Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™

If it is on sale, buy it.
If you want this to be like the other game, expect that + a lot more bugs.

I strongly recommend Shadow of War to anyone who loves action-packed games with a rich narrative, as it masterfully combines an immersive storyline that delves deep into the lore of Middle-earth with the groundbreaking Nemesis System, which creates personalized and dynamic rivalries with enemies that remember your actions. The game’s expansive open-world design, filled with diverse regions, hidden secrets, and countless opportunities for exploration, is brought to life with stunning visuals and atmospheric details that truly capture the essence of Tolkien’s universe. Moreover, the fluid combat mechanics, along with the ability to recruit and customize your own army of orcs, provide endless hours of engaging gameplay, making it a must-play experience for both fans of The Lord of the Rings and those seeking a unique, replayable adventure.

is fun but if someone could tell me a mod that can fix the more predatory aspects of the game that would be sick

Played a lot of this game and can safely say..... Fuck this game. This is the second title in the series and it made SOME improvements over the previous.... And then proceeded to ramrod a razor-blade-studded-dildo up it's ass until it bled to death. So first off, your character, Talion, controls like absolute garbage. He is constantly trying to pick the literal worst path to your destination. He will jump onto a wall 8 feet to the left of him when you are simply holding W and trying to run in between an archway. He will, instead of climbing straight up a wall, will instead do a diagonal leap to the outer edges of what you are climbing in order to make you waste time positioning him back to the ledge so you can stealth-kill some random archer grunt.... Instead of climbing a single segment up and doing it like someone who doesn't have brain damage. He also will get "stuck" on nothing unless you hold down the run button, like you can't simply walk down some steps, he will be locked on some invisible corner and unless you hold space to run, he will just slightly lean forward, like this 3 foot drop is a colossal wall. Bad movement aside, the skills are back, but worse than ever. Remember all the cool things you could do in the first one? Well they are back, and now you get to choose just a single skill augment, instead of having all of them at the same time and being rewarded for playing the game. Each skill can only have a single augment active at any given time, when before, you could unlock and use everything without having to manage multiple pause screens in order to unequip and re-equip certain augments to a specific skill, R.I.P. Let's talk about the biggest annoyance in the room, the Orc intros...... Some people really.... REALLY, REALLY love the intros, like, they would want these intros to go on for twice as long as they do, already. These people are mental or just want to watch a movie instead of play a game. This isn't so much of problem starting out, though. There are relatively low amounts of captains you will encounter in groups early on, but when you do- you will be wishing they had the common fucking sense to add a skip button to these intros. The average intro for a single Orc captain is about 30 seconds. Some speeches are short and sweet but others drag on and on AND ON AND ON AND ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fuck, who thought this was a good idea for a single Orc to scream or mumble for a whole minute!?!?! Then right after the intro, you go to do an execution on them- and guess what? Another intro, because you locked blades with him, now he has to make sure you know HE was the one who was screaming like a coked up dipshit for the last minute-long intro, like you didn't already see it. So what's the problem here? Ever had 5 of these fuckwits in a single area at a time??? No? Congrats, you do not know the pure, unadulterated frustration of having ALL agency taken from you for about 3 minutes straight- OH, and best part? They get super angry by lots of stuff, so then you are locked in this never ending, cutscene gangbang, being forced to watch one after another as some get enraged by seeing others enraged... But this isn't even the top of the cake, this cake has layers to it, like an onion. You see, when you get locked into one of these cutscenes, your character can no longer be controlled, duh. But the problem is the delay in which they return control back to you. Enemies can wind up swings right before the cutscene and lock you in place so you HAVE TO TAKE THE HIT, the game says you can't dodge or counter it- it has to get this hit in. So what's the big deal? It's just one enemy. Wrong. When you play on a difficulty higher than normal, these hits can easily kill Talion. But when the game decides to throw multiple cutscenes at you, you will almost always die and there is nothing you can do about it. It's a cheap, unfair death where the game rips the controller out of your hand to slap you in the face with the L card. And it isn't even like the game can take it's cheated victory with some fucking grace, the cheeky bastard will gloat about "How he killed the mighty Gravewalker." and how "It wasn't even that tough of a fight." Yeah, no shit, you had to fucking cheat just to have a glance at what the W card looked like, fucking loser. This "nemesis system" is such a joke. I have never been bested by a captain (much less a grunt) in a straight up fight where Talion wasn't trying to climb up random shit when I wasn't making him do so, or the sneaky-controller-stealing cutscene wasn't being abused to it's absolute limit. Fighting captains isn't hard, they ALWAYS have at least ONE way to kill them at minimum, and balefire is ALWAYS effective (fire and poison mixed). Furthermore, using a few abilities in conjunction with one another, makes killing even the most "difficult" captain trivial. Once you can ground drain enemies, things get a whole lot easier to manage, even in ridiculous situations. Shadowstrike a grunt to the ground, the ground drain him, when he gets back up, he will be terrified and try to run away, then before he can run away, stealth kill him and chain it to the captain for massive damage in BROAD DAYLIGHT even with him already knowing you are there. If they are immune to stealth attacks, do everything exactly the same but instead of stealth killing the grunt and chaining it to the captain, brutalize the grunt to build up your might meter so you can pull off an execute, mighty shot, or AOE. There is no difficulty here, only cheap tactics...

