Middle-earth: Shadow Of War

How monolith is building a better sandbox

- Josh West

If there is one space in gaming that’s just waiting to be revitalised in 2017, it’s the open world. No matter your poison – it’s okay, we’re all friends here – it’s difficult to argue with the notion that sandbox design has fallen into a bit of a rut, strangled by the same laboured design and storytelling techniques that we’ve seen at play since Assassin’s Creed debuted a decade ago. But Monolith may have finally cracked it.

One does not simply release a mere sequel in this day and age, as Middle-earth: Shadow Of War is only too eager to prove. Cast across a sprawling world engulfed in flame and chaos, Shadow Of War is going to bring player-driven personality, presence and persistence to sandbox design in a way that we’ve never experienced before – at least, not on this scale. And yes, yes, you know it’s coming and we aren’t even sorry: this is the part of the preview where we start harping on about the Nemesis System.