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Middle-earth: Shadow of War

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Middle-earth: Shadow of War
Middle-earth: Shadow of War cover
Developers
Monolith Productions
Publishers
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Engines
Firebird Engine[1]
Release dates
Windows October 10, 2017
Reception
Metacritic 75
OpenCritic 82
IGDB 84
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, DLC, Expansion pack, Subscription gaming service
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Action, RPG, Open world, Stealth
Art styles Realistic
Themes Fantasy
Series Middle-earth: Shadow
Middle-earth: Shadow of War on HowLongToBeat
Middle-earth: Shadow of War on IGDB
Middle-earth: Shadow of War guide on StrategyWiki
Middle-earth: Shadow of War on MobyGames
Middle-earth: Shadow of War on Wikipedia
Middle-earth: Shadow
Subseries of Middle-earth
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor 2014
Middle-earth: Shadow of War 2017

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a singleplayer third-person action, RPG, open world and stealth game in the Middle-earth: Shadow series.

General information

Official wiki for Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
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Download code only; no disc included.
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
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Definitive Edition also available.
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Definitive Edition also available.
Windows
Green Man Gaming
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Standard Edition not available in all regions.
Definitive Edition also available.
Windows
Humble Store
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Definitive Edition also available.
Windows
Microsoft Store
Microsoft Store
Included with Xbox Play Anywhere, Xbox Game Pass for PC. Definitive Edition also available.
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Definitive Edition also available.
Windows
GamersGate (unavailable)
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Windows
The Steam version requires Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM.[2][3]

Monetization

Type Notes
DLC DLC includes new orc tribes.
Expansion pack Expansion packs include two new mini-campaigns.
One-time game purchase The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service Available via Xbox Game Pass for PC.

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Expansion Pass Includes all DLC (both nemesis and story expansions).
Windows
Story Expansion Pass Includes the two story expansion DLC.
Windows
4K Cinematic Pack Free.
Windows
The Blade of Galadriel Story Expansion
Windows
The Desolation of Mordor Story Expansion
Windows
High Resolution Texture Pack Free. Must be installed to use Ultra textures.
Windows
Outlaw Tribe Nemesis Expansion
Windows
Slaughter Tribe Nemesis Expansion
Windows
Starter Bundle No longer available for purchase since the May 8, 2018 update that removed microtransactions from the game.[4]
Windows

Microtransactions

Type Notes
No microtransactions Middle-earth: Shadow of War currently contains no microtransactions.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War used to contain an extensive in-game real money payment marketplace, which offered lootboxes with gameplay-affecting premium orcs. Approximately 9 months after launch, the in-game marketplace was removed and the pacing of the game and the ending was rebalanced to account for this.[5]

Demo

A Demo is available on Steam. Progress from the Demo will carry over into the full game.

Version differences

The Definitive Edition includes all DLC.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Replace video files
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\game\interface\videos\legal
  2. Delete or rename middleware_splash.vib and legal_splash.vib
  3. Create two empty .txt files and name them middleware_splash.vib and legal_splash.vib

As of patch 1.21 just deleting or renaming the video files leads to an infinite black screen.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Microsoft Store
Steam %LOCALAPPDATA%\WB Games\Shadow of War\
GOG.com %LOCALAPPDATA%\WB Games\Shadow of War\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/356190/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %LOCALAPPDATA%\WB Games\Shadow of War\<user-id>_ShadowOfWar.sav
Microsoft Store %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\6DA520A3.1673586F56C6C_ykvmsk3s73586\SystemAppData\wgs\<user-id>
Steam <Steam-folder>\userdata\<user-id>\356190\remote\
GOG.com %LOCALAPPDATA%\WB Games\Shadow of War\<Device Name>_ShadowOfWar.sav
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/356190/pfx/[Note 1]
The game keeps 5 backup saves named <user-id>_#_ShadowOfWar.sav.
The <user-id> for the Steam save is the SteamID3 of the account in hex format.
The <Device Name> or "Computer Name" for the GOG.com save is your PC's Windows Name.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud
Only the latest save is backed up.
Xbox Cloud

Video

Video settings
Video settings
Advanced video settings
Advanced video settings

Input

Input settings
Input settings

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Menu controls cannot be remapped away from default WASD. Certain actions are in "Action Groups" and all the keys in said group can't be seperate (e.g. sword attack will always be the same key as shooting)
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Slider with arbitrary minimum and maximum values.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration
PlayStation controllers
PlayStation button prompts
Light bar support
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes Wired
Generic/other controllers
See expanded button prompts
Button prompts
With a controller connected, the button style can be switched in game regardless of the type of controller that is connected. Available options are XBox One, Xbox 360 and Dualshock 4 controller button styles.
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M
Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Hook input (legacy mode)
Official controller preset(s)
Steam Controller button prompts
Cursor detection

Audio

Audio settings
Audio settings

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Arabic
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Latin American Spanish

VR support

Issues fixed

Crashing on startup on Windows 7 machines

Download and install both the Windows 7 Platform Update and Internet Explorer 11[6]

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 11
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok
Audio Wwise
Interface Scaleform
Cutscenes Bink Video 2.6e

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 7 SP1
Processor (CPU) Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz
AMD FX-4350 4.2 GHz
System memory (RAM) 6 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 70 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce GTX 660
AMD Radeon HD 7870
2 GB of VRAM
DirectX 11 compatible
A 64-bit operating system is required.


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/356190/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (356190) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. Shadow of War highlights the strengths and weaknesses of PS4 Pro - Eurogamer.net - last accessed on 2018-10-15
  2. Steam - Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™ EULA - last accessed on 2018-07-17
  3. Verified by User:Aemony on 2019-12-23
    Microsoft Store version does not seem to use Denuvo Anti-Tamper based on the size of the executable (59,226 KB), the lack of connection to any of the regular Denuvo Anti-Tamper servers (neither srv01-srv03 nor revalidate.wbgames.com), how fast the game starts to initialize on launch (basically instant), as well as the lack of an offline token in any of the usual folders.
  4. Steam Community - News - Important Free Updates Coming to Shadow of War - last accessed on 2018-07-17
  5. All Microtransactions Have Been Removed From Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War - last accessed on 2022-03-27
  6. middle-earthgamessupport.wbgames.com - last accessed on May 2023