Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War Has Meaty Postgame Missions That Tie Into Lord of the Rings

Warning: The video above and post below contain non-story-specific Middle-earth: Shadow of War spoilers.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War promises to be a very large game, boasting a huge world, lengthy campaign, and a ton of orc fortresses to conquer – heck, there will even be extra missions for you to play through after you’ve wrapped up the game’s story!

Eurogamer got to go hands-on with these postgame “Shadow Wars” missions, which they detail in the video, above. The main goal of Middle-earth: Shadow of War is to conquer all of Mordor, at which point, Sauron strikes back and you have to defend all the orc fortresses you’ve captured.

Basically, the Shadow Wars missions flip the game on its head. Rather than conquering fortresses, you’ll have to set up you defenses, manage your army, and fend off wave after wave of invading orcs. You can get a fortress back if you lose it, but it won’t be easy, as you’ll have to rescue orc chieftain you left in charge of it.

So, what’s your reward for playing through the Shadow Wars missions? Well, if you manage to defeat Sauron, you’ll get Shadow of War‘s true ending, which will tie directly into the events of The Lord of the Rings. Will Gandalf show up to give you a pat on the back for all the good orc killing you’ve done? If so, all the hard fortress-defending work will have been totally worth it.

The Shadow Wars missions definitely sound like a promising addition. Some people aren’t thrilled about the plans to add microtransactions to Shadow of War, but there’s no denying the game will offer a huge amount of content.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War storms onto PC, Xbox One, and PS4 on October 10.

[via Eurogamer]