Middle-Earth: Shadow of War Review

100GB, well slightly under is the size of this game OMG 100GB, OMG 100GB, ok, that’s enough, let us get to killing orcs and making them my bitches. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is the sequel the fecking awesome Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor from developers Monolith and published by the powerhouse Warner Bros.

My partner can sit down and watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended versions), read the books and even watch the Hobbit trilogy and read that book as well, I, on the other hand, would rather watch paint dry. Do not get me wrong watching them once is great, they have a great story, great cinematography, characters you enjoy watching on screen, but having a whole day of them, one after the other, no thanks.

So here we are back in the world of Middle-earth set between the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings as you take up arms with the protagonist Talion, who is joined with the elven spirit of Celebrimdor, with your ultimate goal, to take over the world, or just take out the Dark Lord Sauron, whichever comes first. The game picks up after Celebrimbor and Talion forge a new RING OF POWER and then give it away to a she-devil spider thing called Shelob. If you are a fan of Tolkien’s work, you well certainly noticed landmarks and characters throughout the game, that will make you go, I know that character, but as you know this is a new game so there will be plenty of unknown characters throw into the mix.

With a new Ring of Power, you must set forth on your quest, defeat shitface ‘Sauron’ and ghostman ‘Nazgul’ as well as a load of ugly dudes without wives ‘Orcs’, some more ugly dudes the ‘Olog-hai’, devil dogs the ‘Caragors’ and a shit load of other bad people, yeah I cannot really name anything else.

As you start your journey into Shadow of War, like the original game you will be busy learning, how to parry, evade and KILL, and as your progress through the game, you will find a myriad of ways to take out those pesky orcs, even making their ugly heads explode, what fun.

You do all this via the best system ever created in a video game, OK! I might be bigging this section up, and some do not like the system, but come on the Nemesis system is amazing and it’s been upgraded. You still have the standard, kill a leader/ war chief douchebag another one comes in its place, kills you, they get more powerful, kills you loads of times, becomes a thorn in your side. Now the Nemesis system has, even more, attributes followers/arse kissers and Fortresses, and in all honesty, I fecking love to hate it, I just can’t. The idea of enlisting virgin orcs, set up a commander and storm strongholds, winning or sometimes seeing your commander turn on you, at any time, makes you feel hatred and distrust and you know whats coming next, kill the fecking twat.

The combat has not much from the original game, it feels more fluid, the stealth attacks are fun and enjoyable still, the hit, counter and stun attacks all feel well thought out and designed, I still enjoying using the arrow through and taking the enemy from afar and then have them all looking for me, its rather enjoyable experience, seeing a bunch of morons scratching their heads. If you have not played the original game, but have played Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham series of games, and you enjoyed the combat, this is very similar.

As with the original, you can unlock new skills as you progress through the game by completing quests, defeating enemies and of course completing the main story. Be warned though, you can find yourself ignoring everything apart from killing that next orc chief or leader or a bunch of orc’s, its bloody fun, but you have purchased the game to enjoy the game and love the story, so try and move on as and when you can, but also have fun along the way. In the original, I was in the first section of the game for hours and hours and I just set my daggers to kill and hunted down everyone, for me that was more fun, than plodding on with the story, but in the end like everyone else, the game was completed and I have waited for this game.

Movement is also everything in this game, as this game as a more or less an open-world type game, parkour movement is available, run up buildings, sprint, sneak, use Celebrimbor’s powers to somersault through the air or quickly climb structures, this feels very much like Assassin’s Creed. The Movement seems to flow very well, fantastically thought out and animated to make the character feel you play seems more realistic, even the orcs movements and animations look amazing.

Like the original, you do not have to rely on walking and running you can fly on a bad ass drake and blow shit up, mount a savage cat and use your sword to sweep the playing field, its just add more fun way to kill and explore the world of Mordor.

Now for something new LOOT BOXES, now these are micro-transaction type purchases, but, massive but, everything in these loot boxes is in the game and you can gain everything through hard work. Yes, they will give players an advantage, like a pay to win sort of aspect, but, like I said, you do not need to purchase anything.

As you progress through the game, unlocks new abilities at some point will open a new mission called ‘Bright Lord’ this mission gives players access to embark on siege missions, these missions allow you to capture or defend an area, now, you might find these missions easier with loot boxes, but please don’t waste your money, just play the game, enjoy the game, everything will come in time. Now after you complete these siege missions you will get a sweet ending that relates to The Lord of Rings, and what an ending it provides, trust me on that.

Coming back to Sieges, I would recruit a few captains, dominate a warchief grab yourself some orcs and assault a fortress, dominating a fortress will give you control points, but your main goal is to kill there overlord. These battles are amazing and well dialogued as well from both sides. As you unlock new abilities you can recruit more captains to your team, special troops that can climb walls or bash them down, it is just awesome and my writing about it just does not give it justice.  Think Lord of the Rings huge battle battles where to orcs are trying to take over a castle, shrink it down a lot and you are controlling it instead, that’s the best I can do, or you can watch the video, it is not in-game graphics, but the idea behind choices, sieges and pure ownage is just as good.

The game offers a shed load of traversal, many, many, many hours of game time, flexible and always adaptable combat, the fortress battles are fecking awesome, using and abusing orcs to your own advantage, it all adds to a great experience.

I love this game and I love the improvements over the original, I hate the introduction of Microtransactions and they should be totally removed from the game and allow us the gamer to enjoy the game, too and improve our forces over time, not a quick fix. The sound is fantastic and I could sit here for ours listening to orcs bitching and taunting me, only to have me kill them a few mins later. The story is ok, but it does feel a little disjointed, but it is workable. Graphics are amazing for all the characters in the game, though some of the areas are let down and feel not up to scratch. I was unable to find any glitches so far, and I have completed the game, I just did not go out to find them, like other sites sometimes do.

Now as this is a PC version of the game, I think its best to look at systems specs required to run and the system it was run on.

System Requirements

So that’s it, all the things you need to know, but do you want to go out and buy this game? if you are a fan of the original game then yes, if you are a true fan of LOTR, you might get a little miffed. If you love action games, love killing those pesky orcs, then this game is for you, everything from Batman and Assassin’s Creed all rolled into one place, and to me it is fantastic.

If you find your install size is above recommended, use common sense and wonder why just check what the game has installed, you might find the 4K Cinematic pack and HD Texture Pack have been added.