Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™

Giving it a negative review purely because they've done nothing with the nemesis patent and it hinders other devs making good games with this mechanic.

I love this game. I also enjoy the story, even if it's not cannon. Also enjoy the cutscenes with Shelob and Celebrimbor.

Great game!! Non stop playable even after you beat the game.... Especially after you beat the game, if you're the type to get bored because you need a progressive story, then play the game in "Nemesis system" mode.... You'll get your fill, insanely fun game play and long story rich story mode.

It hasn't been long since I found out about the game. But been totally addicted to it. If you're a fan of Assassin's Creed, The Witcher etc then you're gonna love Shadow of War as well 🔥 Such a thrilling experience can't be expressed in words only, so check it out. Highly recommended💯

⭐ Final Verdict: 8.6/10 After 60 hours and probably about the same on xbox one, Middle-earth: Shadow of War left me with orcs I respected, captains I feared, and stories I’ll remember more vividly than anything the main quest delivered. It’s not a traditional RPG—but it is one of the most uniquely dynamic games I’ve ever played. The Nemesis System doesn’t just make orcs enemies—it makes them unforgettable. For anyone who enjoys power fantasies, emergent storytelling, and brutally satisfying combat, Shadow of War is an underrated gem worth conquering. ✅ Pros: Nemesis System creates personal, emergent stories Fantastic, responsive combat with depth and flair Siege battles are chaotic, strategic, and cinematic Deep gear, progression, and army-building systems Mordor feels alive with personality and variety ❌ Cons: Story is bombastic but thin on emotional depth Repetitive objectives in the late-game grind Some AI inconsistencies in fortress management Still no other game has truly followed up on the Nemesis concept

I loved Shadow of Mordor. Shadow of War seems epic by comparison. I've tried to get into it multiple times over 5 years to get into it, but the controls are just absolute garbage. Shadow of Mordor also had weird controls for climbing, but I was able to adjust. I cannot for this game. Everything I do just feels like a frustration fest. Some people are able to get past it for the cool game, but I cannot. It was a complete waste of time and money for me. Doesn't feel like the devs played it. If you like Lord of the Rings, this is like a comic book. Not quite true to story, but cool. The second game feels like it has a lazy story built around cool mechanics, but the first game is incredibly good in all aspects. Was sad when it was over.

I wanna start off by saying I got this game on sale for like £3 and only then is it worth it This game is essentially shadow of mordor 1.5, its the same game with a few new mechanics added that dont warrant a full game to be released. The missions are very basic, go here kill these guys. Go here destroy these things and thats it, no substance whatsoever. The combat is the same from shadow of mordor so if you like that then you'll know what to expect. Although in this game it felt very floaty and your hits just felt like they had no impact. I was playing with a controller and it misread some of my button inputs and caused me to use abilities i didnt want to. If you have not watched the LOTR films (shame on you) then dont pay attention to the story at all. I was letting the nonesense go by for the sake of the following the story but towards the end I hated the direction the story took because it basically made you into a "bad guy" at the end but then right at the end it goes hey you actually turned into a good guy again and have a happy ending, like what. *mild spoilers for LOTR* I was letting the Shelob stuff go for the sake of following the story but I simply cant forgive the Isildur BS it was selling Towards the end when you fight high level captains every fight felt exactly the same. They all have the same immunities to every skill you have so you just end just dodging behind getting 1 hit in and rinse and repeat. If youre like me and do all the side stuff it feels very samey for majority of the game and honestly feels unrewarding to do. If you just do the main quest stuff this game can genuinely be about 5-10 hours TLDR; for £3 game can be fun but no way should anyone pay full whack for this

