Interested in playing the next in the Middle-earth game series, Shadow of War, but want to catch up on the first game? Playing Shadow of Mordor is a great place to start before delving into Shadow of War, which comes out 10th October 2017. You can find all the Shadow of Mordor reviews below, for the revolutionary RPG set in the Tolkien universe between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

IGN – 9.3/10

The best thing about playing Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is that it makes me feel over-the-top powerful without sacrificing the fear of defeat. It’s got great free-flowing combat and a good-sized, good-looking open world full of Lord of the Rings lore to find, but what makes it special is what’s going on in the background: an intriguing hierarchy of enemies that gives every victory and defeat extra meaning.

Polygon – 9.5/10

Set roughly between the events of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy,Shadow of Mordor opens dramatically. Main character Talion is a Ranger who guards the Black Gate, the main entrance blocking the land of Mordor from the rest of Middle-earth. In the opening cutscene, his outpost is overrun by Orcs and his family slaughtered along with everyone under his command. Talion, too, is killed but finds himself returned to life and mysteriously tied to a powerful and ancient wraith.

PC Gamer – 85/100

This is the story of Talion, a Gondorian ranger who's lost his wife and son (and his own life, at that) to a band of marauding orcs. So far, so formulaic. But above this deceptively flimsy foundation stands a tale that should appeal to even the most disgruntled of academic Tolkienists. Talion's misadventures start the night Sauron returns to Mordor—humans have been gentrifying the joint over the years —and his subsequent mysterious resurrection pairs his body with the wraith of a key elf lifted from the pages of Tolkien's Silmarillion.

Gamespot – 8/10

I scale up a tower I have never climbed before and survey the land. There are new events in which to participate now, and new adventures to undertake. I leap to the ground below from this dizzying height, landing safely and breaking multiple laws of physics in the process.

I crouch in the bushes and wait for a sword-wielding guard to approach. I surreptitiously assassinate him when he draws in close, then rush towards a nearby lookout. I clamber up the structure until an unsuspecting archer is standing just above me. I plunge my blade into his torso, then watch as his corpse falls victim to the laws of gravity, emitting a thud when it strikes the rocks below.

We had a hands on with Shadow of War , see how we got on with the next Shadow game in the Middle-earth series.