I’m going to get this confession out of the way: I’m not a big fan of “The Lord of the Rings.” I never have been. It’s not that I hate the series per say, I’ve just never found the time to sit down and watch the movies or read the books. I know, stone me, but that’s just how it is.

What I am a big fan of, however, are trading card games. Many hours of my youth were spent playing the “Pokémon,” “Yu-Gi-Oh,” and “Magic” card games, and I still play some today. Whenever I hear about new card games, I’m always eager to at least try them out and get a feel for them. Therefore, “The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game” piqued my interest.

Seeing as how I’m not a “Lord of the Rings” fan, I can’t really tell you what the heck goes on in this game’s story. I played a few rounds with some huge fans of the series, but they seemed incredibly put off by it. From what I could gather, the main quest that the game takes players through is sort of like a fan fiction, with characters that never met teaming up to fight the evil Sauron.

Pretty much all the text in the main quest is fully voice acted, which was cool. Hearing characters exclaim insults and rally cries as the cards attacked one another was a nice addition. I’m not sure how “Lord of the Rings” fans will take to their favorite characters being voiced by new actors, though.

Mechanically, the game plays exceptionally well. It felt most like “Magic the Gathering” or “Hearthstone,” with players having a pool of mana they use to cast cards. The main game play of the card game comes from defeating your opponent’s heroes or completing a given objective.

For veteran TCG players such as myself, I picked up on the mechanics of the game relatively easily. If you’ve never played a TCG before, you might find yourself confused for a while trying to figure out how to play the game.

Personally, I loved the way the main story was set up. Many TCGs simply have the objective of “kill the other player first” to win the game. In this game, however, it could be any number of things, from killing specific monsters to finishing off an event card before you are killed. I never really knew what to expect when going into a main quest, forcing me to change strategies almost every encounter.

Normally I would comment on the game’s multiplayer component here, as that’s all the game really has other than its main quest. Sadly, even though the game was just released on Nintendo Switch, I could never connect to any other players online. This being the case, it seems like the only way one will be able to play against other human beings is if one of your friends owns the game. None of mine do, so I simply can’t comment on the multiplayer experience.

The game allows players to build their own decks and use them in story quests and presumably against other players — if they existed. There are a ton of cards packed into this game to collect and lots of different decks to try out, if that is something interesting to you. Though, I mostly stuck to the pre-made decks the game gave me.

Overall, “The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game” has a lot of potential to be a great virtual trading card game experience. The game itself is fun, with an enjoyable story mode and the potential to play for hours on end.

The only thing holding it back from being great is the seemingly lack of a multiplayer scene for the game. If you enjoy the game enough just by playing against the computer, then you will probably get a lot of enjoyment out of “The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game.” However, if you’re looking for the next big TCG to get into, keep looking.

Review code provided by Asmodee Digital. Game reviewed on a Nintendo Switch.

7/10