This game suffers from the same dumb gimmick that EVERY single sandbox crawler has - IF YOU CAN CLIMB IT, YOU WILL STICK TO IT, EVEN WHEN YOU DON'T WANT TO. Every single game is like this - you can climb any surface so naturally, whenever you come into contact with ANY surface, you want to cling to it like spider-man, right? It's so very annoying to be trying to run, jump, fight enemies all while trying to UNSTICK MYSELF from every barrel, wall, rope, swing, slightly elevated surface I come into contact with. I hate that this game has so many abilities tied to 1 or 2 buttons, so the climb button is the same as everything else. The controls are a goddamn nightmare. The story is fine. I don't know, some shit about revenge for his wife or some garbage. I can't get over how stupid and annoying the controls are.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War, developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive, is an ambitious action-adventure RPG that expands upon the strong foundation set by its predecessor, Shadow of Mordor. Set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s richly imagined universe, the game places players once again in the role of Talion, a ranger fused with the spirit of the Elven wraith Celebrimbor. Together, they forge a new Ring of Power and attempt to challenge Sauron’s growing dominion over Mordor. What follows is an expansive, brutal, and deeply immersive experience that blends fluid combat, deep lore, and a truly innovative AI system. The game’s standout feature remains its refined Nemesis System, which dynamically generates enemy orc captains with unique personalities, traits, strengths, and grudges. These enemies remember encounters, adapt to your tactics, and react to your victories or defeats, creating emergent storytelling that’s often more compelling than the main narrative. The system is further enhanced in Shadow of War with the addition of fortress assaults and ally recruitment. Conquering strongholds and building your own orc army adds a compelling layer of strategy and long-term planning that gives players a sense of real power and consequence. Combat is fast, responsive, and layered—mixing Batman-style counter mechanics with supernatural abilities granted by Celebrimbor. Stealth, ranged, and melee combat are all viable paths, and the skill tree offers robust customization to fit a variety of playstyles. The game also boasts large, visually diverse regions of Mordor to explore, each filled with side quests, collectibles, lore entries, and enemy patrols that make the world feel dangerous and alive. The visual fidelity, from the orcs’ grotesque detailing to the sweeping environmental design, is impressive, and the voice acting—especially from the orcs—adds character and dark humor. That said, Shadow of War had a rocky launch due to its controversial microtransactions and loot system, which many felt undermined the core gameplay loop. Fortunately, Monolith responded by removing the marketplace in a major post-launch update, making the endgame more enjoyable and removing the sense of artificial grind. While the main story occasionally stumbles with pacing and leans into melodrama, the richness of the world and the player-driven narratives through the Nemesis System more than make up for it. In the end, Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a bold, content-rich sequel that delivers a thrilling sandbox of orc-slaying, kingdom-conquering, and power-wielding fantasy. Its deep systems, satisfying combat, and memorable emergent storytelling make it a must-play for fans of action RPGs and Tolkien’s lore alike. Despite early missteps, the game now stands as a refined and deeply enjoyable experience—one where every battle feels personal, and every victory echoes through Mordor. Rating: 8/10

The game overall is fine, but the controls are terrible. Characters are often jumping in random directions, or attacking some guy just standing somewhere. Further into the game they make opponents 'Harder' by just giving them more and more health until the whole fight is just slapping leaders in a corner for 5 min while occasionally running off to get health because you are being poked to death by archers. Fun when it came out but it does not hold up

---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☑ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☑ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Game Size }--- ☐ Floppy Disk ☐ Old Fashioned ☐ Workable ☑ Big ☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☑ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☐ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☑ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☑ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☑ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☑ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☐ Never heard of ☑ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8 ☐ 9 ☑ 10

Game is riddled with areas where you cant mantle or hop over a small rock ontop of copyrighting one of the best things created for gaming and refuses to use it. scummy company that deserves to fail.

The juice ain't worth the squeeze. Overall the game is very grindy for a single-player game. Gear progression is painfully slow, all remnants of the aggressive monetization, that got removed at some point. Story is alright, but a lot of important elements are just retold by an NPC, ending is ruined. Gameplay is generally good, but controls are clunky at times, sometimes Talion just priorities the wrong thing (like climbing over dodging, or special attack on grunt instead of leader)

the combat feels great and the nemesis system amazing, i love the interaction between talion and the captain. hope wb games make game like this in the future

very underrated game. wish warner bros added more content to it.

The Nemesis system deserved better than to be sidelined for all these years. Hopefully some other studios will make good use of it once the patent expires. The story isn't all that in my opinion but then again, this is a very gameplay oriented game and I had way more fun with the stories I created and that happened to me naturally rather than the main narrative. The occasional annoying bug makes it a very solid 9/10.

It's an addictive game, I can give it that. Although the overall gameplay is that of Assassin's Creed, being a typical parkour, stealth killing main character but Lord of The Rings based. Ubisoft haters will find this game a good alternative to the AC franchise, but I prefer AC myself. Graphics is amazing, and sounds are as well. I do like the game but it just feels more like it's a rip off to the AC games with a nerdy twist

A game about killing orcs, controlling orcs, killing some more orc, getting killed by orcs, controlling them, getting betrayed by them, and then killing them again. a 10/10 experience for sure.

never been a LOTR-head but games fun, got me interested in the lore and the replayability is off the charts with how addictive the nemesis system is, worth a buy for sure, specially on sale.

