As an enthusiast of the open-world genre, I was pretty excited to get my hands on Middle-earth: Shadow of War . The first instalment in the Lord of the Rings spinoff was a surprising success back in 2014, with critics and fans heaping praise upon its outstanding combat mechanics and distinctive...

Considering the reputation licensed games had in the early 2000s, the Lord of the Rings movie games made out fairly well. The Two Towers and The Return of the King games were, at the very least, good action games that made decent use of their license and delivered something fans of the films could...

As far as licensed games go, most of them aren't even worth mentioning. But there are some rare cases that fire on every cylinder and live up to their parent franchises. And once in a blue moon, you might get a video game that surpasses the quality of the film it's based on.

With stealth, platforming and similar assets and animations, Monolith's Lord of the Rings title Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor has more than a little Assassin's Creed flavour to it. Its counter and combo focused fighting also echoes the free flowing combat of the Batman: Arkham games.

I've been a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien since I was a boy. The fantastical world he created never disappointed, regardless of the entertainment medium it was presented in. His books kept me awake long into the night and Peter Jackson's film adaptations often left me breathless.

Similarly to last year's less than stellar Lord of the Hunt DLC, the Bright Lord takes the action outside of Shadow of Mordor's main campaign, this time giving us a new protagonist altogether. Celebri

Celebrimbor is a badass; Branding enemies never gets old; A proper boss fight

Even more difficult; Still doesn't feel wholly essential

So I just beat Shadow of War's main story, and I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised by it's ending. SoW is a massive game and has plenty to do, whether you are tackling story missions, side quests, looking for collectibles, or just having fun with the Nemesis System.

Overall it plays out just like the first one some cool extras and encounters. Same fighting, little more character building. Differences I don't like are the elf shots, you can no longer upgrade how many arrows you can hold kinda depends on the bow and that's about 4-8 arrows you can hold.

What attracted me foremost to Shadow of Mordor, apart from the Lord of the Rings connection, was the combat system - which is essentially the same as the Batman Arkham series! As a result when you go against the evil Orc's and other minions of Mordor you really feel like a bad-ass ranger, with the...

Coming into Shadow of Mordor as someone who isn't into the Middle Earth saga at all, felt a bit odd initially. Other games based around Middle Earth, such as the various Lord of the Rings titles have come across like they are for fans only, with the only exception being the LEGO games.