Shadow of War will have a vast open world.
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Shadow of War: Hands-on assault of an Orc fortress in Mordor

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is one of the most anticipated titles of the year for me the many millions of fans of the J.R.R. Tolkien universe of Middle-earth. The game comes out on August 22 in North America on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows.

I got a sneak peek at it last week during a preview event, where I was able to play through an entire battle, taking over an intimidating fortress in Mordor during an Orc civil war. Taking over such fortresses is the main object of the game, so you can push back the forces of Sauron, the Dark Lord, and win his followers over to your side.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.