The combat style of the Batman: Arkham series crossed with Assassin's creed movement/stealth plus army building mechanics. All that plus a very fun story that, although not the game's strongest area, kept me hooked all the way through, as well as being interesting enough to rewatch cutscenes even on subsequent playthroughs. Don't even get me started on the incredible Nemesis system and how sad it is that this may be the last game to ever utilize it. Could not recommend this game any more, just buy it already. No DLC necessary but they are quite fun as well imo

it's undoubtedly one of the most fantastic games I have played.Not only the open world playing methods is great,but also interesting the playing methods of capturing orcs is .And the most important,this game is very cheap for its volume when on sale😊

This is one of my favorite games. I bought this game years ago and finished it, yet I still enjoy coming back and playing it. Not many games get me hooked, this game from beginning to end I was hooked. The mechanics and abilities were natural and intuitive. Would recommend to anyone looking to play a good game.

Fantastic game, got this with the 2nd game, Shadow of Mordor, on the summer steam sale for like 6 dollars, absolute steal!

Absolutely Incredible – A Must-Play for LOTR Fans I picked up this game during the 2025 Steam sale and... oh my god. It blew me away. Everything about it is phenomenal—the graphics, the music, the story, the mechanics, and the characters. If you're a fan of The Lord of the Rings, this is an absolute must-play. I’m now dreaming of a sequel—or even a few movies inspired by this masterpiece. My only regret? Not buying it at launch. I honestly wish there was some kind of support program so I could send extra money to the devs—they truly deserve it. An extraordinary experience. Highly recommended.

Nice, pretty satisfying combat! I believe that the end game mechanics kinda suck but yea, it is what it is.

This is an epic game, and from 2017, many aspects of this game are better than today's AAAA titles, including graphics and very important " the optimisation".

i love this game it is fairly easy and fast, also great story

Somehow, worse combat than the previous game, better parcour, enemy quotes that make me want to jump out of the window because of the embarrassment they cause, worse graphics and above all I feel sorry for leaving aside the Legendary Urfael and Archarn for random weapons that you find. Gondorian skins looks like Arnor Soldiers instead of Gondor Soldiers but i like to figh with them. Rather than trying to create a difficult game, they've simply made it unfair. It's super hard to get me angry over stupid things, but this game has done it. I don't know how. Sometimes it infuriates me to the point where I'm going to brutalize someone. (thank god you keep it cause it feels good) but not as much as i want but don't worry, i'll find the most disgusting and abominating method for exterminate every single one of them.

Even though the game has some years under its belt its a very fun game with a lot of content 10/10. wish there was another game coming out tho...

