After a major retailer leaked its existence, WB Games has decided “what the heck, let’s go for it” and officially unveiled Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, a sequel to the surprisingly good 2014 hit, Shadow of Mordor. They did so with a cool announcement trailer:
Shadow of War, which is also coming to Scorpio, PlayStation 4, PS4 Pro and PC in addition to Xbox One, Takes place in the world of The Lord of the Rings. It focuses on you attempting (and apparently succeeding, according to the trailer) to forge a new Ring of Power that’s even more powerful than Sauron’s. Shadow of Mordor‘s acclaimed Nemesis system, where you develop surprise rivalries with random enemies that get tougher each time you face them, will return, as will the combat style first made popular by Batman: Arkham Asylum and has since been copied by nearly every major action game release afterwards.
Speaking of the Scorpio version, WB Games confirmed that version of the game won’t be any more expensive than the Xbox One version, perhaps putting at ease some worried about Scorpio games costing more than the current generation’s titles.
They’ve already got a Shadow of War website up and running, but there are virtually no details about the game posted, with empty forums as well. The only new information is a timer counting down to the first official gameplay reveal of Shadow of War, which ends on March 7th.
In the trailer, we get a good look at the character designs and the Balrog, which is a potentially exciting development because it may mean you’ll get to fight the thing (although probably not kill it, unless they want to mess with canon). There are also ringwraiths and plenty more bleak imagery, as one would expect given where in the series’ timeline the story takes place.
LotR fans should be excited for the announcement, especially since we enjoyed the first game in the series so much. Shadow of War is set for release on August 22nd in North America.
