Journey Back to Middle Earth

Monolith Productions made a big name for themselves in 2014 with their release of “Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor”. The game went on to win countless awards such as “Game of the year” and “Best action game”. Monolith and Warner brothers decided that they would continue the story with a sequel and thus “Middle Earth: Shadow of War” was born.

Shadow of War is an open world action role-playing game based in the world of Tolkien's fantasy novels like “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit”. Players will be continuing the story from the previous game. Playing as Talion, a ranger of Gondor, who finds himself sharing a body with an old elf lord named Celebrimbor. Celebrimbor, being the smith who originally forged the rings of power, forges a new ring for Talion to wear and take control of Sauron's army to fight back to overthrow him. Although being not being able to customize your character there was a DLC and pre order package that changed Talions outfit to the dark ranger outfit.

Talion riding a Drake into battle is just one of the tactics you can use to take a castle

In the world there are many camps and castles that are under Sauron’s control and guarded by his Nazgul army. It is up to you to take down or take control of these areas.

What makes this game interesting is the way you play it, Talion has the power to fight his way through giant hordes of Orcs and Caragors but Celebrimbor allows Talion to brainwash and take control of an enemy. Commanding enemies is a big part of the game because it allows you to build up your own army and have them fight for you. Once you amass a big enough militia you can set up the attacking raid, command tactics, strategize and watch as the castle or camp falls to you while you didn’t lift a sword.

Taking over areas such as forts and castles are big challenges. It takes a well planned out and organized assault to claim it. Having castles will help you in the long run of taking out and conquering more. Sauron grows weaker every castle you claim so weaken his army before the battle!

Shadow of War is also bringing back and improving the Nemesis system. This was a system
developed for the first game where enemies that survived encounters with you remembered you
and affect the game. If a low ranking uruk would slay you in battle he would immediately be
promoted to captain or warchief. This system allows the game to always be evolving and
changing the world to your unique experience.

A smart way to play the game is to have a battle with a leader and instead of killing him, you let Celebrimbor command him as part of your army. By doing this you not only gain a soldier but you can send that minion to gain intel, fight other leaders or sabotage an event. If you can command all the warchiefs Sauron will have no one left on his side to fight you.

In contrast to the previous game, which was more of a hack and slash, “Shadow of War” will have an action-role-playing approach, creating a more personalized experience for each player. There will still be part where players can fight a bunch of enemies like in the previous game but the developers said that they wanted the fighting and battles to be more epic like how they were in the Peter Jackson film adaptations. By capturing that aspect of the combat players will undeniably be more immersed and pleased with the game.

Command your army into battle

Players will need to dust off their old cloak and daggers and journey back to Middle Earth one last time to stop the Nazgul army and defeat the Dark Lord Sauron. “Middle Earth: Shadow of War” is set to release on October 10th 2017 and will cost the standard $60. Do you have the strength and power to defeat Sauron?

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