This is going to be a bit of a long winded an possibly sporadic review as I genuinely enjoyed the hell out of this game solely as an imaginary spin-off but some of the lore seriously bothers me especially after reading the books and appendices so lets break it down bit by bit Graphics Pro's -Very beautiful game nice graphics -Different biomes for certain areas, for ex.Lithlad being more of a desert due to its proximity to Khand, Nurnen being like a poisonous oases corrupted by Sauron but still somewhat prosperous due to the lake. Puts into perspective how Saurons Empire actually had access to resources just as the Men of the West -So many different orc designs are fantastic -Sick armor and weapon designs, love them -Lots are mad due to Shelobs depiction but I'd argue that there is some wiggle room here considering the words in the Silmarillion as well as Ungoliant(her mother) being a Spiritual being who chose to TAKE the form of a Spider, its implied her Spirit takes the form of pure darkness consuming all light, its very interesting to search into however I believe context matter most. The nature of Ungoliant was also unknown to the Valar as they're primordial much like Tom Bombadiil, and Ungoliant didn't take the form of a spider until the ravine with 2 trees of Valinor. Game context matters as well, as this game is a spin-off Shelob herself is being influenced by the power of the ring Celebrimbor had created, many parallels between Saurons One Ring and this new rings corruption are very blatantly demonstrated through each's actions so I'd argue as well that Shelob's appearance being effected by this ring is loosly canon as well. Imo its not game ruining considering the new ring being created using knowledge that Sauron had given the elves of Eregion but was created in Mt.Doom. Also eye candy, I hate spiders an Shelob an Ungoliant are literally Middle Earth Aliens. Like actually read the description of Shelob an you'll see what I mean, lots of non spider characteristics an more like some type of Spider/Alien Hybrid. Cons -Some orc designs include the White Hand, this makes little sense timeline wise considering the White Hand is representative of Isengard once Saruman was tempted by power in the third age. -Despite me liking the biomes I'm very unconvinced that Seregost is supposed to be so snowy in the slightest, its bordering Gorgoroth and Rhun(Rhuns climate is like California if I had to explain) an yes although Sauron is in the process of building Barad-Dur just the fact of Mt.Doom consistently emitting poisonous ash and all of Gorgoroth being hot/humid asf why is there so much snow in Seregost? -Some people hate Shelob due to the creative liberties taken(Subjective) Gameplay Pro's -Lots of abilities to play around with for different styles and tactics against certain Orcs -Use of weaknesses to push the player towards testing different abilities rather then a set playstyle -Lots of gear that also can be adapted to use for different scenarios such as having fire resistance but increasing fire damage or being cursed causing you to deal massive damage -Nemesis System is one of the best innovations from the first Shadow of Mordor thats the gift the keeps on giving, Orcs will rise and fall, they'll go on with or without you, they'll adapt depending on how you killed them and will remember you -The best NOT Assassins Creed game imo, combat is fluid and fun with great feedback and opportunity to counter or dodge. -Mastering the abilities makes you feel truly badass, cheap or nonsensical deaths are very rare -Ride Caragors,Graugs and Drakes!!! -*SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER* Wraith/Nazgul abilities prob one of my favorite things about this game just badass and cool Cons -Can get repetitive and grindy but Nemesis system keeps it relatively fresh -Sometimes setting an example of a betrayer and mind breaking them will not make it less likely to be betrayed Story Oh boy, this is very hard to write pro's and cons of as I'm horrendously split 50/50 with this game so lemme actually start with the cons first as I have alot Cons -The dates/timelines are so horribly inaccurate that it actually makes Assassins Creed look historically accurate. So much can be remedied just by changing some dates and dialogue lines to better reflect the books but here are a few example 1.Game takes place shortly after the Hobbit(2941 Third Age) but depicts the Fall of the Black Gate and Minas Ithil, the Black Gate was abandoned in 1640 TA an Minas Ithil Fell in 2002 TA. 2.The game takes the approach of Sauron just coming back to Mordor and building Barad Dur after being gone for nearly a thousand years, Gollum also appears in Mordor which makes no sense as Gollum isn't tortured until after Bilbo's party. This whole amalgamation is horrible as even if they attempted to change the dates to fix things, it would still make no sense considering Sauron was cast out of Dol Guldur in 2941 which is still waaay after Minas Ithil and the Black Gate fell, if they restructured them as old memories and attributed Talion still being alive due to being a Wraith slowely getting corrupted then it'd def make it better, turning Talions bitterness of losing his family to Sauron into a persisting living hell due to him resisting the will of Sauron but getting ultimately corrupted by it. Then it'd be almost perfect. 3.Celebrimbor's role is incorrect, he was not involved in making the One Ring, he was an Elven Smith in Eregion whom is mentioned as being present when Sauron came to the Elves in his form as a Annatar. The games saving grace here is that not much is known of Celebrimbor even after the elves of Eregion fell. Lore wise Elves cannot become wraiths per-se but can become corrupted by the powers of the Ring but the Elf wouldn't change into a Nazgul they would just be a Corrupted Elf similar to Dark Numeanorians whom serve Sauron but are corrupted Kings Men or Numeanorians. 4.*SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!!!!* Helm Hammerhand and Isildur and Suladan are massive horrible inaccurate vile sins so bad I searched for a mod to rename them. Helm died a natural normal death and was a King of Rohan and he never received a Ring of Power, Isildur couldn't become a wraith as he was killed, KILLED, his time carrying the One Ring did not corrupt him enough to become a wraith as becoming one in an of itself takes awhile and Isildur was killed not long after as he was attempting to bring the ring back to Rivendell to give to Elrond as he'd realized the ring was indeed effecting him, it was on this journey that he was killed by the influence of the Ring attracting Orcs. Suladan is also incorrectly named as he's shown with context clues to be the Last King of Numeanor, the last Kings name was Ar-Pharazon not Suladan. 4.Talion dies in the first game, Men cannot come back from death unless its as a Barrow Wight, Therefore the existence of Talion of itself is non-canon unless you rationalize that Celebrimbors spirit instead of going to the Halls of Mandos decided to for some reason possess Talion due to shared feelings of vengeance against Sauron for him also losing his family? But when Elves die their spirits are re-embodied to identically be their mortal appearance in Valinor so why would Celebrimbor who's family is also waiting in the Halls of Mandos after death, make the decision to stay and get revenge of Sauron? The only justification I can figure is that its due to the power of the ring preventing him from doing so due to him in the previous game fighting against Sauron in his mortal form and possibly getting corrupted by attempting to forge his own ring? 5. Some of the artifacts that you collect have improper descriptions as to what they represent but its a minority Pro's -Despite its many inaccuracies that I nit pick I can see past them for the message the game portrays that does stay true in Spirit to Tolkiens message albeit in a darker sense. I'm at the limit so will type more as a comment,

