Throughout the world of Shadow of War, each of the game's areas will contain a large stronghold that initially will be controlled by enemies. This new twist culminates most notably when leading your army to assault an enemy fortress. Upon bringing these once foes into your own army, you can then use them to infiltrate other enemy warchiefs in the pursuit of later backstabbing them, send them out to kill other fellow Orcs, or use them to battle one another with the victor growing to a higher level. With a Ring of Power at the disposal of Talion and Celebrimbor, you can convert enemy warchiefs, captains, and overlords to fight for you instead. The much praised Nemesis System that was at the core of Shadow of Mordor has returned but is now tweaked to accommodate a new army-building mechanic. My gripes are less with the quality of the combat system itself, and more with the fact that not enough has been done to iterate upon it.įortunately, many other aspects of Shadow of War have seen drastic shakeups compared to that of the first game. Variations of this style of combat have also been seen from both the Batman: Arkham series and Mad Max, and it's starting to feel a bit too heavily leaned-upon by Warner Bros.-published titles. Unfortunately, almost nothing was added to mix up the swordplay from that of its predecessor. That said, I did find the combat within Shadow of War to get stale from time-to-time. Taking on vast groups of Orcs and other various enemies is equal parts challenging and fun while also boasting a certain rhythm to it. Combat is once again just as sound as it was within Shadow of Mordor, and returning players should feel right at home as soon as they begin playing. If those who have reservations with these elements of the game could come into it realizing that this story is separate from the main canon of the books, then I think there's great enjoyment to be had.Īs I alluded to, the real reason to play Shadow of War is found within its gameplay. I'm not the biggest Lord of the Rings fan, but I know that there are many out there who might dislike some of the liberties that Monolith Productions took with the lore in Shadow of War. Of course, hardcore Middle-earth fans might have more of love or hate relationship with the story than I did. There are certain flashbacks featuring the Ringwraiths and Sauron that I really adored, but more often than not I was just looking forward to getting back into running around the world. Most of the supporting characters that aid Talion and Celebrimbor are forgettable and the introduction of Shelob as one of the main supporting characters struck me as odd since most of her inclusion in the narrative ends relatively early. Personally, I found the story of Shadow of War to be more interesting than that of Shadow of Mordor, but I still wouldn't consider it the game's strength. Major players like the Witch-king made the narrative that much more interesting, while someone like Gollum only seemed to be thrown in this time because of how well-known his character is. The involvement of these characters within the narrative of Shadow of War ranges from being highly important to being being little more than a cameo. Throughout the course of the campaign you run into a variety of well-known figures from Middle-earth, such as the spider - now taking the form of a woman - Shelob, the Witch-king (along with his Ringwraith followers), and the beguiling Gollum. This premise of building up your own army of Orcs, Uruks, and Olog-Hai is fairly straightforward, but I found it to be satisfactory. In the opening moments of the game, we find Talion and Celebrimbor crafting a new Ring of Power which will allow them to gather their own army and go toe-to-toe with Sauron's forces. Shadow of War picks up after the events of Mordor with us once again playing as the ranger Talion and the elf lord Celebrimbor who inhabits Talion's body.
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