Middle Earth : Shadow of War

Genre: Single-player action role-playing

I played: around 30 hours

The Nemesis system (see the review of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor) is back and it's better than ever.
More humour in the characters and general writing.
Nice skill trees and great improvements to the loot system, allowing you to find and equip better gear along the way.

It's a very long game which kind of feels artificially drawn out for the sole purpose of making it longer. There are certain parts that require a LOT of grinding which I could definitely have lived without.
The general story is hard to follow due to it being disjointed by NPC character stories, rendering it difficult to grasp at times. I guess this kind of stays true to Tolkiens writing, but in a game, as opposed to a book, it doesn't work so well.
The main goal of the game is to attempt to free Mordor, but one of the big game mechanics used to achieve said goal is to enslave Orcs and use them to defend keeps etc. Mordor is populated by orcs. You essentially enslave orcs to... free orcs? If you think too hard about this, you'll find that the game has an identity crisis at the core of its very being.
The sound track is often very "war like" which isn't always "living room friendly" - an important factor if you play like I do (preferably on the biggest screen available, which is the TV, making my gaming a household affair).

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