The classic co-op action of the official The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King video game was made with the help of golf, as it has been revealed that the game used the Tiger Woods PGA Tour engine. Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie trilogy had two incredible tie-in games that are still fondly ed by fans to this day, with The Two Towers game launching in 2002 and Return of the King launching in 2003. Return of the King is considered the stronger of the two, thanks to its multiplayer co-op, expanded character roster, and reams of content.
It turns out that the LOTR: Return of the King game was built using an unlikely engine. In a recent interview with Callisto Protocol Director Glen Schofield discussed LOTR's sequel game and its development. According to Schofield, the game was having engine troubles, so the team moved to the one used by the Tiger Woods PGA Tour games, as it allowed for the use of wide-open areas that led to the main goal. Return of the King featured expansive levels for the time, replicating iconic set-pieces from Peter Jackson's trilogy-capper, so it makes sense that the PGA Tour engine would have come in handy.
Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King Game Used A Tiger Woods Engine
It's not too surprising that the developers would use an established engine for a movie tie-in game. It wasn't widely anticipated that the Lord of the Rings movies would become such a global hit, which meant that developers had to scramble to get Lord of the Rings movie games out on time. This is why The Two Towers game was so lacking in content compared to Return of the King, even though it incorporated scenes from Fellowship of the Ring. It's more surprising that a golf game formed the basis for Return of the King, especially as it improved so much upon its predecessor.
One of the other reasons why the Tiger Woods PGA Tour engine was used was due to it being developed by EA. This gave the team making Return of the King free reign to use it, as EA had grabbed the rights to publish the Lord of the Rings movie tie-in games. The ability to easily use something like Unreal Engine 4 was still years away at that point in time and actually building a new engine from scratch was costly and time-consuming.
There are still new Lord of the Rings video games being developed, yet people still cite Return of the King as one of, if not the best game based on the property. The final journey of the Ring-bearer might have been built using Tiger Woods' DNA, but that didn't stop it from being an incredible game. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was a worthy ending to the trilogy and its video game equivalent gave fans a chance to experience its action scenes for themselves.
Source: Wired/YouTube, TheGamer
