My very first hands-on with Middle-earth: Shadow of War was a disaster. At a press event held last week, developer Monolith wheeled out the sequel to the wholly surprising Shadow of Mordor (GameSpot`s 2014 Game of the Year), allowing attending journalists to take on one of the game`s expansive new additions, Fort Assaults. And my playthrough was a complete flop.In my 20 minutes with Shadow of War, I guided the game`s returning main character--ranger/wraith duo Talion and Celebrimbor--to three deaths, falling to three different warchiefs and never quite making it to the fort`s overlord. Killing the overlord would have granted me control of the fort and its surrounding regions, one step closer towards Shadow of War`s main quest of conquering the various regions of Mordor in order to build an army strong enough to take on big bad Sauron himself.To be fair, the Fort Assaults in Shadow of War are meant to be the culminating act in an hours-long endeavor, the crescendo after you`ve carefully considered the fort overlord and his warchiefs` strengths and weaknesses, plotted out ways to possibly infiltrate the keep with your own subjects, and amassed your own forces. Outside all the flashy wraith powers and over-the-top limb chopping of the game`s combat system, Shadow of War is meant to be a thoughtful experience, requiring players to consider their approach to besting its various challenges. My playthrough of Shadow of War was a rush job that didn`t take into account any of my enemies` shortcomings. That, coupled with the new hard difficulty I was playing on, meant it was my Talion who came up short.It`s a credit to Shadow of War`s Nemesis system, returned and expanded upon from Shadow of Mordor, that other journalists who played during the hands-on event had vastly different experiences with their individual Fort Assaults. One breezed through and easily took the fort, with their follower`s randomly generated strengths and weaknesses matching up well against the overlo ...
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