very good game, good story, very little amount of bugs and glitches

This is an absolute masterpiece of a game. I picked it up on sale with all the DLC, and the Shadow of Mordor for like $17. Between these two games I've got well over 150 hours in. This blows the doors anything I've played in a long time. It does get a bit grindy, but I really enjoyed the grind on this one; conquering other player forts, and avenging other player deaths by captains was fun enough that I did it dozens of times. If you're on the fence, wishlist it, and get it on sale next time. Even if I had paid full price for all this, I'd still be very very happy with this game and the joy I got out of it. The storyline is long, and indepth. It exposes the history of some of the LotR ring wraiths, and expands the LotR world like you wouldn't believe; it really brings it to life. 10/10.

Really cool game, nemesis system is interesting. Slightly repeatative but there is enough variation that it seems to remain fairly interesting. I would say, if you haven't watched Lord of the Rings or don't remember it or have no interest in it, you probably won't get into this game. Might go without saying but I first got this game because I was curious about the Nemesis system and hadn't really watched LOTR. I lost interest very quickly as the game pretty much assumes you understand basic things about the world and narrative so it was really confusing and uninteresting. Years later, I've watched LOTR and fell in love with it and now I really am enjoying and playing this game.

It's basically Shadow Of Mordor but a lot better and notably longer. RIP Monolith

play shadow of mordor first. amazing story and action, and the environment designs are a huge step up from the first

Even in 2025, this game still looks pretty sweet. The graphics totally hold up, but tbh the MVP here is the Nemesis system. It's my go-to game when I just wanna kick back and relax after getting my butt handed to me in some hardcore souls-like.

Such a fun game. If you love the Batman Arkham games and lotr, this series is for you.

Both games are great. Just play em already. Or watch someone else briefly play it and go buy it for yourself after!

I still like the first more, on an aesthetics and satisfaction standpoint. The game does more stuff, but also the controls are just clunkier (to an enraging degree) and i don't like the various areas as much as i did in the first game. Also the story hasn't interested me as much. It just feels like the first but a little emptier surprisingly. It's bigger though, and worth it, and it's not like i've played it all the way through yet. this is just my first few hours.

Love the game and its variety of uruks and ologs and their variety of looks and personalities fuck no chance though

Still an awesome game with two good expansions. Recommend during the Summer Sale of 2025 for sure. It's a steal and worth hundreds of hours of fun if this is your jam. The Nemesis System is still a unique, wonderful mechanic and we won't really see anything comparable for a very long time, especially after WB patented it and then suffered a complete failure of imagination.

Great action game, will never get old. I just would like the orc speeches to be shorter.

I liked this game but it gets boring once you get to mid-game. It has pretty good visuals and a modest amount of lore for LoTR enthusiasts. If you can get it on sale, and are into Lord of the Rings - then it’s a good buy. Otherwise, it has a fairly repetitive gameplay loop and I think the RPG elements are a bit too limited.

Quite the fun game even if you're not a LOTR fanboy. The nemesis system is one of the best game systems I've ever played. It adds an extra level of fun that is hard to beat. The story is pretty decent and the combat is satisfying even if it's a little basic. My only real issue is the lack of a manual save and only one save slot. I dont trust auto saves so I have to fast travel somewhere every time I want to save...and even then there is no save indicator so you're just hoping against hope it saved. I get dying is supposed to add a new layer as it levels up your enemy and makes him like a rival but, making a instant auto-save on death and not allowing a manual or second save slot almost ruined the game for me. And it definitely takes a star or 2 off for me.

I played this game on console and beat it long ago, now I finally am deciding to replay it and man its still so good. I swear if WB Games doesn't make a 3rd game with the nemesis system... Rip Monolith and for now it seems, rip Nemesis system.

Easily one the best games ever made, Brutal difficulty truly makes the Nemesis System shine as a mechanic but is such a shame that we likely wont ever see it again. And I was super sad to hear that the Nemesis Forge from Shadow of Mordor was no longer active so my Nemesis and Greatest Follower dont follow me over anymore

While it sucks that we gamers may never see the nemesis system implemented again, it's still a blast to enjoy what could've been while Batmanning my way through Mordor.

great game, can get a bit repetative tho but the combat is fun and challenging worth the buy

Its old Assassin's Creed with better play, set in the world of LOTR with the ever sought-after nemesis system. This game is basically perfect and the difficulty is as difficult or easy as your play-style suits. I played this game back in the day and recently purchased it on PC and it still holds up as one of the GOATS!

Coming back to this after years of not understanding what I was doing is honestly a treat. Combat in this game is top notch, feel like a god raising your own army. Great game