Middle-Earth: Shadow of War

MIDDLE EARTH: SHADOW OF WAR (2017) was definitely a worthy sequel to the Tolkien Middle Earth inspired ME: Shadow of Mordor and as a hardcore, diehard Tokien fan, I'm glad to have a sequel to the Middle Earth themed games to play. Since this game came out it's been both lauded and criticized, and I can honestly understand why. My opinion is often mixed as well. I tend to lean more on the optimistic side however, and remain just grateful to have a decent Tolkien-inspired game, and honestly because I did truly enjoy this series of games, I will rate it accordingly.

As other reviewers have said before, this game had strong similarities to Assassin's Creed series, as well as other similar parkour action styled games with elements of stealth, adventure, fighting, (i.e. Assassins Creed series, Watch Dogs, inFamous, etc.) however the unpredictability of the AI for the Orcs made this game really fun and much more strategic. I enjoyed the premise of the battlefield being the main focal point, recruitment of orcs, building your own army, all the while analyzing and dismantling the enemy army. Uber cool. And the revenge aspect often made it more enjoyable as well.

While it can still be a bit repetitive, (Aren't most games when you think about it?) the graphics are pretty great, cutscenes are visually praisable, and the story is compelling enough to drive the player onwards WITHOUT overstepping too much outside of the Tolkien lore and world. I really appreciated that the writers didn't want to diminish or tarnish an epic masterpiece world by adding too much of their own. Not saying everying here is cannon, per say, but just that it didn't really feel overdone or too butchered. I enjoyed how the many collectables offered room to share lore and background to players that might not know about it. Lastly, while Talion as a character was alright, I really liked the persona and portrayal of Celebrimbor as a main lead.

Overall, this game was really fun and offered a decent ammount of play time. While, not perfect, it was still pretty great for a Tolkien / Middle Earth inspired game and I hope to get more sequels in the future, as long as they don't stray too far from the literature or take too many liberties with the source material.