25% of this is same as shadow of mordor and also they are well improved best nemesis system also include
enemy type 9.1/10
graphic 10/10
map design 100/10 havent see map like this one in my whole life
story 8.9/10
character development 8.5/10
skils 9.2/10 maybe 4or 5 of them are same as shadow of mordor but it has like 100
ngl wont see combat system like this one in any other game
thanks to the game developers for this masssive experience that i got from this game so much enjoy
wondering to see u both talion and celebrimbor

One of the most fun single player classics out there where brutal is the ONLY way to play. Truly upsetting they ruined the competition by making it that no one else can use something like the nemesis system...until they can again. ;)

4.5/5 Stars. Shadow Of War is very fun, with the nemesis system creating infinite different orcs to test your blade against. For me personally I think the combat is very satisfying, but it can get a little repetitive. I'd recommend looking at videos of the combat because that's the main thing you will be participating in throughout the game. Honestly one of my favorite games I've ever played.

act 1 is too long and a little boring, rest of the game is fantastic

Yeah i would recommend playing this game but for some reason i crash on the violent nature mission

Game is an excellent sequel to Shadow of Mordor and a great game. However I recently found out that WB copyrighted my favorite game mechanic with the war chiefs and captains, so I can’t enjoy it in other games. For that I must give it a not recommend for being scummy.

Do better WB. Be better.

Great story great fighting just all around fun

Replaying this game has been amazing even in 2024 the graphics are still great

The Nemesis System is very fun.

However, i find myself very frequently turning this game off after an hour or two because of the frustrating movement and controls with about 5 functions per button that easily confuses the game making you jump 100 yards forward and do a little dance alerting every orc in 500 miles when you just wanted to simply hop down quietly or perhaps dodge rolling 2 inches at the speed of a paraplegic cow when you wanted to sprint away quickly
There is also pointless lag on every single action, crap story, and annoying writing/voice acting

Additionally the game has a very drawn out intro made up of tutorial missions and story missions that for me amounted to 6 hours before i could recruit my own orcs which is unnecessary and kills replayability dead because i would never play through that again even under threat of being beaten up and thrown out of my apartment window by a former colleague.

Did i mention the story is crap? oh right i did. well let me say it again, the story is crapity crap that smells crappy and has the worst characters ever. Not really sure what their intention was of making every female in the game a patronizing annoying fuckhead and every man a boring dumb plank of wood with voice acting like they were just resuscitated from a heroin overdose two seconds earlier.
To insult the audience even more, Shelob (a giant spider) has nonsensically been made into an attractive female just to insult the intelligence of the "pathetic desperate gamer" and suspiciously is the only character in the game that looks mocapped. not only that but she whispers asmr when you load into the game and whenever you die, so maybe they were thinking...yknow what i dont know what the fuck they were thinking with that one you got me.

Final thoughts:

Play game for funny orcs only and leave the sound off.

Middle earth Shadow of War is the perfect sequel it improves on the first game in every way Story combat the Nemesis system Open world and also adding new features like fortress Conquests and Defense and much more. The story does deviate from Tolkien canon massively but despite that i think that this is the best lord of the rings game . For new players i would recommend playing on one of the harder difficulties and disabling last chance to make the nemesis system more engaging and fun.

Certainly a Shadow of the previous game. It seems grind was very much introduced to pad the game and abilities are either locked behind the needlessly complicated leveling and point system or not nearly as effective as the previous game.

Also, don't even bother with the pits. Unless you hate your own captains, then have at it.

Totally addictive with so many ways to approach this game my favourite is stealth.

one of my fav combat games in along time, owned it on xbox, ps4 and pc i wish they would do more with the nemesis system

I like this game, I would like to play more of it. Unfortunately the control configuration is super limited so it interferes with key memorization when it comes to playing other games.

For example: space key is to sprint, shift is to sneak, Left CTRL is to interact with the environment. My memorized and preferred layout shift to sprint, CTRL to sneak, and F is to interact with the environment.

