Building on the satisfying combat and endlessly entertaining nemesis system of 2014's Shadow of Mordor, War is an expansive and fun Middle-earth adventure, even if its attempts to wring money out of players can grate.

Following the bound-together human Talion and ancient elf spirit Celebrimbor as they take the fight to dark lord Sauron, the narrative plays fast and loose with Tolkien's lore and is mostly incomprehensible. Even as a Lord of the Rings fan who thinks the prelude premise is an interesting one, I found myself skipping through the cutscenes after a while because the story just doesn't seem to know where it's going.

Collect orc captains and raid strongholds in this stronger but more problematic sequel.

However this is more than made up for by the excellent way players' individual stories are formed. Once again, it's all about the orcs.

While regular grunt orc enemies are almost comically easy to kill (with Talion's upgradeable skills making him effectively superhuman) their captains — each with randomly assigned names, classes, strengths and weaknesses — are brimming with character and present a challenge.