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Shadow of War was the sequel to Monolith Productions’ impressive Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. This game brought back the Nemesis system, a big claim to fame in the first title. When this Lord of the Rings game released on October 10th, 2017, it was fairly well-received, despite some complaints it fell short of its predecessor. Even so, most fans agree that Shadow of War was a solid LOTR tie-in game. After all, it’s hard to beat stepping into the boots of a rider of Gondor to take on an epic quest in Middle-earth. But since then, new attempts at Lord of the Rings games have fallen short for many players.
What Made Middle-earth: Shadow of War A Great LOTR Game
For many Lord of the Rings fans, the ideal game will pull you into an epic quest. Not every story in Middle-earth has us destroying the One Ring, but we still want that sweeping fantasy feel. And Shadow of War delivers on this front, as it’s steeped in Tolkien lore while also crafting a new story for players to experience. It improves upon and expands from the first game, adding new Orc traits, new abilities, and additional mechanics.
Though not everyone loved the art style of this game compared to Shadow of Mordor, it was nevertheless a fitting follow-up to one of the best Lord of the Rings games out there. It also leans more into the Nemesis system, which helps make enemies feel more dynamic as they react to past encounters. This game’s massive environments really help you feel like you’re exploring Middle-earth, which is really what any LOTR fan wants from a video game adaptation.
Yes, the gameplay in Shadow of War could be a bit repetitive. But for most fans, it felt worth it, as the game’s satisfying combat and storyline delivered on what many players wanted from a Shadow of Mordor sequel. And as an open-world game, it allows for the kind of exploration that makes many RPGs worth revisiting to uncover new nooks and crannies. In all, this game was the last one that really delivered for Lord of the Rings fans, despite quite a few new entries since it released in 2017.
More Recent Lord of the Rings Games Have Gotten Experimental, With Mixed Results
Adapting the world of Middle-earth into an RPG just makes sense. And for a while, that’s what most game developers did with the IP. We got story retellings of The Hobbit up through the Lord of the Rings books, along with the Lord of the Rings Online MMORPG. And of course, Middle-earth: Shadow of War is itself an open-world action RPG. But since then, we’ve had some interesting experiments with genre and storytelling, to mixed results.
In 2019, The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game brought us a digital card game rendition of the franchise. This deckbuilder featured turn-based strategy games using cards featuring characters and lore from The Lord of the Rings. While it did bring you through locations and stories from Middle-earth, the game was a relatively small release with the goal of adapting the physical LOTR TCG. For most, the gameplay loop simply wasn’t that fun and didn’t manage to capture the experience of playing IRL. Despite Mostly Positive reviews on Steam, it’s hard to argue that this is truly a good LOTR game compared with something like Shadow of War.
From there, we got one of the biggest disasters in Lord of the Rings gaming history – The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. This is a return to the RPG format, but puts players in the role of Gollum trying to retrieve the Precious. As an idea, it maybe could’ve worked. But it very much did not, as the game’s abysmal 33 MetaScore proves. From the graphics to the UI to technical glitches, the game simply did not live up to gaming standards, let alone the heights of a great LOTR game.
