SummaryExperience an epic open world brought to life by the Nemesis System. Forge a new Ring of Power, conquer Fortresses in massive battles and dominate Mordor with your personal orc army in Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Go behind enemy lines to forge your army, conquer Fortresses and dominate Mordor from within. Experience how the award-winning Nemesis... Read More
Rated Mfor Mature
Developer:Monolith Productions
Middle-earth: Shadow of War
Released On:
Oct 10, 2017
Metascore
Generally Favorable
80
User score
Mixed or Average
5.6
My Score
Drag or tap to give a rating
Hover and click to give a rating
Where to Buy
Metascore
Generally Favorable
80
77% Positive
53 Reviews
53 Reviews
23% Mixed
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Oct 5, 2017
100
Everything about this game outdoes the first, and with the expanded Nemesis System, superb combat, and epic story, you'll be immersed for a long time.
Oct 14, 2017
90
Middle-earth: Shadow of War addressed nearly every flaw of the original game, and its enormous environments help to make the emergent encounters and Nemesis system even more engaging. While its story stumbles early on, the unique stories you’ll get from pressing against your nemeses will keep you coming back to the game for dozens of hours. Even after killing and enslaving countless orcs, we can’t wait to keep making those stories.
User score
Mixed or Average
5.6
45% Positive
972 Ratings
972 Ratings
20% Mixed
423 Ratings
423 Ratings
36% Negative
771 Ratings
771 Ratings
May 13, 2026
10
The game is quite good, although aspects such as the old Act 4, orc purchases, the ease of combat after becoming moderately experienced with the game, etc., can be criticized, but in Overall, this is a pretty solid and fun game considering aspects like the Nemesis System, deserving a high rating, in addition to containing an interesting story.
Dec 4, 2023
10
One of my most favorite games in recent memory. The mechanics of your enemies leveling up when they kill you paired with the fact that you are an immortal half-wraith is just genius. Your character is like every Assassin's Creed character on steroids x100, allowing you to do things like teleport distances in an instant, fire spectral sniper arrows, teleport around an enemy while stabbing it dozens of times.... it's brilliant. On top of that, the devs recorded what seems like an infinite amount of reactions to old enemies seeing you come back from the dead or they themselves coming back to seek vengeance on you. Some are frightening and many are hysterical. Crazy random events also occur like your mind-slaved minions forming a mutiny against you and you must to decide to re-possess them or just slay they so they won't defy you again. Possessing literally every enemy and creature you come across and adding them to your army is icing on this perfect cake. My only complaint is... where is the sequel?
Oct 5, 2017
88
A title with strong elements of originality, a sumptuous eye-catcher and a nice and dynamic combat system, to be counted among the big ones in this dense video game season.
Oct 5, 2017
83
Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a good sequel to Shadow of Mordor. Fortress sieges are a nice introduction, but in the long run things could get a little bit repetitive.
Oct 5, 2017
80
The sequel boxes are generally ticked off with Shadow of War, it’s bigger, better, and a touch more ambitious than Shadow of Mordor was, but there are aspects that feel somewhat dated now, and there’s a lack of polish to certain controls that dilutes the fun just a smidgen. The Nemesis system remains the star, and with the addition of sieges and tribes, it’s a star that burns brighter than ever.
Oct 11, 2017
70
Middle-earth: Shadow of War has a lot of fluff that attempts to sabotage it, but the game succeeds in its effort to make its world worth roaming around and killing things in. Although I wasn't enthralled by the silly story beats that try to dance around telling an actual epic and somber tale, the ability to create my own stories with an expanded level of depth was more than sufficient to call this a step up.
Oct 20, 2017
50
The whole experience feels so utterly soulless it’s hard to really care about any of it. It feels like a game that has been carefully pieced together with every feature, bit of narrative and gameplay moment structured out of commercial desire, rather than any love or respect for the Lord of the Rings franchise. And as far as I'm concerned, for a game that's quite explicitly a Lord of the Rings game, that's a fail.
Nov 8, 2024
10
I almost never give 10, since perfect games don't exist, but this is the most satifying, complex, epic, fun, gameplay loop I have ever played on a massive open world, INCREDIBLE, even the online is fun.
The story is very cool but of course its Lord of The Rings, so we know the protagonist of the game cannot save the day in the end.
Even the orcs, the have such personality, and world as well, everything is immersive and incredible.
Dec 6, 2025
7
I liked this game, just not as much as Shadow of Mordor. This is a sequel that fell short. The ending seemed ambiguous, the powers weren't as interesting. The new taking over the towers idea was cool, but I had no interest in online gaming. It was good, but Shadow of Mordor was an all-time great.
Mar 20, 2025
7
Used Batman Arkham mechanics for fighting, and Assassins Creed climbing mechanics. They did it well actually. Graphics are cool, game play is repetitive but fun.
Jan 24, 2025
4
really bad game. I don't know how he gets such high marks. the newspapers are no longer reliable
Mar 27, 2021
4
Pretty average even if you remove the microtransactions. It gets repetitive. Dominate/Kill Captain, Overthrow overlord, repeat. The story is also too weak. The ending was good though. The map is so big yet so small. It has a large area but there is too little to explore. Overall meh.
Platforms:
- Xbox One
- PlayStation 4
- PC
Initial Release Date:Oct 10, 2017
Publisher:
