Middle-Earth: Shadow of War Revealed

It’s not a huge surprise that one of the best games of 2014, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor would get a sequel. It was only a question of when: and the answer, apparently, is this August.

Here’s the newly-revealed trailer for Middle-Earth: Shadow of War:



A lot’s going on here. So, Talion is back, which makes sense since he couldn’t die and everything, and he manages to force his own ring of power with Celebrimbor’s help. Something happens to that helpful elf wrath, and now Talion’s got his sights set on challenging Sauron and putting an end to his crusade against the world of men.

Spoiler alert: he’s not gonna succeed.

While the video didn’t show us much in the way of gameplay, it did show us the kind of enemies we’ll likely be facing (and hopefully recruiting) in our campaign against the Dark Lord. We saw Barlogs, those flying ghost things, those other guys that do the thing… yeah, I’m not exactly a Lord of the Rings expert, but they all look super cool, right?

Anyway, as is typically the case with big games these days, you can already pre-order this one, and there are FOUR different editions to choose from, lord save us. Get the normal edition and you’ll get the legendary Champions War Part (which does something?) and the exclusive epic Sword of Domination. The Silver Edition, which is 80 bucks, has that, plus the Slaughter Tribe Nemesis Expansion, the Outlaw Tribe Nemesis Expansion (both of which add new orcs, followers, missions, items and abilities), and a Silver war chest. The Gold Edition, 100 bucks, is that hoo-ha, plus the Blade of Galadriel Story Expansion, The Desolation of Mordor Story Expansion, and instead of a silver war chest you get a gold one.

But if you just need everything, you’ll need to shell out 300 buckaroos to pre-order the limited edition Mithril version, which has all that, but also exclusive lithographs, a premium case and a magnetic ring of power, the soundtrack, a cloth map, stickers, Gold and Silver war chest, and a freaking 12-inch tall bronze statue of “a Tal-Goroth Balrog fighting a Carnan Drake”.

So empty out those bank accounts fans, because the Shadow of War is coming, and it is expensive.