By Adam Roffel
There’s still nothing quite like the Nemesis System. Nine years after Middle-earth: Shadow of War first arrived, watching an Orc captain who killed you rise through the ranks, acquire a ridiculous new title, and come back looking for revenge remains one of the best things the game has to offer. And I mean ridiculous. Who comes up with this stuff? It’s personal in a way that most open-world games rarely are.
That’s why it’s a little disappointing that Middle-earth: Shadow of War: Definitive Edition on Nintendo Switch 2 feels like a straight port, which it likely is. Monolith Productions’ sprawling action game has aged well where it counts. Having the base game and its expansions on a handheld is appealing. But this is a conversion that gets the fundamentals right without doing much to take advantage of the hardware it’s running on.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War: Definitive Edition Details
Platform: Nintendo Switch 2
Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch 2
Developer: Monolith Productions
Publisher: Aspyr
Genre: Action / Adventure
Game Modes: Single-player
Still a Fun, Engrossing Experience
The good news is that Shadow of War is still a lot of fun. The less encouraging news is that, if you’ve already played it elsewhere, there isn’t much here to justify another trip to Mordor. The story picks up with Talion and Celebrimbor continuing their campaign against Sauron. It’s an entertaining enough excuse to spend dozens of hours killing Orcs. But the plot’s increasingly elaborate mythology and liberties with Tolkien’s world make it an awkward fit with the source material. I found this to be one of the best Lord of the Rings games ever made when it came out, and yet as a Tolkien fan, perhaps the most frustrating.
Fortunately, the story has never been the main reason to play Shadow of War. It was the Nemesis System that got me excited to explore this again. It gives individual Orcs their own personalities, rivalries, strengths, and weaknesses. Kill one and another might take his place. Get killed yourself, and your attacker could be promoted, becoming a more dangerous opponent the next time you cross paths.
Sometimes the best encounters happen almost by accident. An Orc who catches you off guard can become a recurring nemesis. A captain you’ve recruited might turn on you at an inconvenient moment. Another might survive an encounter that you assumed would finish him off, returning with a grudge and a few new scars.
These aren’t necessarily great feats of storytelling in the traditional sense. They’re better than that in their own way. Those stories emerge from the game rather than being handed to you in a cutscene. It’s how they evolve that is so intriguing.
Big Changes from Shadow of Mordor
The sequel builds on the original Shadow of Mordor by making recruitment and army management much more important. You can dominate enemies, recruit captains, and put your forces to work taking enemy strongholds. The fortress assaults are a highlight, giving all that preparation a purpose. You can actually see the game’s increasingly complicated web of Orc politics play out.
It’s an excellent foundation, even if the amount of busywork surrounding it can get tiresome. There are plenty of missions and upgrades to chase, but not all of them are worth your time. The game is at its best when you’re dealing with the unpredictable Orcs. It’s less interesting when it asks you to clear yet another collection of repetitive objectives. And there are a ton of repetitive objectives to clean up.
Familiar Combat With Nintendo Switch 2 Compromises
Combat remains satisfying, with a familiar mixture of counters, executions, stealth kills, and supernatural abilities. Talion gradually becomes an absurdly effective killing machine. There’s a real pleasure in seeing how much punishment you can dish out once the skill tree opens up.
The trouble is that the bigger battles also expose the limits of this Nintendo Switch 2 version. The game targets 30 frames per second, a reasonable baseline for a game of this scale. Still, performance can falter when the screen fills with enemies. Those are precisely the moments when you want combat to feel responsive, and sadly it chugs just a little too much.
Visuals and Features Fall Short
Visually, the game holds up better than you might expect. Mordor is an ugly place by design, but its bleak landscapes, imposing fortresses, and grotesque inhabitants give it a strong identity. The art direction does a lot of the heavy lifting, even when the technical presentation falls short of what you’d hope for on Nintendo’s newer hardware.
There are compromises, of course. Image clarity and environmental detail take a hit, and pop-in can be distracting. Loading also interrupts the experience more than it should. None of these problems makes the game unplayable. Together, though, they leave the impression of a port made to run on Nintendo Switch 2. It doesn’t seem properly reworked for the hardware.
A 60fps option would have gone a long way towards making this version feel worthwhile. So would a more flexible set of graphics options. Instead, you get a fairly straightforward conversion, with few meaningful improvements beyond the opportunity to play on a newer Nintendo console.
The missing online features are worth mentioning, too. Online Conquests and Vendettas aren’t available, so this isn’t quite the same experience as the original release on other platforms. If you’re coming to the game for the first time, that may not matter much. For returning players, it’s another reason to temper expectations.
Portability Is This Version's Biggest Advantage
Portability is the strongest argument for this version. I’m always a fan of games on the go, so I’ll take a graphical hit to make that happen. Shadow of War is well suited to dipping in and out of. You can hunt down an Orc captain, complete a mission, recruit a new member of your army, then put the console to sleep. You can make meaningful progress without having to commit to a long session.
There’s a certain appeal to taking a game this large on the road. Its most entertaining moments tend to emerge from relatively small encounters. You don’t need to advance the main story every time you play. Sometimes it’s enough to settle an old score with an Orc who has made your life difficult.
But portability can only do so much. The Nintendo Switch 2 is capable of delivering some impressive results with older games. It’s fair to expect a little more than a 30fps target and a handful of compromises. This isn’t a disaster of a port. It’s simply difficult to get excited about a version that makes so few concessions to the hardware’s potential.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War: Definitive Edition Is Better for Newcomers
Middle-earth: Shadow of War remains a terrific action game. Its Orcs are still more memorable than the villains in many much newer releases. The Nemesis System gives the world a personality of its own, while the combat and fortress assaults provide plenty of reasons to keep playing long after the main story starts to lose momentum.
The Nintendo Switch 2 version preserves those strengths, and being able to take Mordor with you is a genuine plus. But the technical presentation is underwhelming, and performance isn't always consistent. The missing online features make this a less complete package than it could have been.
If you’ve never played Shadow of War, there’s a lot to enjoy here. If you’ve already spent time conquering Mordor on another platform, the prospect of doing it again on Nintendo Switch 2 is less compelling.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War: Definitive Edition Review Summary
Liked
- The Nemesis System still creates memorable, unpredictable Orc rivalries
- Recruiting captains and attacking fortresses remain highlights
- Satisfying combat with plenty of abilities to unlock
- Portable access to the base game and its expansions
Didn't Like
- Slowdowns during busy combat, with no 60fps option
- Reduced image clarity, distracting pop-in, and loading interruptions
- Repetitive objectives and busywork
- Online Conquests and Vendettas are missing
Overall Assessment of Middle-earth: Shadow of War: Definitive Edition
Gameplay: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ (4.5 / 5)
Presentation: ⭐⭐⭐✨☆ (3.5 / 5)
Performance: ⭐⭐✨☆☆ (2.5 / 5)
Story / Narrative: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ (3 / 5)
Fun Factor: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ (4.5 / 5)
Overall Value: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ (3 / 5)
Adam Roffel
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