The project, called MERP (Middle Earth Role-Playing Project) was originally intended to be a massive mod for Oblivion, but is recently undergoing transportation to Skyrim’s slightly-tweaked engine.
Once (if ever) finished, MERP will put you in the ring-bearer’s shoes following their quest from the classic tale, though instead of just being Frodo you can be one of 10 playable races, including elves, hobbits, dwarves and a few different types of men.
If you’ve got Oblivion and feel like checking out the recreation of Middle Earth the team has built, a beta is available for download below.
mchaza
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 5:23 PMinteresting, should totally get picked up by Bethesda tho, and made in a full release open world game.
maaaaaat daaaaaamon
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 5:40 PMlicencing bro. These guys might get away with not having a license but bethesda sure as shit wouln’t. So I doubt that they would bother.
Russell
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 5:42 PMAnd the ringwraiths will ALSO fly backwards
McGarnical
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 5:50 PM“Get off the road!”
“No, not beneath the road! … How did you do that?”
McGarnical
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 5:26 PMI cannot express my excitement without resorting to swear words. Saying I think this would be “amazing” doesn’t quite cover it. Let’s just say it looks shpxvat amazing.
ajr
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 5:40 PMNever played Skyrim but if this mod ends up finished, I will definitely be buying it.
Jiff
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 9:29 PMThat single screenshot looks more lush than Skyrim!
Joshy206
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 9:33 PM“The project, called MERP (Middle Earth Role-Playing Project) was originally intended to be a massive mod for Oblivion, but is recently undergoing transportation to Skyrim’s slightly-tweaked engine.”
So, how long has this been in production? Not getting my hopes up, though it would be nice.
TGK
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 10:22 PMI think Bethesda games are the only games where I’ll not rage when I see people say “I’ve not played it, but I’m buying it for X mod and will never play vanilla”
I can’t ever imagine the game getting to the same scale of the original games in terms of character voices etc though.
Nuvendil
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 1:00 PMHello, I am actually with the MERP team. I can understand your doubts, especially about voices. But we have good writers for quest scripts, excelent modelers, and some of (in my opinion) the best landscapers. We will produce the highest quality we can. If you look up Nehrim, we are shooting for that kind of quality in our mod, if not higher in some areas. It won’t be easy, but that is our goal and has been from the start!
AerintheADEQUATE
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 1:15 AMThis project started a long time ago for Oblivion, as was pointed out, and it’s been in the same mind-bin as Black Mesa Source in my head.
“If it ever comes out I’m gonna die of joy… but I’m not particularly worried about this meaning I will have a short life”
Nuvendil
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 1:04 PMThere were a lot of reasons for our delays in Oblivion. Mistakes were made early on (not anyone’s fault, just lack of experience and we needed to get material released in order to maintain interest). However, we are now a experienced, determined, skillful team with a tight plan for developing the mod in such a way that it will be in a playable state as soon as possible. We aim to have regional releases this time around, with each release including a fully playable region with landscapes, npcs, quests, and even voice acting if all goes well. The first region right now is planned to be Rohan. Keep an eye on Skyrim Nexus and Moddb for news. You won’t be disappointed.
AerintheADEQUATE
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 4:11 AMI’m rooting for you guys, definitely.
The first time I saw Whiterun at a distance in-game I immediately thought of Rohan, so I can see why that would be a great region to start with.
Go Team! *waves pompoms*
Reign
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 10:13 AMThe problem is; when a mod sounds overly ambitious – it will never be released.
Nuvendil
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 4:15 PMNot true. Nehrim: At Fate’s Edge is enough to disprove that. Have some faith in us. You will be pleasantly surprised if you do ;)
Reign
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 6:07 PMI hope you’re right; it’s just that I’ve heard so many cool, ambitious mod ideas announced to be never heard from again.
But I hope you’re right!
Arienfell
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 1:14 PMNot worried that Warner Bros may come down hard on this, given that it’ll replicate what we have in Lord of the Rings Online?
I don’t really see why this is necessary when we already have such a good free MMO…
Jodski
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 3:16 PMYay! Deffinetly keeping the eye on this one.
Jumpjumpdie
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 12:54 PMWell I just got back from a holiday too the south island of New Zealand so I can wait for this! haha