Middle - Earth:shadow Of War

Talion returns to Mordor for friendship and fisticuffs.

- James Nouch

You remember Talion, right? Dead guy. Gondorian. Possessed by the wraith of the elven smith Celebrimbor. Yeah, that’s him. I always thought of him as a covert operator, dropping from the rafters to shank an Uruk captain in the back. A true ranger of Gondor.

But the stealthy Talion of my recollections is nowhere to be seen when I visit Monolith HQ for an early look at the followup to Shadow of Mordor. The action opens on one of the least sneaky things imaginable: An all-out assault on one of Sauron’s fortresses. And Talion isn’t crouching in a shrub or parkouring onto a rooftop—he’s at the front of an Uruk army, leading a ragtag regiment of green skinned grunts and powerful orc captains into open battle. Flaming arrows streak towards his forces as the Dark Lord’s army attacks from the battlements. Nearby, some piece of crude orcish artillery hits Talion’s loyal horde, detonating into a fireball that sends a mass of green bodies flying. In terms of scale, this is something altogether different from Talion’s last outing.

How did this shabby swordsman come to find himself leading an Uruk army? That can be explained by one natty bit of bling: a new ring of power. Talion and Celebrimbor forged the band together in the fires of Mount Doom, and now they wield it as a weapon to dominate the orcs of Mordor, turning Sauron’s forces against him in a bid to destabilize the Dark Lord on his home turf. And that’s how Talion comes to find himself fighting alongside the likes of Ragdug Iron Mount and Az-Laar the Demolisher—a wiry Uruk riding an armored beast and a hulking great War Troll, respectively.