Middle-earth: Shadow of War trailer suggests it has a more varied open world

For all its virtues, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor must surely go down as one of the most drab and uninspiring game worlds in recent blockbuster memory. That's just my opinion, of course, but it was a very brown video game. If you like the colour brown that much, good for you.

It looks like the game's sequel, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, may not suffer the same problem. As the trailer below demonstrates, the environments are much more varied and the colour palettes far less brown and grey. It makes thematic sense: this game will not be set solely in Mordor after all. There will still be plenty of orcs though. Don't you worry about that.

Here's the trailer. The game launches August 22.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.