Sean Bean once famously said that “one does not simply walk into Mordor,” and hoo boy was he ever wrong on that one. Demonstrating his utter wrongness yet again is the Emulated Vintage Gaming YouTube channel, which recently posted a 10 hour long video of a lore-accurate recreation of Frodo’s epic journey from Bag End to Mordor in Lord of the Rings Online.
‘Frodo walks from the Shire to Mordor,’ as it’s called, is not as dramatic or exciting as Peter Jackson’s famed film trilogy: It is literally a recording of Frodo walking—walking, take note, not running, although he does get to ride here and there when the books say so—along the route originally followed by the Fellowship. At various spots along the way, Andy Serkis chimes in to describe the scene via audio clips taken from the Lord of the Rings audiobooks, which as chosen line up remarkably well with the events happening on screen.
“For me, and many other players, you find yourself wandering and wondering at the beauty of the world around you. ‘I remember that bit from the book!’ is a common thought as you stroll through the Shire, or explore Rivendell, or Lòrien. You notice the attention and love the devs put into every little detail—an impressive feat for such a sprawling universe. So I thought I would try to see just how close I could follow Frodo’s journey, using the Fellowship of the Ring as a guide, as I wended my way from Hobbiton to Bree. When I saw just how perfectly the game design followed Tolkien’s imagination, I decided then and there to do it properly, beginning to end.”
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The video actually shifts perspective a couple times, most notably at the very end when the POV moves to Gollum as he takes his final shot at the ring and—spoiler alert—ultimately meets his doom. Not familiar with LOTRO myself, I asked EVG how they were able to put that together within the confines of an MMO, and it turns out that it was “pure accidental serendipity.”
“Part of the ‘gateway’ quests that you need to complete to get access to Mordor involve ‘session play’ instances, where you get to play briefly as other characters (ie. Gollum), witnessing the events that unfold in the books,” they explained. “Then you switch back to your character upon completion. As soon as these instances started, I was like, I need to record this, as you only get one chance to play through, and I was lucky I did, as it filled in the gaps so perfectly.”
EVG said it’s the first time they’ve done something like this, but it won’t be the last: “I’ve had hundreds of requests asking me to do the same for other characters: Gandalf, Aragorn, Merry and Pippin—their adventures cover a much wider area (Rohan! Helm’s Deep! Minas Tirith!), which are all available to explore in LOTRO.” They’ve since set up a Patreon to support future work, and while it hadn’t attracted any supporters when we chatted, “even so I know I’m going to make another one, someday.” I’m looking forward to it.
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