This makes it difficult to enjoy this game while playing a competitive game with friends.

In conclusion I think this game is awesome, and though I am struggling to keep the lore accurate with the timeline (The Silmarillion vs Middle-earth game) I still appreciate the events and locations that expand on the extensive world of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

It's okay. Combat gets really shitty at some points; you run up walls you don't, you attack enemies you don't want to (not to mention the stealth kills), in general just a massive clunk when it comes to movement when there is a lot of npcs' nearby. Dunno, enjoyed it the first 10 hours, became monotonous and tedious afterwards.
Not to mention the adapting mechanic; you can get softblocked from killing captains, and while it is still possible a simple 5 minute task turns into 30, annoying af
PS fuick those goddamn unskipabble cutscenes

I played Shadow of Mordor and really liked it, thats why I bought this game.

Don't waste your time with this game.
It is very infuriating.
I can see why it wasn't popular, and Im glad they didn't make another game.

Story is cool and LOTR Lore is awesome.
The fights are cool.
But there comes a point where this game feels more like a job than it does a game.

BIGGEST PET PEEVE:
- When you fight captains and war chiefs they have this monologue that they say and you can't skip it
- sometimes 3 or 4 captains show up OUT OF NO WHERE and start doing their monologue
-- I literally just sat through 2 minutes of talking IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT because random captains showed up OUT OF NO WHERE. And they are all 5 to 10 levels above me - always...

Positives:
- LOTR Lore
- Cool fights

Negatives:
- You are always facing over powered enemies, and they always have a ton of support and you have little to none (even if you have a follower, they don't do much, they just bend over and take it)
- Upgrading your weapons and armor does VERY LITTLE to help you (Im level 35)
- The stats you unlock do VERY LITTLE to help you (Im level 35)
- Orcs take like 7 to 10 hits to kill and they can put you out in 3 to 5 (did I mention you're usually fighting 20 of them at once?)
- Sieges are really silly because you work to recruit people to be on your side, and they just end up wandering in circles and getting themselves killed leaving you with no help
-- Its so frustrating that you do all this work to get a team together, and you just get run over anyway

A very well calculated game...

Middle-earth: Shadow of War builds upon its predecessor, Shadow of Mordor, by expanding the Nemesis System and delivering a larger, more diverse open world. Players assume the role of Talion, a ranger bonded with the wraith Celebrimbor, as they forge an army to combat Sauron.

Pros:
Enhanced Nemesis System: The game expands on the innovative feature, offering dynamic rivalries and allies, making each playthrough feel personal.
Large Open World: A variety of regions, from fiery volcanoes to lush forests, provide visual and gameplay diversity.
Engaging Combat: Fluid, action-packed battles with a mix of melee, stealth, and wraith abilities.
Fortress Sieges: Epic large-scale battles offer strategic depth and rewarding progression.
Rich Lore Integration: Fans of Tolkien’s world will appreciate the deep ties to Middle-earth’s mythology.

Cons:
Repetitive Gameplay: Despite its complexity, the game can feel grindy, especially during the endgame.
Microtransactions (initial release): While later removed, the initial inclusion of loot boxes was divisive.
Storyline Criticisms: Some fans feel the narrative strays too far from Tolkien’s lore, with a few over-the-top elements.
Overwhelming Systems: The sheer number of mechanics and upgrades can be daunting for newcomers.

Verdict:
Shadow of War is a thrilling sequel that refines and expands its core mechanics, offering hours of engaging gameplay. However, its grind-heavy elements and deviations from Tolkien's tone might not appeal to everyone. A must-play for fans of the original and action RPG enthusiasts, but with some reservations for lore purists.

The nemesis system for this game is unparalleled and deserves to be experienced by every person who considers themselves a gamer.
With how often this game goes on sale, there is no reason for every gamer to own a copy of it. Buy it and play it.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a masterpiece that elevates the open-world action genre to new heights. As a fan of Tolkien's universe and action-packed gameplay, this game captured my heart from the very first moment and never let go.

The story seamlessly expands on the events of Shadow of Mordor, weaving an epic tale of vengeance, power, and sacrifice. You play as Talion, still bonded with the wraith of Celebrimbor, and your quest to forge a new Ring of Power feels every bit as monumental as it sounds. The writing, voice acting, and cinematic cutscenes bring this narrative to life, making it a gripping adventure from start to finish.

The true star of Shadow of War is the Nemesis System. It takes everything great about the first game and dials it up to eleven. Orc captains and warlords are more dynamic, unpredictable, and personal than ever before. Each enemy feels unique, with distinct personalities, strengths, and weaknesses, leading to countless memorable encounters. The ability to dominate and recruit these Orcs adds a strategic layer to gameplay as you build your own army to conquer Mordor.

