And that’s before the Nemesis and online systems come into play, creating an almost endless supply of conflict to wade through if you choose. On first glance at the map, you may find yourself overwhelmed at the sheer amount of things to do and collect. Shadow of War’s campaign takes place in multiple open-world locations, with each environment distinct from the other, and a massive improvement over the first game’s drab locations. And by Jove, will you be doing a lot of that! If you haven’t played the first game, then the best description for Shadow of War would be Assassin’s Creed with Batman’s combat system, in an open world. It’s great then that Shadow of War succeeds in the gameplay department and is a fantastic blast to slice, dice and explode Orc heads throughout. Compared to them, everyone else feels devoid of personality. Here, the strength of the writing for the Orcs takes over. And in truth, it does succeed when the Battle for Middle-Earth is laid to the wayside, and the game instead focusses on the quest to secure your own army and strongholds. In the end, the story is just a means of introducing an Orc to the sharp edge of your blade, or an excuse to take part in large battles that aim to initiate the thrill felt when watching the Battle of Helm’s Deep, albeit on a smaller scale that current generation hardware can churn out.ĭon’t get me wrong, it’s not bad, it’s just that it could be more were it to stop attempting to emulate the style of the movies and create its own narrative voice instead. well he’s a dick really and I found it hard to care about his motivations or backstory. Talion is the grim hero, driven by stoic determination and honour while Celebrimbor is. Talion and Celebrimbor’s relationship to Gollum feels much like Frodo and Sam’s relationship to him, while Shelob, now dressed up in a sleek, sexy human form, feels like nothing so much as Galadriel embracing her inner Goth, right down to the telepathic messages with sting in them. Part of that is due to already knowing where it ultimately ends and part of it is that, a lot of the time, it simply reads like bad fan-fiction, an aping of Tolkien’s style, prose and characters, rather than an actual understanding of them. While Shadow of War has some great story moments in it, such as serving alongside the soldiers of Minas Ithil before it fell and became Minas Morgul, or the fight to put down the summoned Balrog Tar Goroth before it incinerates all of Middle-Earth, the story is easily the weakest link in the game’s chain of systems. If you’re going into this, as with Shadow of Mordor, you’re best served by leaving your inner Tolkien at the door. Shadow of War chooses to set its story in the time gap between The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings, and performs its play with deadly seriousness and a rather loose take on the source material.

Unlikely alliances will be made and epic battles will be fought before the end is in sight. As is the way of all things that have a story to tell involving conflict, things don’t go well and before long you’re on your way to reclaim the ring, while planning to deliver vengeance to Sauron.

(Spoilers if you've not completed Shadow of Mordor) The game picks up where the first ended - with our heroes, Talion and the elf-wraith Celebrimbor, forging a new ring of power to battle Sauron. Shadow of War takes us back to Middle-Earth, via Peter Jackson’s take on the material, and embraces the ideology that bigger is better.

Middle earth shadow of mordor nexus