Middle-Earth: Shadow of War – Game Review 

Shadow of War is a sequel to Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and was released back in 2017.  Time does seem to fly really fast. 

I’ve written an article about the best Lord of the Rings games and since then I’ve had this itch to get back to that world. So, what better way to do that than playing one of the games on the list. 

It’s been awhile since the initial release, so how does the game hold to today’s standards? I’m about to answer that question and then some. 

Story 

Middle-earth: Shadow of War still follows Talion and the spirit of the elf lord Celebrimbor. The story starts with them at Mount Doom, forging a new ring that is pure aka not corrupted by the mighty Sauron. 

Upon successful craft of the ring, Celebrimbor is abducted by the Shelob – the big spider that attacked Frodo. Anyways, Talion ends up trading the ring for Celebrimbor. That’s the initial intro into the game, after that they continue the fight against Sauron with the help of Shelob’s vision. 

Eventually she gives them the ring back which helps them dominate orcs and make them fight for them. The story of Middle-earth: Shadow of War is set in between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. So you kinda already know if they succeed in defeating Sauron. SPOILER ALERT – They don’t.

Gameplay

When it comes to playing the game, it’s decent–ish. The fighting system is on an okay side. After a while it gets monotonous. I can’t put my finger on it — if it’s the lack of combos when fighting the enemies or whether enemies need to be more versatile or maybe it’s both. But that would be a main factor that stops this game from being a really great title. 

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is made up of five different areas that you can explore freely and fight all kinds of enemies. Some of the enemies can drop gems and some can drop gear. There are five types of gear: a sword, dagger, bow, armor, and a cloak. Depending on the situation, the gear can be different rarity. If you’re not playing on the hardest difficulty, there is no reason to farm those really rare gears besides collecting it for shine and glory. Same goes for the gems. 

Through Celebrimbor, Talion can perform all kinds of tricks that would be impossible for regular humans. This includes the double jump, using wraith vision to highlight nearby enemies, shooting spirit arrows, wielding a spectral glaive, draining an enemies health, or dominating the enemies. 

There are a few things there that I have issues with. 

Firstly, recovering health aka draining enemies health — the issue I have with it is that it’s easily interrupted. It gets more annoying when you are fighting multiple enemies and you just need that one heal and they’re attacking you from every side. 

The other issue I have is the dominating enemies part. I feel like it’s an interesting concept but it’s lacking a certain pizzazz. When I figure out what exactly, I’ll let you know.

I have no issues with the rest of the game — all in all I’ve enjoyed my time playing it. All the sneaking, big fights, and mostly exploring every nook and corner was a very enjoyable experience that I’ll have to go through sometimes in the future.

Graphics and audio

Keep in mind that this game has been out for some time when judging how it looks. With that being said you have to give credit where credit is due: they’ve done a good job. The character design, animations, sound effects, and of course voice acting can compete with some of the newly released games that are considered fairly well designed. Not just compete but also it’s better than some. So, that’s another reason to check it out. 

Final words of wisdom 

I must admit that I’ve enjoyed my time playing the game. I perhaps overdid it at the end but at least I did it my way. Got really immersed in the story, like I was fighting Sauron myself. I guess that plays a factor in why I enjoyed the game so much. If by some weird coincidence you haven’t played the game yet or you haven’t played it since the release, I highly suggest doing it again.