Combat is fluid and thrilling, combining brutal executions with acrobatic finesse. The skill trees are deep and rewarding, offering countless ways to customize Talion’s abilities to match your playstyle. Pair this with massive fortresses to capture and defend, and you have an addictive gameplay loop that keeps you coming back for more.

The world is sprawling and beautifully crafted, from the fiery depths of Gorgoroth to the lush forests of Nurnen. Every region is packed with secrets, challenges, and breathtaking vistas that make exploration as rewarding as combat.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is an epic journey that does justice to the world of Tolkien while standing tall as a phenomenal game in its own right. I absolutely love it, and I can't recommend it enough. If you’re looking for a game that delivers thrilling action, unforgettable characters, and a world you’ll want to lose yourself in, Shadow of War is the one. It’s not just a game—it’s an adventure worthy of a legend.

I wish they'd make another Middle Earth game like this with no story. The Nemesis system is so good that it basically makes stories for you

Honestly I had hard time deciding whether to write positive or negative recomendation, because some aspects of this game are amazing while others are awful.
Taking everything into consideration the game is not worth the full price but you should definitely get it on 90% discount.

The main game

Elathrel DLC

Baranor DLC

I like what 1FreshLime said about this game.

"SShadow of Mordor is the better game. I don’t understand why, they are basically the same game. Although Shadow of War is newer and looks much better, the feel is off. Shadow of Mordor is fun to play and addictive, but Shadow of War just seems like a chore. It’s just bad. The cutscenes, tutorials, and constant orc dialogue are unbearable (although beautiful). They’re hard to immerse yourself in or follow the story. Don’t get me wrong, Shadow of Mordor wasn’t the best either, but it didn’t annoy me like Shadow of War does. Enough to write a review and maybe save someone the pain of purchasing this game"

I personally found the story to be kind of dull and the gameplay to be repetitive. Also it was more janky than the first game. (Specifically the camera is so snappy and terrible in this game). Maybe I'm being a little hard on the game but I tried to enjoy it and couldn't.

6.5/10

-1FreshLime https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198337995590

Sucks because the company who made this game patented the technology that made the game great and decided no one can do it. Imagine if you couldn't have an inventory in any game because Nintendo said you couldn't and they owned the idea. That's this game. So I'm voting it down to hurt the company responsible.

This is the best action game I've ever played. It has the unique ability of climbing walls just like the Assassin's Creed series. It has a bunch of awesome moves. It has a ton of cool abilities to kill or torture your enemies.

Most of all it has really solid characters. I mean, the game has hundreds of custom 3D mesh for Orcs. Every single Orc seems moderately different from one another, especially the captains. Their animation and realistic voice makes them have real-life personality. And because of this, you can really feel vengeance and hatred grow within yourself whenever you are beaten by one of the captain. What's most provoking is when you get killed by an ordinary Orc. That Orc will be promoted to become a captain and insult you for being so weak. This game is really immersive in that aspect. In fact it's the only game in the entire world which invoke our sense of connection with all the enemy character within the game.

It motivates you to sink in hours of your life just because you have some kind of connection with these Orcs. They just provoke you to keep on killing them endlessly.

The graphics are of course phenomenal. AAA quality. No doubt.

So if you're a fan of melee action games, this is the best one in the market.

Its a decent RPG game with Fun combat,mounts and iconic characters from the Tolkien universe. The main selling point though is the Nemesis system which makes encounters with otherwise ordinary enemies into interesting mini story arcs. If you were invested in the Tolkien World and you like action RPG games, you'll probably like this.

A great sequel to its predecessor, the combat remains engaging, and the title capitalizes on the "Orc Domination Mechanic" and Fort Conquest, which were among the most unique qualities of the first game (Shadow of Mordor).

The game's combat is both rewarding and fluid, and players can interact more meaningfully with their "allies". The story, while entertaining, is not groundbreaking—captivating nevertheless for an Orc-slaying adventure. (DLCs are also decent and worth a play if you get the bundle)

8/10—would walk into Mordor again!

Solid combat and use of the nemesis system. It is better than SoM in my opinion. The gameplay is great in 2024 considering this game was intended with an aggressive microtransaction scheme in its release which as been removed. 100% achievement grind is satisfying and not a boring experience. The hardest acheivement "Baranor the Conqueror," isn't as difficult as the hardest achievement "The Hunt is My Mistress" from SoM. Great game. Would recommend to anyone.

