Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a fantastic sequel to the already great Shadow of Mordor. Following Talion and Celebrimbor's story after the events in the first game, it starts with the forging of a new Ring of Power, completely free of Sauron's influence. Talion and Celebrimbor then embark on a new quest to conquer all of Mordor and put an end to Sauron once and for all, but will their alliance last, as each one has different views on how to use the New Ring? Without spoiling anything, I must say that I found the story pretty engaging, even if it takes several liberties with the lore of Middle-earth.

When it comes to gameplay, the game improves upon its predecessor. Not only can you dominate Orc Captains in order to take over Mordor; this time around, you get to fight for control across five regions (six if you have the Desolation of Mordor DLC). Besides the usual combat, there's invasion missions in which you assemble your army in order to attack the fortresses across Mordor; you can even plant spies in the enemy fortresses to aid in your attack. There's also times at which your own fortresses will be invaded, and it's up to you to defend them alongside whichever Captains you assigned to it. Another cool mechanic (though one I barely used) are the Fight Pits, in which you can make your Captains fight other Captains (or among themselves), and the survivor increases his level.

These three mechanics (invasion, defense, fight pits) are also part of the game's online mode, which also includes the Vendetta missions from the previous game. In contrast to Shadow of Mordor, when you play a Vendetta, you actually travel to a copy of your friend's game world, and so you can dominate and recruit the Captains your friend has. The same applies to invasions, you can recruit Orcs from other players, but don't worry: you don't really affect their own game (nor can other players affect yours by invading), the only thing that gets affected is your assault and defense rating, which determines the fortresses you can invade through matchmaking. If you want a high-stakes online mode, though, there's the Fight Pits; in the Online Fight Pit, you send your Overlord to fight those of other players, and if he gets killed, you lose him.

There's lots of gear you can find as you progress through the story (or just by killing Orc Captains), which improve your stats in different ways. They also come in different "quality" flavours, with those of higher quality providing extra bonuses based on their type. You can also get gems to further improve your gear. As for skills, each skill includes three sub-skills that affect how it behaves; you can only pick a sub-skill at a time for each skill.

When it comes to graphics, I must say the game looks very good and detailed. Not to mention that the environment design is superb; each region across Mordor feels unique, from the (former) Gondorian city of Minas Ithil (now Minas Morgul), to the lava fiels of Gorgoroth or the snowy Seregost, exploring this world is fantastic. And speaking of exploring, if you're an achievement hunter, there'll be lots of that, as the world is filled with collectibles. The soundtrack is excellent, and the voice acting is very good (if you manage to listen to the orc chatter without engaging them, you can hear some pretty funny dialogue).

Overall, I can say this game provides an excellent experience. As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, it takes many liberties with the lore, to the point where it should be considered an alternate universe, though in this case, I must say it's more than welcome. We need more games based on popular media that use the general setting and characters and explore their own, unique story, in a non-canon way. I definitely recommend this game.