Sunday 29 October 2017

VIDEO GAME REVIEW: Shadow of War - Warner Brothers Interactive

Release Date: 10/10/17
Publisher: Warner Brothers Interactive

SYNOPSIS:

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is the sequel to the critically-acclaimed Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, winner of more than 50 industry awards, including 2015 Game Developers Choice Awards’ Game of the Year, Outstanding Innovation in Gaming at the 2015 D.I.C.E. Awards and the BAFTA for Game Design. In Middle-earth: Shadow of War, players wield a new Ring of Power and confront the deadliest of enemies, including Sauron and his Nazgul, in a monumental battle for Middle-earth. This open-world RPG is brought to life through the expansion of the award-winning Nemesis System. The robust personalization from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is now applied to the entire world where the environments and characters are all shaped by player actions and decisions, creating a personal world unique to every gameplay experience.

Nemesis System Evolved

Players turn all of Mordor against Sauron by leading their personal Orc army created by the award-winning Nemesis System. The robust personalization from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is now applied to the entire world where the environments and characters are all shaped by player actions and decisions, creating a personal world unique to every gameplay experience. The Nemesis System has been expanded with the introduction of Followers, who bring about entirely new stories of loyalty, betrayal and revenge. Through Nemesis Fortresses, players utilize different strategies to conquer dynamic strongholds and create personalized worlds with their distinct Orc army.

Pick up the Season Pass to gain access to the Slaughter Tribe Nemesis Expansion, Outlaw Tribe Nemesis Expansion, Blade of Galadriel Story Expansion and Desolation of Mordor Story Expansion.

Beyond Mordor

Players experience the epic scale of the open-world in a number of ways including new regions and gameplay modes, larger environments, enriched visuals, expanded dialogue and more ways for players to create their story.

Enhanced Combat

Harness the power of Talion and Celebrimbor as the Bright Lord with enriched varieties of combat to take down enemies, include duality, the new Ring of Power, enhanced stealth, melee and more.

Enemy Diversity

Defeat Sauron’s deadliest warriors, including new varieties of Orcs, Olog-hai (war trolls), fire-breathing drakes (dragons), armored caragors and many others. Orcs belong to Tribes, which extend their influence and culture throughout the open-world, creating a rich ecosystem of missions, exploration and a dynamic Orc society.

Original Story in Middle-earth

Taking place in the time between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the original story continues with Talion and Celebrimbor, known as the Bright Lord, who must go behind enemy lines to build an army, forge a new Ring of Power and turn all of Mordor against the Dark Lord, Sauron.



REVIEW:

Having loved Shadow of Mordor, I couldn't wait to return to Middle Earth and see what was next for Talien and Calembrimbor the forger of the Rings of Power. The storyline works wonderfully well and with a humanised Shelob adds more mythos to this already packed world.

Storywise the player continues the quest for vengeance against the Dark Lord and with a new feuding system as well as new ways to establish your own army with sieges all round makes this a game that will not only take you quite a bit of time to do but will also give you many hours of pleasure as the storyline is revealed.

Whilst there is the niggle of you being able to "pay to win" by purchasing bonus boxes, I found that I didn't see the point in that option personally as they can be come by whilst engaging in online vengeance missions. Yes you can make the game easier with these but you cut down your gaming time by quite a lot and make a lot of the fun redundant which is the whole point of playing a game.

All round I was very happy with the new systems in place (which included various Orc tribes which gave specific bonuses alongside a rework of the nemesis system) and when added to cracking storyline, top notch animation with good voice acting, made this a game that I was more than happy to sink many hours into.


No comments: