After Target jumped the gun and put up the pre-order page yesterday for Middle Earth: Shadow of War, Warner Bros has officially announced the game with an incredible new, action packed trailer.
In the game, players wield a new Ring of Power and confront the deadliest of enemies, including Sauron and his Nazgul, in a monumental battle for Middle-earth. David Haddad, Warner Bros. President, commented on the continued partnership with Monolith Studios by saying
“Monolith Productions continues to innovate by introducing deeper, more personalised gameplay experiences, coupled with authentic storytelling. Middle-earth: Shadow of War truly drives the genre forward by taking the Nemesis System to new heights and allowing players to create their own personal journey within Middle-earth.”
The Nemesis system that was created for the first game has been expanded on to include two new components; Followers and Fortresses. The followers bring new stories of loyalty, revenge, etc to the game, but it’s unknown if this will happen automatically or as a result through branding like in Shadow of Mordor. The Fortresses allows players to utilize different strategies to conquer dynamic strongholds and create personalized worlds with their unique Orc army.
Both Warner and Monolith describe the expanded world in Shadow of War by saying Players will be engrossed in a richer, more personal and expansive world full of epic heroes and villains, iconic locations, original enemy types, even more personalities and a new cast of characters with untold stories.
Both Talion and Celebrimbor have returned to Mordor, and they must unite everyone against the evil hand of Sauron. All of this in an expanded universe of Lord of the Rings has the excitement already extremely high for Shadow of War as Shadow of Mordor won multiple awards, including many Game of the Years.
Although not announced today, yesterday’s Target hiccup did reveal that a Gold Edition would launch on both Xbox and PlayStation. Listed at $99.99, it would include the main game plus four additional story expansions and a number of cosmetic items. No info on a season pass was announced, but with Shadow of Mordor having one it would seem logical that this game would as well.
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor will launch on Xbox One and Windows 10 via Xbox Play Anywhere and also be made available for Project Scorpio. Other platforms include PC, PS4 and PS4 Pro. The release date is listed for August 22nd in North America and the 25th in Europe.
