When Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor launched in 2014, it was a surprise, if not a revelation. Though it appeared in marketing materials and press events to be a tonally incoherent cash-in on a beloved intellectual property, Shadow of Mordor introduced one of the most astounding design innovations in the past decade of game development: the Nemesis System.

The Nemesis System was something delightful and totally new in 2014, and it was enough to earn the game a spot on our game of the year list. Now, it has expanded it to include even more orcs of a wider variety of personality types, and more interactions and options for building your personal army. In fact, Monolith focuses in so much on this aspect of the game that it loses the plot in other parts — like, well, the plot.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War picks up shortly after the goofy twist at the end of Shadow of Mordor. (Spoilers incoming for that game’s conclusion in 3 … 2 … 1.) The undying human ranger Talion and his ghostly elf companion Celebrimbor have forged a “New Ring,” a powerful weapon to help them fight back against the dark lord Sauron and his endless army of orcs. Along with a rotating cast of green-skinned brutes, Talion and Celebrimbor team up with a bigger group of allies in this game, including the elven assassin Eltariel and a mystical wood spirit named Carnan.

If you’re a longtime Lord of the Rings fan who found Shadow of Mordor’s looseness with canon distasteful, this sequel is only going to make you angrier. It’s closer to the original works of author J.R.R. Tolkien in some ways — while the first game seemed comfortable existing on its own as some sort of what-if scenario, Shadow of War seeks to bridge the gap between The Hobbit and the proper Lord of the Rings trilogy — yet it manages to be more extreme in the liberties it takes with the established lore of the series.

I should probably make it clear here that I am not one of those hardcore fans. But the game , OMG