Well folks, Middle Earth: Shadow of War has officially come out for Android just a few days after we teased it here. While our teaser was concerned that it would just be another Clash of Clans ripoff, once I opened up and started running the game I was pleasantly surprised. This is a fairly unique mobile game, and is definitely worth checking out for Lord of the Rings fans (and even non-fans, if any of those still exist).
Similar To (But Definitely Not) An Idle Action RPG
Now, I want to be clear that this is not and idle rpg like Nonstop Knight, but it has idle elements during battles, much like Postknight does. That is, your character is not constantly fighting whether or not you have the app open, and you play more than just a cursory role in Middle Earth: Shadow of War than just checking in whenever you feel like it. Once you do decide to play a battle, though, the gameplay is similar to Nonstop Knight, as your heroes automatically fight with the player having the chance to use skills during the battle.
These battles are the heart of Middle Earth, and you can see what they look like on the left in the above screenshots. Again, the gameplay is a little bit shallow in these battles since you can only use skills once they’ve charged up (after your heroes have done enough battling to charge up these skills). They are still enjoyable, though, since heroes have different classes like mages, support, tanks, and more. In other words, rather than feeling like just a cheap mobile game, it feels more like a streamlined ARPG experience.
Middle Earth: Shadow of War Is A Very Deep Mobile Game
While these battles are the core of Middle Earth: Shadow of War, the rest of the game is pretty deep for a mobile game. There is a base-building aspect like Clash of Clans or Simpsons: Tapped Out, but it’s done in a very different way that doesn’t feel like a city builder. Instead, you have different screens in your fortress where you can recruit new heroes, train your current heroes, level up your “strongholds”, or even hold fights between orcs that you have captured by defeating them in battle. Of course you can also just fight battles in the campaign or other events, too.
Since it just came out today, I’ve only played through a bit of Middle Earth: Shadow of War, and I don’t think I’ve really scratched the surface of what the game contains. This is part of why I can recommend it as a game worth playing, since it seems like a unique mobile game due to its depth alone. In fact, I’ve been playing a lot of my PS Vita recently, but I can already tell that this game will help pull me back to mobile games, at least just a bit. The story is interesting so far, and I find that I haven’t been skipping through all the story parts as I do in some mobile games.
A Beautiful, Portrait-Mode ARPG
One of my favorite parts of Middle Earth: Shadow of War is that it is a portrait mode game. When I want to play a mobile game, I want it to be a one-handed experience, so I prefer portrait mode over landscape mode games any day of the week. Aside from being comfortable to play, Middle Earth: Shadow of War is also beautifully rendered, and boasts some of the best graphics I’ve seen in a mobile game (especially one with so much gameplay). The game also offers five different graphics settings, from graphics geared towards performance to graphics geared towards appearance. I have it on the highest setting, and it runs just fine on my fairly cheap Android phone.
At the end of the day, Middle Earth: Shadow of War just came out today, so maybe this is just the honeymoon period where you can’t quite tell yet just how crushing the monetization model of a mobile game is. Until then, though, I can definitely recommend this to fans of Lord of the Rings, action RPGs, or just fans of great-looking, fun, casual mobile games. Since it’s free to download and play, you have nothing to lose.
For the record, I have no idea what relation this game has to the upcoming Middle Earth: Shadow of War PC/Console game (set to come out on October 10th).
Download Middle Earth: Shadow of War for iPhone or Android
