11 Ways Monolith Should Have Made Shadow Of War

2. Either Take The Lore Seriously Or Don't Use It

Shadow of War
WB Games

While Shadow of War faced a lot of ire for making some radical changes to the Lord of the Rings lore, the problem wasn't the fact that the game diverged from the books and movies, it was that it then tried to tie itself into them so "definitively" in the end.

Turning Shelob into a pin-up model and tying her story directly into Sauron's isn't a problem in and of itself, but when the game tries to make this alternate history official canon, it's doomed to rub fans the wrong way.

Making all of these changes for the sake of the game is one thing, but then having them impact the stories of the main canon is something completely different. Sadly, Shadow of War just doesn't have the storytelling prowess to pull it off.

Monolith needed to either carve out their own little section of Middle-Earth and go nuts with changing whatever they want, or spend time getting the world of the fiction right, before telling a true Lord of the Rings tale.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.