Middle Earth Shadow Of War

 

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor was a surprise hit when it first hit the shelves in 2014. Despite looking like a Lord of the Rings-skinned version of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed, the game had surprising depth and a wealth of features that made it better than its obvious inspiration in many ways.

Highlights included a beautifully crafted open world in the Lord of the Rings universe, wonderfully diverse enemies, brimming with personality, a well crafted story – that unlike most AC titles actually made sense – and a nifty grudge system, that let you establish vendettas and see tribal hierarchies within your orc prey.

Having had some hands-on time with Warner Brother’s sequel Middle Earth: Shadow of War looks set to take all these factors and turn them up to 11.

The game’s plot takes place immediately after Shadow of Mordor and once again puts you control of half-dead ranger Talion, who has just crafted a new Ring of Power. Without giving away too many spoilers, the story focuses on Talion’s attempts to raise an orc army and steal control of Mordor from resident baddie Sauron.

Experience an epic open world brought to life by the Nemesis System. Forge a new Ring of Power, conquer Fortresses in massive battles and dominate Mordor with your personal orc army in Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Go behind enemy lines to forge your army, conquer Fortresses and dominate Mordor from within. Experience how the award-winning Nemesis System creates unique personal stories with every enemy and follower, and confront the full power of the Dark Lord Sauron and his Ringwraiths in this epic new story of Middle-earth. In Middle-earth: Shadow of War, nothing will be forgotten.

The sequel to the critically acclaimed Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Middle-earth: Shadow of War features an original story with the return of Talion and Celebrimbor, who must go behind enemy lines to forge an army and turn all of Mordor against the Dark Lord, Sauron. Set between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Middle-earth: Shadow of War offers a richer, more personal and expansive world full of epic heroes and villains, iconic locations, original enemy types, even more personalities and a new cast of characters with untold stories.
The demo I played was restricted to a siege fortress, which admittedly doesn’t speak to all the new open-world content, but was surprisingly dense with options, strategies, and flaming, bloody chaos.

For starters, I died in my first attempt. I mention that because one of the criticisms many folks found in the first game was its difficulty tapered off as Talion grew in power from freshly dead ranger to leather-clad superhero. And I wasn’t screwing around. As soon as the battle started I climbed up onto one of the artillery siege beasts I brought with me, and took control of its catapult in order to pepper the main gate with flaming payloads.
In Middle-earth: Shadow of War, players wield a new Ring of Power and confront the deadliest of enemies, including Sauron and his Nazgul, in a monumental battle for Middle-earth. The open-world action-adventure game is brought to life through the expansion of the award-winning Nemesis System. This robust personalization from the first game is now applied to the entire world where the environments and characters are all shaped by player actions and decisions, creating a personal world unique to every gameplay experience. Shadow of War expands on the Nemesis System with the introduction of Followers who bring about entirely new stories of loyalty, betrayal and revenge. The Nemesis System is also expanded to create a unique personal world through Nemesis Fortresses, which allows players to utilize different strategies to conquer dynamic strongholds and create personalized worlds with their unique Orc army.
Almost immediately we caught return fire from the fortress artillery, and in a loud, fiery explosion, the siege weapon on its back was destroyed. But, and this is my favorite part, I was still mounted and used this massive Graug to climb the walls of the fort like King Kong grappled his way up a skyscraper. We ate some orcs, got into a fist fight with the enemy siege beast that crippled us to begin with, and out of nowhere a fireball from an overhead neutral drake landed squarely on my head. And that was that: I died, we lost, and it was on to take two.
I actually appreciate that I died, because it let me try out some of the tactics you can bring with you from the siege screen. Knowing this time that the fortress was owned by the Feral tribe - which specializes in beasts and spear throwing hunters - I bought and added to my ranks the stronger Ravager Hunters to help control those beasts. I switched my artillery from fire to poison projectiles this time and purchased a squad of attack trolls to rush the gate and act as living battering rams. And though the neutral drake I purchased the first time ended up killing me, I bought it again just in the hopes I’d be able to eventually dominate and ride it during the assault. Though I have to admit, I almost swapped him out for the Poisonous Spiders option that sends a small army of arachnids into the fortress to bite and murder your enemies.
Like the previous game he still shares his body with Celebrimbor, an infamously dark Elf spirit who supplies the half-dead hero with a range of mythical powers.

During my demo I had 25 minutes to do as I saw fit on a limited section of the game’s world map.

To start with, it was pretty much business as usual. Combat has been slightly tweaked to give you access to more skills and the loot system has been upgraded to offer more variety, as well as statistical differences between items. But at its core, the free running and combat mechanics are pretty similar to Shadow of Mordor, offering you a choice of dodge, attack and executions that can occasionally be broken up with ranged bow shots or magic.

