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The Lord of the Rings mobile game Rise to War out in September

You shall not season pass.

The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War launches 23rd September for all of Europe, America, Oceania and Southeast Asia.

This mobile game is the work of NetEase Games, the Chinese company working with Blizzard on mobile game Diablo Immortal, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It's an officially-licensed mobile strategy game based on J.R.R. Tolkien's books and Peter Jackson's movies.

In the game you build armies and expand territories as you search for the One Ring. It's set in the Third Age of Middle-earth (the one in which the Lord of the Rings trilogy is set), and includes famous franchise characters such as Aragorn and Elrond.

You can choose to be good or evil, siding with either Fellowships or Warbands. There's a tile-based map design on which you fight to expand your territory. Each victory claims another piece, each defeat losing land.

Your time with the game is divided up into seasons. At the end of the season, the faction who dispels four evil factions and occupies Dol Guldur wins.

Lord of the Rings: Rise to War has been available in soft launch form for a while now, and so there's plenty of gameplay online. The video below, from YouTube channel Techzamazing, offers a good look at what to expect (I did not expect to hear Gandalf say "you just received a Ring Point, and can now spend it to unlock this Ring Tech").

Cover image for YouTube videoThe Lord of the Rings: Rise to War Mobile Gameplay (Android, iOS)

It looks to me very much like many of the territory tactics games available on mobile at the moment. Curiously, NetEase teased it may also come to other platforms in the future, saying in a tweet: "The game will firstly launch on mobile platforms. Stay tuned for more exciting news."

PC perhaps?