’s upcoming open-world Lord of the Rings RPG is too hard. It’s not because I want the game to be miserable or feel unfair to anyone who doesn’t spend 40 hours learning how to swing a sword properly, but because that complaint would probably mean Warhorse, despite this being a licensed game, remained Warhorse through it all. This is the studio behind Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, after all, and if its trip to Middle-earth ends up being too smooth, too easy, or too eager to please everyone, then I think something will have gone wrong.
The whole reason Warhorse is an exciting fit for Lord of the Rings is that its games understand the value of being ordinary in a world that doesn’t care how badly players want to feel powerful. Kingdom Come was never special because it made players great right away. It was special because it made them earn that greatness, and that’s exactly the kind of philosophy Middle-earth thrives on, and it’s one that is especially needed within the Lord of the Rings gaming space. This isn’t a universe filled with superheroes, but a world where small people do impossible things because they keep going, suffer well, and learn how to survive long enough for their courage to actually pay off. That’s what I mean when I say I can’t wait for Warhorse’s Lord of the Rings game to be dubbed “too hard.”
Kingdom Come Studio Warhorse Might Be Going for Bethesda’s Crown With Its Lord of the Rings Game
Warhorse’s Lord of the Rings game could turn its Kingdom Come formula into Bethesda’s most serious open-world RPG competition yet.
Warhorse Can’t Lose What Made Kingdom Come Special
Honestly, I love hearing and reading people say that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is too hard because it doesn’t let players feel powerful without a lot of effort first. I’ll admit, I understand the frustration to a point. Plenty of people play modern RPGs because they want a playable power fantasy where they eventually become the person everyone else fears or respects. However, Kingdom Come: Deliverance makes that road longer and rougher than most games do, and it’s all the better for it.
Put the consoles in the correct order.
When I interviewed Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 design director Viktor Bocan a while back, he talked about players who complain that the combat is too hard, only for someone else to tell them they need to train in the game. Then those players respond by saying they already train in real life and don’t want to train in a game. Bocan’s answer to those complaints was refreshingly blunt, that maybe Kingdom Come just isn’t the game for them.
Honestly, I love hearing and reading people say that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is too hard because it doesn’t let players feel powerful without a lot of effort first.
And I genuinely love that answer because it isn’t trying to please everyone, but it’s not rude either—it’s just honest. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 knows what it is, and it knows that part of its audience is going to bounce off the fact that becoming good at something actually requires more effort than most other RPGs.
Bocan put it even better later in that same interview when he said, “We created a game where you can be anyone you want, but you need to give something to get something.” That line feels like the entire Kingdom Come philosophy in one sentence. Freedom is there, but it isn’t free. Progress is there, but players have to work for it. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 lets an ordinary Henry become something greater, but only after making sure players understand what it feels like for him to be weak. Well, Warhorse’s upcoming Lord of the Rings RPG needs to hold onto that.
The danger with a licensed game, especially one set in Middle-earth, is that the license can start pulling the game toward safer territory. Bigger audience, bigger expectations, bigger pressure to make the whole thing more immediately approachable. It would be easy to imagine a version of this open-world RPG where Warhorse softens its edges because Lord of the Rings fans aren’t necessarily coming in as Kingdom Come fans, but I sincerely hope that doesn’t happen.
Middle-earth Is Perfect for Warhorse’s Signature Difficulty
The funny thing is, Middle-earth might be one of the best possible fantasy worlds for Warhorse’s signature grounded approach. Lord of the Rings has never really been about superheroes, even with all its legendary warriors, ancient beings, and magical artifacts. The emotional core of Middle-earth has always been about ordinary people doing extraordinary things because they keep going when everything in the world gets in their way.
The danger with a licensed game, especially one set in Middle-earth, is that the license can start pulling the game toward safer territory.
So, if Warhorse makes a Lord of the Rings RPG where travel is demanding, combat is dangerous, preparation matters, and getting anywhere meaningful takes real effort, it would fit perfectly. Middle-earth shouldn’t play like a theme park where the player gets to sprint from one heroic moment to the next without friction. The road should matter, the danger should matter, and the small victories should matter because they weren’t handed out cheaply.
That’s why I don’t want Warhorse leaning toward the crowd that thought Kingdom Come and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 were too hard. Those players are allowed to feel that way, of course, but their frustration shouldn’t become the design target. Warhorse has already carved out an identity by making RPGs that ask something from the player, and a Lord of the Rings game from that studio should not apologize for doing the same thing.
If anything, this is where Warhorse’s identity could make the game stand apart from almost every other fantasy RPG. We already have plenty of games where players become unstoppable far too quickly. We have plenty of games where difficulty is treated like something to manage rather than something woven into the world itself. A Middle-earth RPG from Warhorse should be different because, well, Warhorse is different.
If Warhorse makes a Lord of the Rings RPG where travel is demanding, combat is dangerous, preparation matters, and getting anywhere meaningful takes real effort, it would fit perfectly.
As weird as it sounds, I want to feel small from the get-go. I want to have to think twice before I pick a fight with an orc. I want to prepare before traveling somewhere dangerous, and I want any unpreparedness to punish me. I want to feel like every bit of progress was earned through patience, failure, and maybe just a little bit of stubbornness. More than anything, I want the game to understand that greatness in Middle-earth should never feel like skill points, stats, or some ancient prophecy that grants me plot armor.
To me, that’s what made Kingdom Come so rewarding. The payoff mattered because the struggle mattered first. A Warhorse Lord of the Rings RPG could bring that same feeling to Middle-earth, and honestly, that’s the main reason this project excites me as much as it does. More than anyone else, Warhorse has a chance to make a grounded Middle-earth RPG, where being ordinary is actually the whole point.
So yes, I can’t wait for players to say Warhorse’s Lord of the Rings RPG is too hard. I can’t wait for the complaints about needing to train, prepare, travel carefully, and work for every meaningful bit of progress. If those complaints happen for the same reasons they happened with Kingdom Come, then good. It means Warhorse remembered what makes its games special.
