Middle-earth: Shadow of War — From Conquering Orcs To Conquering Sauron
As the sequel of Monolith Game Studios’ 2014 Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a much larger, ambitious, and more action-packed continuation to this series set in the world of Lord Of The Rings. The game is an action role-playing game set in an open world environment and played from a third-person perspective. It takes place before the events of The Lord of the Rings film trilogies and centers around the player taking control of the ranger Talion and the spirit of the elf lord Celebrimbor, who shares Talion’s body since without each other Talion would simply be a corpse. After the events of the first game, both Talion and Celebrimbor decide that they must take revenge on Sauron, the main antagonist who murdered them in the past, and create a new Ring of Power to take him down. With the new ring created, Talion and Celebrimbor have the ability to control enemy orcs so that they can build an army to defeat Sauron and save all of Middle-earth.
The story of Shadow of War is one that is both interesting and gripping. The story elements that keeps players interested mainly involve the relationship and rapport Talion and Celebrimbor. Both characters share interesting aspects with each other and provide fascinating ideological conflicts that players would be enthralled with during their playthroughs. Examples of instances like involve Talion constantly trying to remind Celebrimbor they must fight for the protection of the realm while Celebrimbor tempts Talion that he must focus on the building the army and to defeat Sauron no matter the cost. There are a few missed opportunities with Both main characters interacting more often with the civilians of Middle-earth since they are just relegated to soldiers that ask for your help with certain missions involving taking out orc captains or goons. There could have been more emotional weight included within the story when it comes to helping the innocents within the story though it does not entirely sour vital aspects of game such as its fantastic gameplay.
Shadow of War’s gameplay is a terrific combination of Assassin’s Creed’s parkour elements with the Batman: Arkham series’ stealth and brutal combat. Players have the ability upgrade their elven abilities thanks to Celebrimbor’s spirit and can perform fast combos with their sword that will destroy enemy orcs. Players also have at their disposal elven arrows that quickly dispatch any enemies with the player’s path. Yet, one aspect that is very crucial about the combat is the player’s ability to take control of enemy orcs. This ability leads us to the introduction to Shadow of War’s nemesis system.
The nemesis system involves players analyzing a hierarchy of procedurally generated Orc and Olog Captains that control different regions of Middle-earth. This leads to the player having to strategically pick which captains they must kill or control in order to expand their army while also weakening Sauron’s grip on each region. There are amazing challenges that this system has to offer since there will be captains that come in different levels, abilities, shapes and sizes. With a gripping story, satisfying combat, and a huge and everchanging system built in, Middle-earth: Shadow of War has so much to offer and more for players to embark on their journey in Middle-earth.