The open world mechanics also worked exactly the same way and for the first 10 minutes I wasted my hands-on time picking up minor assassination missions by chasing icons on the map.

It was only after I located an enemy stronghold and engaged the game’s new Siege mode and saw the expanded Nemesis system that things really took off.
Siege is a special type of mission that sees you rally your forces and attempt to steal control of a region from Sauron by capturing key points in the stronghold, and then killing the main warlord. Each siege is different as the orc leader and his underling bosses all have varying personalities, skills and weakness.

Jumping into the Siege setup menu I was introduced to Shadow of War’s most interesting feature; army recruitment and management.

The Nemesis System has been massively updated and improved in Shadow of War. Unlike the previous game that simply gave you the option to execute or weaken enemy bosses after defeating them, in Shadow of War you can recruit them to your cause using Celebrimbor’s new mind control/altering power.

Choosing to recruit my first fallen foe, a whole new wealth of options for me. Once recruited, each leader can be used as ally when raiding strongholds.

As an added layer of depth, each base has different defenses, so the allies you bring are of paramount importance as they each have their own troop types and bonuses.

Early on I mucked up my choice of generals. Recruiting a team of bruiser orcs may work well during the opening section where we were trying to break down the stronghold’s gate, but it left me shorthanded inside when I came up against long distance sniping and mortar fire enemies.
This time around I went for a straightforward approach. I warped up to the ramparts, took out as many archers as I could, and headed for the objectives. Actually fighting the army of orcs on the walls and in the courtyards felt comfortable. I’ll admit I played Shadow of Mordor recently to shake off the cobwebs, but the fighting system is as familiar and accessible as ever, yet now more involved.

There are a ton more abilities to use, like the ghostly wraith glaive that lets you rip through thick groups of Uruks with greater reach and wider arc than your sword allows. But the gameplay is very much that balance of using your abilities to drain and dominate your enemies while saving charged up skills for captains and warlords. Multiple times I was left scrambling, running circles around a warlord and his three captain bodyguards while trying to stay alive long enough for my forces to whittle down their numbers, or distract them so I could replenish health by draining an Uruk somewhere safe.

Somehow surviving the salvo and after a heated battle with the gobby orc boss ,who had a few interesting ideas what he would do with my insides, the management mechanics continued to impress.

As well as letting you choose who to bring into battle, the management system lets you promote loyal orcs and set them as the new leaders of strongholds. Here again your choice has lasting consequences in a variety of ways. For starters, the tribe of the new leader you pick will have an impact on the stronghold’s surroundings both aesthetically and in terms of gameplay.

During my hands-on I picked a member of the Savage tribe. From there the previously neat-looking stone fortress suddenly erupted with spikes and war paint and new quests tailored to the tribe’s character appeared all over the region’s local map. The strength of the leaders you choose will be important as Sauron's troops will frequently invade your occupied territories.

Warner Brothers’ claims this is indicative of a wider flexible story mechanic that will let the game’s world, factions and narrative evolve and intelligently react to every decision you make.

It’s this small touch that helps the game feel fresh despite having the same fundamental stealth and combat mechanics and make it feel like you are forging your own story, not following a strict scripted narrative.
Supposedly, this bone-covered Overlord was the hardest of the bunch, or so I was told - every demo station had a different encounter with a randomly selected Overlord and tribe - though I don’t know if that was just an attempt to make me feel better for running for my life.

If that was true, I can understand why. This was easily the hardest fight in my demo (and main bosses not included) probably in Shadow of Mordor as well. The overlord was immune to arrows, which meant all that bow-warping wizardry that makes Talion so mobile was mostly ineffective. On top of that, he enraged immediately for reasons I still don’t know, and proceeded to rally the room full of Uruks and Ologs into a ridiculously effective mob of anger and axes.
Shadow of War feels like a true step forward for open world action RPGs. Despite having fairly familiar combat dynamics, the new Nemesis system added a welcome layer of depth to the gameplay that I’ve felt has been missing in many competing open world adventures.

If Warner Brothers can deliver on its promise to let you truly leave your mark on Mordor, Shadow of War could well be a contender for game of the year. Though with Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Origins looking equally awesome, it’ll be a tight race.
Even from a brief half-hour of hands-on time with Shadow of War, I’m excited to really get into the meat of all the possibilities still waiting to be discovered. The exploding walls and chaos that erupts as soon as the fight begins is an excellent precursor to the tactically difficult fights against groups of captains and warlords, and eventually the overlord himself. All these tools can be used for, or against you, and I’m eager to see what else Monolith is going to throw at us next in Shadow of War, and what we’ll be able to throw back.