This is everything we know so far about our next big adventure to Middle Earth.
We’ ve known since February that Middle Earth: Shadow of War is coming and from what we’ ve seen so far it looks like it’s going to be a stunning game.
As a launch title for Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox One X and a hotly anticipated sequel in its own right, we got a good look at some more gameplay for the game at this year’s Microsoft E3 conference. In the time since, we’ve learned that Shadow of War will include many of the same features that its predecessor had – including a major emphasis on the Nemesis system.
To that end, Shadow of War will let you import your arch-nemesis from the first game, as well as your most loyal follower to help fight in Shadow of War. (See the Nemesis Forge trailer below for more details.)
Want to know more? We’ ve gathered everything we know about Shadow of War including its release date, trailers and all the gameplay that’s been revealed so far into one place so you can return to Middle Earth prepared for war.
A brand new trailer for the game was shown at this year’s Gamescom in Cologne and you can watch it for yourself below:
A gameplay trailer released at E3 showed off the game’s combat with an orc, of which there will apparently be seven new kinds. It also went on to show how players would be able to establish relationships with their generals and rely on them to direct forces while they perform sieges on enemy fortresses.
Prior to this there was a mammoth 88 minutes of gameplay with developer commentary which showed off Talion conquering an Orc fort.
In March Warner Bros Interactive also released a 16 minute gameplay trailer which talked players through the upgraded Nemesis system as well as the new follower recruitment system.
Naturally, the first glimpse of the game we got, though, was the cinematic trailer that was released in February which certainly seemed to promise epic battles in an expansive open world.
The mid-summer month of July gave us the Nemesis Forge trailer which detailed how the Nemesis system will work in the second game, and how you can import enemies and allies from the first game in the series, while in August Warner Bros. Interactive dropped a trailer for a new orc faction called The Terror Tribe on YouTube.
Check out a selection of screenshots from the game below:
From our half hour play session at E3 2017 the game appears to have a very similar feel to it as its predecessor. Combat is very focussed around anticipating and countering your enemy’s strengths, whether it’s dashing around shield-wielding enemies, or parrying the attacks of faster orcs.
Although story-missions are still present in the game, this time around there appears to be much more of a focus on siege missions, where you use an army to attack an enemy stronghold.
We had a chance to play through a fortress assault for ourselves, giving us a look at how the mission-type works, as well as a nice overview of the enhanced abilities our protagonist has in the new game.
You begin the fortress assault like any other mission in the game, by approaching the mission start point and pressing the right bumper on the controller.
Each fortress has an overlord, who you’ll need to take down to capture it. Before you get to them though, there are a number of victory points, which are each guarded by a war chief. The assault we played had three of these points, but a representative from Warner Bros suggested that as many as six may be present in larger fortresses.
Starting the mission brings up a planning screen where you’ll be able to see the features of the fortress and equip your army appropriately. Certain soldiers will be able to break down walls for example, while others will be well-equipped to deal with select enemy types.
Although our army was capable, their strength paled in comparison to what we were capable of.
Using our ‘Shadow Strike’ ability we were able to very quickly teleport up to, and take out, the enemy archers – essentially clearing a path for our army.
Having your own army means that you can spend less time attacking ordinary foot soldiers, and much more time on the higher level enemies. Before long we had used our Shadow Strike once again, this time to mount a dragon, allowing us to rain down fire on our enemies.
Much like Shadow of Mordor, the new game places a lot of emphasis on knowing your enemy’s strengths and weaknesses before you take them on. Our first war chief was a bow-toting orc that was resistant to us vaulting over time.
This meant that we both had to keep nice and close to him to keep him off-guard, while also dodging around, rather than vaulting over, him.
Once a chief’s health is down to a certain level you’re given the chance of dominating them, which recruits them to your army. The process takes a couple of seconds, which leaves you vulnerable to any other enemies in the vicinity, but it’s worth it if you want to boost your numbers.
Unfortunately, at the moment there doesn’t seem to be any means of giving this information to the soldiers on your side. Once I got the war chief’s health down enough to dominate them, they were promptly offed by an orc on my own team. Clearly my managerial communication still needs some work.
Although loot was present in the previous game, it’s been much expanded in Shadow of War. You’re able to pick up new swords, daggers, bows, armour and cloaks, and you’re also able to augment your ring with different special abilities.
A developer also teased that there’ll be legendary armor sets which will give you an ability bonus if you equip them all simultaneously.
With a new legendary dagger equipped, we headed toward’s the fortresses boss, the overlord.
After so much buildup, the overlord fight ended up feeling a little anti-climactic simply because it was so similar in many ways to the war chief fights that had proceeded it.
Sure, the overlord had slightly more health and some pretty beefy minions, but the fight was very similar in structure to those that had proceeded it.
We spent the ten minute fight keeping our distance and picking off the enemy’s health with our bow, while intermittently having to dash away to drain some enemy archers and refill our health.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, the core combat in Shadow of War is still exceptionally solid, and you’ve got a lot of different abilities at your disposal to allow you to vary your fighting style.
But at the end of the day the overlord felt similar to what had come before, albeit with slightly higher health.
After a few more well-placed shots, we were eventually able to dominate the overlord and bring them over to our side, triggering a short cutscene where we emerged victorious from the fortress to greet our cheering army.
Much as being killed by an enemy war chief causes their level to go up, winning battles in Shadow of War causes your army’s level to rise. We get the sense that you’ll grow quite attached to your band of orcs over time, as you fight alongside them in tougher and tougher battles.
Shadow of War feels like it’s retained everything that made its predecessor one of the more surprising hits of 2014. The expanded nemesis system is thoughtfully done, and we appreciate the additions made to the loot system.
Our one reservation was that the overlord fight we played felt a little too similar to what had come before it. Then again, with a core combat loop this strong, this might not end up being such a bad thing after all.
Warner Bros. has revealed that Shadow of War will feature loot boxes. The loot boxes will contain orcs (for use with the nemesis system) , XP boosts and gear.
You’ll be able to buy them using an in-game currency ‘Mirian’ (which is earned by completing various tasks within the game, but can also be found in the game’s world) , or ‘Gold’ which is available to buy in addition to winning it in game.
Warner Bros. has assured fans that players who pay for content will not get anything that’s unavailable to everyone else, but there are still likely to be those who’ll take issue with people being able to take shortcuts by paying money.
Once again, players will enter Tolkien’s world and take up the role of Talion, a ranger killed by the Black Hand of Sauron whose body has bonded with the wraith of the Elf Lord Celebrimbor.
Having recently forged a new ring of power, this game will follow Talion and Celebrimbor’s original story during the midst of the battle for Middle Earth as they attempt to use the new ring’s power to face Sauron and the Nazgul. Aside from the fact that it’ ll follow on from the events of the first game, not too much is known about the narrative of Shadow of War.
Despite following on from the first game, though, it doesn’ t look like you’ ll have to have played that before picking up Shadow of War as the developers have said that they’ re keen for this to be an entry point into the series for new fans.
