After a whopping 13 years in development, the Battle for Middle-earth's Extended Edition mod finally gives the beloved RTS the full Peter Jackson treatment

Gimli and Halsin on the cover of The Battle for Middle-earth 2

(Image credit: EA)

Ambitious modding projects are a bit like baby fish, in that millions of them spawn, but relatively few survive to adulthood. Hence, it's always worth celebrating when one makes it through to full release. Such is the case with the Middle-earth Extended Edition, which launches into 1.0 today after 13 years of development.

Middle-earth: Extended Edition first arose in the east way back in 2012, aiming to give Danger Close's beloved RTS The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth the same embiggening treatment Peter Jackson applied to his film trilogy. Over the course of the last decade plus change, it has added new maps to the game like Moria and Lothlorien, added new playable factions such as the Elves and the Haradrim, expanded existing factions like Rohan and Isengard with new units, and much more.

This most recent update, the first in four years, is somewhat less dramatic, with no major new additions to the game. But it is nonetheless extensive, tweaking and adjusting game parameters for just about every facet of the RTS so it better reflects the source material. Numerous maps have been adjusted so they have enemy lairs more authentic to their locations. AI has been tweaked to construct buildings and deploy tactics truer to their factions' nature. Campaign missions have been altered to more accurately reflect blow-by-blow events in the books and films. And just about every faction has been given a statistical once-over too.

LOTR Battle For Middle Earth 1 - Trailer - YouTube

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Ultimately though, the main event here is that the mod is now, for all intents and purposes, complete. The mod's creator, Rohirim91, has been consistently involved with the project throughout its long gestation. Indeed, it's fascinating to read back through the game's updates. In 2017, for example, Rohirim was working on the mod while studying for university entrance exams. "During the spring of this year I have made a significant progress on the mod and was close to releasing it," he wrote at the time. "However, due to a mistake on my part and the upgrading of the PC I use, the mod files were lost." Haven't we all been there?

Rohirim91 doesn't specify whether the 1.0 release represents the end of work on the mod. Indeed, the update is rather matter-of-fact given the milestone. Rohirim opens the update with a succinct summary of the mod's features before diving straight into the changelog "Middle-earth Extended Edition returns with an expanded set of playable maps, new features, polished campaigns and AI, balance changes and bugfixes."

However, right at the bottom of the update, Rohirim writes "Feel free to post your suggestions and report any bugs you encounter via comments or private messages on this site", which seems to leave the door open for potential future updates.

Either way, you can download Middle-earth Extended Edition here. Rohirim notes that the mod requires patch 1.6 of the Battle for Middle-earth, and of course a copy of the game itself. This latter requirement may be tricky as Danger Close's game isn't for sale digitally anywhere, although you might be able to find it on a certain site for abandoned wares. There is currently a vote in progress on GoG to bring the game onto the platform, so perhaps add your support to that if you want to see this lost RTS treasure more easily purchasable.

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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