Middle-earth: Shadow of War
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Middle-earth: Shadow of War Trailers
Critic Reviews for Middle-earth: Shadow of War
The nemesis system shines in this unwieldy, bloated, and occasionally magnificent fantasy epic.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War somehow finds a way to improve on the winning Shadow of Mordor formula and create an incredibly dense and entertaining new piece of Tolkien lore.
Similar to the way Batman: Arkham City built on the foundation of Arkham Asylum, Middle-earth: Shadow of War is bigger and more ambitious in scope than Shadow of Mordor, with great results. The way it expands the Nemesis system with far greater variety and fortress sieges makes even better use of the stand-out generated characters, and its battles with memorable uruk captains remain challenging all the way through the campaign and into the clever asynchronous multiplayer beyond.
A greatly expanded and improved action game let down by a dreadful story.
A huge Lord of the Rings experience that's always enjoyable, although its scale leaves it straining at the seams at times.
You are a merciless tornado of ruin touching down in an unforgiving world of battle and domination, and embracing that unfettered power is a joy
The follow-up to Shadow of Mordor is bigger in scope, but not always better than its predecessor.
If you can get past the microtransactions, Shadow Wars seems set to provide a much meatier extended playtime than Shadow of Mordor ever offered. But more than anything, that's my biggest disappointment with Middle-earth: Shadow of War: Everything about it seems to come with a caveat, some small annoyance or two that you need to dig past to get to the still-very-fun game underneath. The Nemesis System is still a wonder that has yet to be replicated. The movement and combat are thrilling.
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