Similar to the way Batman: Arkham City built on the foundation of Arkham Asylum, Middle-earth: Shadow of War is bigger and more ambitious in scope than Shadow of Mordor, with great results. The way it expands the Nemesis system with far greater variety and fortress sieges makes even better use of the stand-out generated characters, and its battles with memorable uruk captains remain challenging all the way through the campaign and into the clever asynchronous multiplayer beyond.

It's better, bigger and more sophisticated than the predecessor almost everywhere - except for the controls and business model.

Providing thrilling gameplay, a flowing combat system, pleasing Tolkien landscape, challenging charismatic bosses, deeper story and a bigger end game mechanic to keep the player entertained for many many hours, today Middle Earth Shadow of War is one of the best games available in the third-person RPG-action genre.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War has everything that made Shadow of War great with improvements. It's a great sequel with tons of new content and great mechanics.

Nemesis is a one-hit wonder of a mechanic. Everything else in Middle-earth is mediocre at best, but Nemesis makes it all worthwhile, since every playthrough is truly unique – a feature none of its triple-A competitors can offer. [Issue#225, p.38]

Despite its “loose” treatment of established Tolkien Lore, Shadow of War manages to showcase once more why the Nemesis System is one of the greatest gaming innovations in recent memory. However, a title that manages to take the cancer that is microtransactions in a Single-Player game and metastasize it to the next level cannot, in all good conscience, be awarded a higher score than this.

At times entertaining, but for the most part Shadow of War is an exercise in frustration and exploitation. [Issue#268, p.62]