As a recent convert to Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, I was pleased when Warner Bros. announced a sequel. While the trailer for Middle Earth: Shadow of War looked great, I wanted to see gameplay. Warner Bros. promised a gameplay trailer, and the have now delivered. Of course, I plowed through the new trailer to ingest everything they had coming in the game. Here are my thoughts:
Bigger Scale…and Then Some
Shadow of War is an apt title. This is no longer about our protagonists, Talion and Celebrimbor, fighting solo against the Uruk hordes. The gameplay trailer shows them commanding an army and laying siege to a fortress. The scale is epic and really makes me salivate while thinking of the possibilities.
Smarter Followers
Unlike Shadow of Mordor, your followers are more than just mindless helpers here. They still have bonuses and certain abilities, but in Shadow of War, those abilities become useful tactical options in sieges. The gameplay trailer shows one Uruk, a demolisher, being used to break through the fortress gate. While battling an enemy chief, a friendly Uruk archer lends a hand by head shotting your opponent. Planning strategies around the abilities your followers have are essential for a successful siege.
DRAKES!!!! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG DRAKES!!!!!
This is what I was looking for!
Taming and riding caragors is still present in Shadow of War. An earlier section during the siege shows how riding a caragor helps Talion avoid fire on the ground. But in the trailer, a drake appears. Talion, being the badass he is, shadow mounts the drake AND TAMES HIM!
That’s it! That’s all I wanted! I can tame and ride drakes? I’m good! The rest of the game could consist of talking to Teletubbies and I’ll be okay. I CAN TAME AND RIDE A DRAKE!!!
(I was kidding about the Teletubbies thing.)
Same Combat, New Tricks
It was good to see that the combat from Shadow of Mordor is present in the sequel. Talion seems to perform more executions than before, possibly because of the Power Ring. I’m not complaining; more executions is a good thing in the game. Also, the Power Ring seems to imbue Talion with new abilities, like scaling walls much faster. It looks like it’s going to be fun.
The Pacing Seems…Off
Granted, this was a gameplay trailer, not a playthrough, so some staging was expected. But how much of it is staging? Whenever a follower lends a hand in battle, he gets a long introduction. Hopefully, that’s just because they wanted to accentuate it for the trailer. If not, all those pauses for mini-cutscenes will ruin the flow.
Curses and the Power Ring
In Shadow of Mordor, warchiefs had counters that force you to modify your combat strategy. With the Power Ring, Talion should have an advantage that counters them. Fortunately, Shadow of War has a counter for the Power Ring: curses. When an enemy is cursed, he negates the Power Ring, forcing the player to fight him normally. Little combat touches like that are what made the original so damn fun, and it’s good to see the sequel will do the same.
Warlords!
You thought warchiefs in Shadow of Mordor were tough! The warlords in Shadow of War look way more menacing.
The last encounter in the gameplay trailer has Talion facing off against one such warlord. He is huge, and fighting him head-on is quite the challenge. During the fight, one of your followers jumps, riding a caragor, and distracts him. And here’s where the warlord shows his strength: he brushes your follower to the side, grabs the caragor, and breaks it back on his leg! Poor caragor…
Special Dual Attacks???
That fight with the warlord culminates in a maneuver I hope stays in the game: both Talion and the wraith Celebrimbor slash the warlord to pieces with a dual attack! The ability to unleash a special move like that would be tons of fun if kept intact. It did look a little too theatrical, though, so we will have to see if it was done just for attention
Overall, a lot of what I saw in the gameplay trailer excited me. Middle-Earth: Shadow of War looks to be a worthy sequel. Let’s hope it stays as awesome as it looks so far. I mean, it IS Warner Bros. we’re talking about here…
