Like its predecessor, Middle Earth: Shadow of War is a Tolkien-style fan fiction set loosely in the world of Lord of the Rings. And much like 2014’s Shadow of Mordor, it plays fast and loose with the world that’s been created, taking inspiration from the films rather than the books. Despite this, both games, and especially the sequel, released last month, accomplish something the books never did: humanize the orcs.
As we noted in our Middle Earth: Shadow of War review, “the green-skinned warriors present far more personality than anyone else in the game.” The game of course features thousands of nameless orcs, but there’s no shortage of named orcs with dynamically generated strengths, weaknesses, and stories that you’ll end up spending a lot of time with. Playing as the undead ranger Talion, you mostly spend this time. try to separate their heads from their bodies, or use your will to dominate them, but hey, that’s still more time than you spend with humans.
This is the story of one of these orcs, Takra the Machine.
He was, for most of his life, just another disposable grunt that made up the armies of Mordor. Until one day, Takra was standing guard on a tower near Minas Ithil, when Talion decided to challenge an orc captain to combat. While other orcs nearby rushed to kill me (Talion), and were instead carefully cut in half, or frozen then brutally broken, or set on fire then stabbed, Takra stood in the distance, trying to turn me into a ball pin with his crossbow.
The arrows barely made an impression as a heated battle unfolded with a cunning orc captain using a cursed blade and explosive bombs, with whom Talion traded blows fairly fairly. Eventually, an opening appeared and the captain was executed with a decapitating sword strike – but then a final arrow found its target and killed the ranger.
Death is a minor obstacle in Shadow of War, however, and you are quickly revived, but meanwhile the orc who kills you gets a promotion and pending blood feuds and raids are resolved, so the world is a bit different.
However, angry that this orc did not dare to kill me, I decided that the first thing to do was to take revenge. Freshly resurrected, I took Talion hunting and chased Takra the Killer. We were walking around an open square, boasting about killing the Gravewalker – a nickname the orcs gave Talion. That wasn’t going to be enough.
A few well-placed arrows had sent a swarm of flies chasing his surroundings, causing a campfire to explode, leaving him burned and suffering. It was time to get in on the killing. A short, brutal fight ensued, ending with a horizontal strike right to the waist, ripping Takra in two. But of course, that wasn’t the end of things.
No, a few hours later, we saw each other again, but Takra was no longer Takra the Slayer. He was Takra the Machine. He had been torn in two, and he had to be put back together, more machine than orc, to take revenge. I was searching for a lost artifact outside the walls of Minas Tirith, when he lunged at me and gave me a little speech.
You cut me in two. Any other orc would have died, but I survived. More than that, I thrived. My brothers put me back together, stronger than ever. But it wasn’t them who made me who I am, it was you who did. You created the machine.
We fought, and this time Takra had a new trick up his sleeve: he was throwing bear traps on the ground, and if you’re not paying attention, you’re going to walk right into a trap trying to cut him the head. . This was a much more annoying fight, but this time it ended in decapitation.
That’s it, I thought, until a few more hours had passed and I was hiding in the bushes of Cirith Ungol, trying to sneak through a mountain pass and into an orc fortress. Suddenly I heard a sniffing sound. A big, heavy inspiration. I looked around, hiding in the tall grass, and there was Takra again, his body covered in metal, with spikes flying everywhere, as he gave me a speech about being the machine again .
I lunged at him, but he was ready. Takra had discovered a new trick, the safe breaker. Throwing me to the ground, he charged but was punched in the face instead. This was going to be a fight. Eventually, Takra was cut in two again, but he would come back again and again, like the Terminator.
During the course of the game, you will encounter a number of other orcs; some of them are quite funny, and I’m pretty sure some of these orcs are my friends now. There was one that was particularly scary: we let out a crazy meow, then charged with an ax in each hand. You have a chance of encountering drunken orcs, and even orc bards, carrying lutes. Some are reluctant to fight, knowing what must happen, but they will still, optimistically, try to kill you.
Over time, you unlock the ability to dominate orcs, forcing them to become your slaves, and then you can send them to fight other orcs for you and climb the ranks. It’s a very effective system that was first created for Shadow of Mordor and has improved over the years.
What’s interesting here is that your interactions with the other “good” characters are extremely limited, and encounters with these orcs make up a large part of the emerging narrative. You won’t kill every orc at first sight either; some might kill you, while others will just humiliate you. There will be those who take a beating and then run away. And of course, over time, your paths will cross again. It’s like meeting old friends, except they’re out to kill you, so more like a family reunion maybe? You build a relationship with these orcs and can’t wait to hear what they will say next, and yes, you will feel bad killing at least some of them.
You encounter an ever-growing list of orcs – some are patently ridiculous, like the Agonizer, voiced by Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley’s Dinesh). They all have a story, and you hear parts of it as you hunt them down, and they become more fleshed out in battle. It’s a conversation that may end in death or domination, but it’s a conversation nonetheless, and you can’t help but feel more for the orcs you kill than for the elf whose life force you keeps alive. There’s a small twist tied to this late in the game, but we’ll leave that intact, and suffice it to say that through these various battles, the orcs of Middle-earth finally feel like human beings; something that was not the case in Tolkien’s work.
As for Takara? He joined the ranks of my dominated orcs for a time, but then died fighting another captain. I felt bad for a while, until I made my way through the Nurnen Jungle. I was looking for a souvenir of Shelob, when I heard an angry screen behind me. It was Takra, and he was coming to die on my blade again, and it was one of the most enjoyable moments in the game.
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