What To Expect From Middle-earth: Shadow of War

The highly successful Shadow of Mordor has finally been given a sequel. Monolith gave us our first taste of orc-slaying badassery in late 2014 and since then, fans have been waiting for the next installment of the title. Earlier this month we got our first look at what we can expect from the next game. Not only do we get a slight title change that may indicate a few things, but we also get a whole host of new features.

As we know, trailers and initial gameplay videos can be deceiving and not accurately represent the final product. With that said, Shadow of Mordor stayed pretty true to its original showcase. After looking through the footage of Shadow of War and trailing the forums, I’ve put together a few features I think we can expect to see in Shadow of War.

 

Nemesis System Level 2

The Nemesis System in Shadow of Mordor was the centerpiece of the game, creating a very personal experience and a whole lot of grudges. Shadow of War seems to have taken this system to the next level. Not only can you still dominate your enemies and have them fight for you, but it seems those dominated can also defect in some capacity. In the gameplay footage, we saw an Orc named Thrak Storm-Bringer state that Talion left him to die, and that he was reborn in service to the dark lord. Whether these dominated Orcs can actually defect and betray Talion, or that Sauron resurrected this particular Orc, and now he fights for the dark lord is still to be confirmed. Either of these scenarios adds a new and different flavour to the already accomplished Nemesis System and it almost felt like some internal politics were present in the game – Westeros meets Mordor anyone? All of this should certainly add more spice to that grudge you have with that Orc that just won’t die.

 

Larger Game World

One of the setbacks for Shadow of Mordor for me was, despite the open world, the game often felt particularly small and samey. Shadow of War looks to change that. The gameplay shows a larger area of Mordor to explore, and even shows sections of Gondor. It’s not known if the fight is taken to Gondor, but the cinematic released before the gameplay shows Gondorian soldiers posted at what looks like Minas Tirith. The game world is split into much larger sections than in Shadow of Mordor, with iconic locations throughout in the form of fortresses, which leads us perfectly onto our next point.

 

Fortresses

Fortress assaults were a large part of what was shown in the gameplay reveal and for good reason. Monolith look to have taken elements from Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, turned it up to eleven and ripped the nob off. Fortresses are epic sieges with a three-tiered procedure: Breaching the walls, killing the generals and slaughtering the overlord. The gameplay seemed to show a very nonlinear way to take the fortress and kill the high tier Orcs who inhabit it. Clips were shown of Talion getting his Helm’s Deep on by blowing up sections of the curtain wall, allowing his forces to swarm the inner defences. We saw a huge troll, who had been dominated by Talion, breaking down the gates of the Fortress; only to be torched and burnt alive by the fire of a Drake engaged in a battering ram. Ouch. R.I.P Az-Laar, you will never be forgotten.

Fortresses seem to have so many levels to them and, once you have defeated the overlord who rules over it, you have the chance to install your own Orcish ruler. Depending on the type of ally you install, the makeup and design of the fortress changes. Decorating in Mordor never looked so good.

 

Balrogs, Drakes & Nazgul

Dominating a Warg was fun in Shadow of Mordor. Mowing down your enemies and biting their face as you rode majestically through an Orc war camp was a moment to behold. Shadow of War takes it to the next level and allows the player to dominate the flying death monster that is a Drake. We saw Talion swooping around the fortress he was besieging, slinging fireballs at his enemies, all in the comfort of first class on Drake airways. But seriously, I don’t know if this was just myself, but I this felt a little like cheating. Shadow of Mordor was all about getting up close and personal, slashing, blocking and killing your enemies. To be 50 feet in the air, on a fire breathing monster seems somewhat like defeating a large part of the game’s strength – the combat. Although it looked fun and I definitely will be trying this, I’m not sure this would replace the traditional hack and slash action combat the game is known for.

Drakes aside, we also saw other monstrous beings in the trailers. The Nazgul seem to make an appearance in some capacity. Whether Talion and Celebrimbor will be taking the fight to the Witch King and his friends, who knows, but the cinematic showed a few clips of these foes, which may indicate they make some appearance. Nazguls and Drakes alike could yet be overshadowed, however, as we saw a clip of a Balrog in the cinematic – a Tar-Garoth Balrog more specifically. Now, I may be getting ahead of myself but imagine the epic fights you could have with a Balrog, better yet, imagine dominating one. We have no news on the Balrog or its inclusion in the game, but due to one version of the game being sold with a statue of Talion and his Drake fighting the Balrog I’m placing my bets that it will make an appearance in some way and this time, you won’t have Gandalf to stop it passing.

Shadow of War is set to release in late August of this year. With hype already gathering surrounding the title, it’s just a matter of waiting patiently ’til we receive more information on the game. Details of purchase options have been released on the Steam page, which seems to point towards some in-app purchases, which I’m guessing has something to do with the changeable armour we saw in the gameplay, but no formal details have been released as of yet.

Shadow of War has a legacy to contend with and a platform to build on. Let’s hope the house they’re building hasn’t been built on sand.