The Lord of the Rings: War in the North that co-operation amongst traditionally antagonistic races is such a major theme in the novels, they wanted to replicate it in the game. Having experimented with two, three and four-player co-op, they ultimately decided to go with three-player, thus mirroring the classic triptych in the novels; Man (Aragorn), Elf (Legolas) and Dwarf (Gimli). Lead designer Andre Maguire explained that "how" players experienced co-op mode was equally as important as them simply playing it; However, according to Tomandl, the focus on co-op gameplay did not mean single-player mode was neglected; "War in the North" is the first "Lord of the Rings" game
Tolkien: A Look Behind "The Lord of the Rings" on the story of "The Silmarillion" was added to the chapter "Tolkien Today," the "After Tolkien" section on recent fantasy authors expanded, and some material on the 2001-2003 movie versions of "The Lord of the Rings" included in the introduction. Richard C. West, writing in the "J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia", assesses the book in these words: "The honor of the first worthwhile book on Tolkien must go to Carter, who was widely read in literature from ancient times to the twentieth century, and his 1969 book surveys a long list of works behind "The Lord of the Rings" from all periods.