Middle-earth Shadow Of War Definitive Edition Pc

[Bonifacia Cramm]

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a 2017 action-adventure video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Shadow of War is the sequel to 2014's Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, both of which are based on J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. The game is set in between the events of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings film trilogies, from which the game also takes inspiration. The player continues the story of Talion, the Gondorian Ranger who bonded with the wraith of the Elf Lord Celebrimbor, as they forge a new Ring of Power to amass an army to fight against Sauron. The game builds upon the "nemesis system" introduced in Shadow of Mordor, allowing Talion to gain followers from several races of Middle-earth and command them in warfare.

Shadow of War expanded on the scope of Shadow of Mordor by introducing new game mechanics and extending the nemesis system, which procedurally generates orc characters for players to fight and recruit. Compared to its predecessor, the game features more light-hearted moments, and the five regions were designed to be bigger and more colorful. Locations in the game were inspired by the landscapes of eastern Washington, Alaska, and Iceland. Troy Baker returned to provide the voice of Talion, while simultaneously serving as the game's motion capture director. Other cast members include Alastair Duncan as Celebrimbor, Laura Bailey, and Pollyanna McIntosh.

Announced in March 2017, the game was released worldwide for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on October 10, 2017. Shadow of War had a generally favorable reception from critics, albeit more mixed than its predecessor. Reviewers praised the gameplay and improved nemesis system, while criticizing the game's microtransactions (which was removed in a post-game update in July 2018) and story, including changes to characters seen in Tolkien's books. Many critics noted that the game's increased scope caused it to feel bloated. The game was the best-selling video game in the United States in its month of release. Monolith supported the game post-launch with free updates and two story expansions.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is an action-adventure game set in an open world and played from a third-person perspective. The player controls the game's protagonist, Talion, who has several athletic and combative abilities as a ranger of Gondor. The combat system in Shadow of War is similar to its predecessor. Talion can use his weapons to strike enemies and build up his "might" meter. Once Talion lands eight consecutive strikes, he can perform a combat finisher move, massively damaging an enemy's health.[1][2] When an enemy is about to strike Talion, a symbol will appear on top of their head, signaling the player to parry their attacks. Unblockable attacks are highlighted in red, and the player must try to dodge those attacks.[3] In addition to melee combat, players can also utilize stealth tactics when approaching their targets.[4] Talion also has unique abilities provided by the wraith of the elf lord Celebrimbor, with whom he shares his body. Through Celebrimbor, Talion can perform magical feats such as double-jumping, activating wraith vision to highlight nearby enemies, shooting spirit arrows, wielding a spectral glaive, draining an enemy's health, or dominating them. Players must use their combined abilities to complete various missions, typically aimed to disrupt the armies of Sauron. As players progress in the game and complete story quests, they will gradually gain points to unlock new skills and abilities. Each skill can be individually upgraded to provide more gameplay perks and bonuses.[5]

The game features a currency called "mirian", which is earned by defeating enemies. Mirian can be used to purchase weaponry and other gear, as well as followers, in the game's market.[6] Talion has access to five different types of gear in his inventory: a sword, a dagger, a bow, armor, and a cloak. The effectiveness of a particular piece of gear is dictated by both its stat and its rarity, which is categorized into: common, rare, epic, and legendary. Players can spend the mirian and finish "unlock challenges" in order to upgrade their weapons. In addition, gems can be slotted into Talion's gear. They can be used to either increase weapon's damage, Talion's health, or the amount of mirian Talion will gain through defeating enemies or completing quests. Several lower-quality gems can be combined into a gem of the next-higher quality. As players progress in the game, they will collect legendary gear. When multiple legendary gear of the same set are collected, combat bonuses will be granted to players.[7]