Awesome and the best way to experience Middle Earth in 2024
Make sure to download the high resolution texture pack and the 4k cutscenes pack located in the Steam DLC page

Middle-earth: Shadow of War levels up from the first game with crazier orc rivalries, massive fortress battles, and a story that hits harder. The Nemesis System is still fire, making every fight feel personal, and the combat is straight-up satisfying. The grind for loot can drag a bit, but the epic moments more than make up for it. If you’re into Middle-earth vibes and action-packed chaos, this game’s got you covered.

Can't beat playing a wraith fighting against corruption and the destruction of everything you love. The added lore is great and so is the grind. Definitely recommend.

fun and amazing game, id recommend waiting for a sale/huge sale before buying any of the DLC stuff, if anyone else decided to use a ''nemisis'' type system in their game i would not bat an eye, fuck WB for patenting gameplay mechanics (you too Nintendo)

game good, Monolith Productions good, WB Games sucks, by pearl clutching the nemisis system to secure profits unironically pushed away their future fans for their greedy practices, even if they renewed the patent, that wont stop people from creating their own system, one that people wont patent because they are not sore losers who cant handle competition in a fair market (cough cough Nintendo cough cough)

9/10 started putting my hand on my gf’s face after this game telling her i have dominion over her and she already had blue eyes so it worked i guess

One of my all time favorite games but its still fuck WB for making no one else able to improve on or use the system.

it a fun game. at time it can get boring and a little annoying but when you take a break and come back to it a lot of fun it does go on special a bit so if you going to buy it should wait until it on special. time to kill some orcs

SShadow of Mordor is the better game. I don’t understand why, they are basically the same game. Although Shadow of War is newer and looks much better, the feel is off. Shadow of Mordor is fun to play and addictive, but Shadow of War just seems like a chore. It’s just bad. The cutscenes, tutorials, and constant orc dialogue are unbearable (although beautiful). They’re hard to immerse yourself in or follow the story. Don’t get me wrong, Shadow of Mordor wasn’t the best either, but it didn’t annoy me like Shadow of War does. Enough to write a review and maybe save someone the pain of purchasing this game

This game actually feels alive every encounter with an uruk captain is completely different and freaking hilarious XD and gameplay is smooth like butter

Nothing compares. This game is amazing. No other game gives me the satisfaction of playing and playing and never stopping.

10/10, 100000 times better than ksi's new song

Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™

This game is an absolute blast, though not canon to Lord of the Rings, the world takes itself seriously while making the enemy factions have the most depth of any game I've ever played. The story is simple, but engaging and enhanced by the Nemesis system that dictates how bosses act and level up. The Nemesis system itself carries the game and is peak game design where the player makes these micro stories within their playthroughs. I have completed two full runs of the base game, two runs of the Desolation DLC w/ one being a gold run, and earned all the achievements. While the game has some movement issues where the character will get stuck on geometry, and there are some enemies who feel like they unfairly one-shot the player, the whole game is incredibly fair and over equips the player to kill anything in their way. The player, with enough planning, can be a force of nature that can not be stopped. I highly recommend this game to anyone, especially if you are into Assassin's Creed games and the Batman games. Difficulty wise, Nemesis is where the game feels the hardest while minimizing the unfair moments, though a normal playthrough is definitely the way to go if you haven't played before. 9/10 game in my eyes, 100% grab during a sale.

There's a mission where you are introduced to the fort seige mechanic by a story npc, but it won't remove itself from the map and advace the story no matter how much you beat it, so its stuck in a loop.

This has been a known issue since launch.

RPG + LOTR, the greatest of combinations. Yet this pails in comparison to the amount of combos you'll be hitting on Uruks in this game. Fun, intuitive combat system with satisfying executions and a unique nemesis system. Highly recommend.

Not much else to say that other's haven't said. It's just a great game all around, with SO many things to do. If you like LOTR, Batman Arkham series, RTS games, God of War, and anything that lets you build and kit out an army, you'll love this game.

If you are a fan of Lord of the Ring, then this is for you. Gamestyle is like AC and The Hobbit combined. The environment is not that much, but it gives you freedom to explore. Combat is good but can be tweaked even further. Doing this review in 2024, and this game was released on 2017, so any changes might be irrelevant to now-produced games.

Very clever Hack & Slash game disguised as a RPG. The fighting and the skill trees are rewarding and somehow it never gets dull to get back in the fray and kick some butt.

One advice, read some beginner guides so that you know what you are doing and where to work to. There's more to it than hack and slash loads of ugly bastards to smithereens. Another advice. Take your time cleaning up the regions to get stronger and to get all the fun out of it.

Well done.

amazing story along with awesome gameplay, the nemesis system is amazing and will bring you back to play even after completing the main story