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
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II commending the game's design and art team for doing a fabulous job on every location that appeared in the single-player campaign. Playing within the universe of "The Lord of the Rings" was appealing to a number of reviewers, which found that it generally increased the game's entertainment value. "PC Gamer" shared this sentiment, calling "Lord of the Rings" "arguably the best fantasy universe ever", and GameZone asked the question, "What self-respecting Tolkien fan can be without this title?" The results also pleased 1UP.com, which was convinced that fans of "The Lord of the Rings" could not afford to miss purchasing