A few weeks back, we got to take some time to check out the premier West Coast video gaming and all things nerd culture convention, Pax West. Among the multitude of indie games and upcoming AAAs, one of the things we were most excited to check out was Shadow of War, the soon-to-be-released sequel to WB Games’ much loved Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. In a well air conditioned room a few blocks from the convention center, we were treated to a gameplay demo and interview with Bob Roberts from the game’s development team, Monolith Productions.
Middle Earth: Shadow of War Interview Takeaways
Some of the most exciting takeaways for Shadow of War are how much it feels like a true sequel, taking most of the aspects from the first game that we loved and expanding upon them in bigger and more exciting ways. Orcs are now more than just a quippy army of sword fodder. You can recruit and build an army of them to assist in massive fort sieges alongside Talion. You can send them on assassination missions to take out officers in the Dark Lord’s army, and your interactions help to build stories completely unique to your play through. It’s a super interesting system that actually feels like you’re building an army and makes the fort sieges, in particular, that much more epic feeling.
The open world is much bigger this go around too, as is the variety in mission type and scale. For one mission, we murdered some sorcerer orcs then dove headfirst into a fire pit to fight a Balrog. The gameplay still feels epic and comfortable, allowing you to pull off murderous acrobatics with ease or volley arrows into a pack of unwitting orcs before pulling out your sword to skewer them while using their bodies as a series of parkour bases. Needless to say we’re excited.
The video above features Bob talking about new modes, story points and more, as well as some fun anecdotes about the development team. Take a look and stay tuned for more Shadow of War coverage as we get closer to its October release date.
