If you haven’t watched the Shadow of War gameplay footage yet, then please watch it now, because I can’t convey how utterly emotionally quenching it is when it comes to the Nemesis System. Here it is before I begin...

Now you’ve watched that, we can talk frankly about the Nemesis System in the Middle-earth Shadow franchise. For those that played Shadow of Mordor, you’ll be familiar with the Nemesis System, for those who have not, here’s a quick update.

The Nemesis System for Middle-earth Shadow franchise newbies

• It’s great
• You’ll love it
• It’s an enemy system that creates more of a story around the characters and enemies in the game, giving enemy characters a hierarchy. Enemies will remember everything, so the game can and will progress in difficulty if you don’t finish them. Revenge is a big deal in the Shadow games, a really big deal (hint).

Now that’s over let’s move onto the main course

The Shadow of War Nemesis System pits you against huge trolls, conniving goblins, cunning uruks and really quite disturbing orcs. The Shadow of War enemies are bigger and badder and you better believe they’re more brutal, so when it comes to the Nemesis System, they’ll never forget.

In Shadow of Mordor, the top went as far as the War Chief, but in the new system we’re faced with the new Overlords and the fight to the top of the stacked enemy tree is a long road and it doesn’t make it easy, where’s the fun in that?

The Overlords spend their days lording over Fortresses, which your main character Talion can attack. The Fortresses are protected and fully armoured with soldiers. In Shadow of War, Talion’s mighty ‘possessing power’ allows him to infiltrate the fortresses by possessing War Chiefs and using them as moles. This will help in getting a head start against enemies.

You get to pick your own leaders, it’s like the pudding of winning the battle

When I was at the Warner Bros Studio and watched the Shadow of War gameplay for the first time, I made a small ‘meep’ when my faithful friends fell in battle. I expressed my upset and this emerged soon after...

It seems as if I was onto something there, losing a troll in a game has never been more upsetting and I think the cinematic fireball of death was probably one of the worst ways my good mate Az-Laar could have gone.

Onwards and upwards, it looks like Talion has got some pretty impressive pals to see him through and I’m loving that although this is a single player game, you never feel alone, the AI have so much personality, in fact I don’t like referring to them as AI, they’re to thank for a lot of Talion’s success.

So now the Shadow of War Nemesis System applies to your army.

The Friendship System

After you have successfully conquered a fortress, you will be able to choose your own Overlords and War Chiefs from your army. You can reward allies that helped you out in battle, those that took risky moves or charged in loyally.

Not only that but the traits of each character has been extended and each character’s region is now an important factor, meaning that if a character has an affiliation with creatures and beasts, this could help you further on in your quests in controlling the beasts in your area. That’s just one example; to show how important strategy, so choose your Overlord carefully.

Shadow of War is out on 10th October 2017, you can find out about the trailers, editions and story on the Shadow of War hub.