Middle-earth: Shadow of War first gameplay video shows off a full-blown battle and some dragon mounting

As promised, Warner Bros. have revealed today the first piece of gameplay from their recently announced Middle-earth: Shadow of War. The video presents an assault of a player’s army at a stronghold controlled by a dragon master, somewhere deep in the Land of Shadows. True, it’s a 16-minute+ watch, but trust me, it’s as action-packed as it can be – and if my recommendation doesn’t convince you, perhaps the dragon mounting will.

The first thing you probably noticed, apart from some new abilities and tasty animations, is that the sequel to Shadow of Mordor will feature a much grander scale than its predecessor. This time you will not only slay enemies, but actually command an army, conquer new regions and designate captains over newly captured lands.

The interesting thing about the battle from the video is that you will probably never see the exact same battle in the actual game. And no, it’s not a case of false advertising. This is because every player will have a bit different experience based on the upgraded Nemesis System. Similarly to what we saw in the first game, this system individually generates every orc leader and follower from a number of variables – such as names, traits of character, weapons, elements of appearance and more – meaning that each player will have his own unique set of enemies and allies. This is going to result in different micro-stories within the overall narrative.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is planned to launch on August 22, 2017 across PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.