J.R.R Tolkien’s genre-defining The Lord of the Rings has been translated to video games nearly three dozen times. Beam Software took the first swing with The Hobbit Software Adventure in 1982, developing a text adventure wherein players followed Bilbo Baggins on his quest to reach the Lonely Mountain. This revolutionary experience set the stage for the next four decades of licensed games based on Tolkien’s works, with some releases leaving more of a lasting impression than others. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor occupies the same upper echelon, due in large part to the groundbreaking Nemesis System whose complex inner workings turned enemy NPCs into user-specific villains. The title’s 2017 sequel, Shadow of War, stumbled in its execution of an even more robust iteration of the signature mechanic.