Shadow of War is made up of five different areas, which Talion can freely explored by players on foot or while riding tamed beasts.[8][9] There are side activities that Talion can participate in, such as purifying Haedir towers, which unlocks a fast travel point for players and reveals locations of interest to players,[6] He can also find lost Gondorian artifacts, solve puzzles to unlock "ithildin doors", collect Shelob's memories, and complete "Shadows of the Past" quests, which are challenges based on Celebrimbor's memories.[10] Each of four of the five regions has a fortress operated by an overlord. Players must lay siege to these fortresses, and maintain control after capturing them. Each fortress has a "fortress level", which indicates how strong the warchiefs stationed inside the fortress are and how well fortified a fortress is. Players can send in their own followers to capture the fortress, and the combined strengths of their followers are reflected by the player's own "assault force level". If the fortress level and assault force level are similar, both sides would be even in strength, resulting in an even fight. After a fortress invasion has started, Talion and his followers must capture victory points, and kill the overlord in the throne room. Players can then appoint one of their followers to become the new overlord of the fortress, and improve their fortress with siege upgrades. Defense missions become available following a successful fortress conquest.[11] After completing the game's main campaign, players can complete endgame content known as "Shadow Wars" (renamed to "Epilogue" in July 2018), in which players must defend their fortresses against hostile enemies 20 times before unlocking the game's bonus ending.[12]

The nemesis system expands upon its introduction in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Similar to the first game, enemies in the game are procedurally generated. While "generic" orcs serve as cannon fodder, as part of Sauron's armies, the game will begin tracking the ones that have notable achievements within the game, such as killing the player, or surviving an encounter with the player. Enemies in the game will remember their interactions with Talion, and taunt him when they encounter him again later.[13] Hostile orcs may also return, scarred, with some even cheating death to exact revenge on Talion.[14] Once the player dies, orcs will advance up the hierarchy and become captains, who are characters with unique attributes, strengths, weaknesses, and names.[10] Intelligence on these captains can be collected through interrogating characters named "worms".[15] Enemy orcs will also ambush Talion, which is one of the random events that can happen at any point of the game.[16] Players, upon learning a captain's traits, can avoid tactics that aggravate or enrage a captain, and exploit their weaknesses, causing them to be dazed and leaving them defenseless.[1] Captains in the game will also adapt, as the artificial intelligence in the game will learn the player's preferred gameplay tactics and develop strategies to counter them. Enemy orcs can be dominated through Celebrimbor's powers, allowing Talion to either recruit them, kill them, or shame them, which significantly lowers their level. Players cannot recruit orcs who have a higher level than Talion.[17] A shamed enemy may also become a "maniac", a deranged individual whose level will increase significantly.[14]

Shadow of War's nemesis system also extends to Talion's followers as he gradually builds his own orc army, which can be summoned to the battlefield, assisting Talion in combat. Players can recruit a captain and send them to infiltrate a fortress. They may be appointed as the bodyguard of a warchief, allowing said captain to betray the warchief in a subsequent mission. Following the death of a warchief, captains will battle each other for the position. Players will then unlock a Nemesis mission, allowing players to assist Talion's followers in battle to ensure their success. These warchiefs will then betray the overlord during fortress assault battles, thus making the fortress siege easier for Talion. There are a number of Nemesis missions, allowing Talion to perform tasks like exacting revenge on a captain who has previously killed him, or intervening in conflicts between orcs.[10] Friendly orcs will also remember a specific encounter, saving Talion when he was about to be killed by a hostile captain, or attempting to take down a specific enemy captain on his own.[18] Friendly orcs can also participate in fight pits, in which they battle another orc to death in order to earn gear and level up.[19][20] However, friendly followers may also betray Talion.[21] The player is able to transfer their top Nemesis and their most loyal follower from Shadow of Mordor into Shadow of War through the Nemesis Forge.[22]

The game features two asynchronous multiplayer modes. In Online Vendetta missions, players can enter another player's nemesis system to defeat their nemesis. Once another player's nemesis has been defeated, players would receive a loot chest and "Spoils of War", Vendetta's form of experience.[10] "Social Conquest mode" allows players to invade other players' fortresses and attempt to conquer them. This mode has two settings: friendly and ranked. Friendly allows players to invade someone's fortresses, without the risk of losing their army. Ranked, on the other hand, allows players to invade, but with a risk of losing some of their own orc followers permanently.[23] When the game was released, players could purchase reward chests through the game's marketplace. This included Loot Chests that provide players with gear and consumables, War chests that unlock followers and training orders that improve a follower's attributes, and "Spoils of War Chests" that unlock high-level followers.[10] In July 2018, the marketplace and all forms of microtransactions were completely removed from the game.[24]

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