Middle-Earth: Shadow of War is out now on Steam, which is excellent news! The downside is that it requires a gigantic 97.7GB install size, mostly thanks to the 4K Video Packs and HD Textures. However with our help you can reduce the PC install size to just 65GB! And it's easy! See below for how!
We’ve played Middle-Earth: Shadow of War! Here are our impressions!</b>
Now the first thing you have to realize is that if you do this you're turning off some of the better quality features of the game. You can choose to keep on either 4K Videos or High Resolution Textures if you wish, but for the purposes of this guide we're just focused on getting that install size down. And yes, the first point is a bit annoying.
1. Start installing the game!
You've bought Shadow of War on Steam or input the key from whatever retailer you bought it from, it's in your Library, you may now start downloading the game. Yes, you can't choose to make the install size smaller yet, so if it asks for 100GB now you'll have to be fine with it. Don't worry, we'll be reducing it momentarily - while the game is still installing, in fact.
2. Open up the game's Properties!
While the game is still downloading, go to your Library, find the downloading Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, and right-click on it to open the menu. At the bottom of the menu is 'Properties'. Open it and you'll see the panel above. Click on the 'DLC' tab.
3. De-select the Files!
You'll see various options on the DLC tab, as above. All should be ticked when you go in (er, yes, I do have the Gold Edition - hey, I loved the first game!). You can leave any actual DLC content ticked, like the Expansion Pass if you have that, but you're looking for the '4K Cinematic Pack' and 'High Resolution Texture Pack' - Untick both of them! You can choose to keep the Texture Pack on if your PC can handle it, it's the 4K Pack that's most of the 35GB we're looking to eliminate. If you don't think you'll use it, get rid of it.
You can now let the Shadow of War download continue on as normal, and when it finishes it should "only" be 65GB, not 100GB!
The great thing about this method of course is, if you have plenty of HDD space and want the 4K Videos or Texture Pack back you can easily go into the game's Properties > DLC and re-tick them, then once you click Close Steam will start downloading them immediately.
Furthermore, if for some reason Steam defaults to a 65GB install as it has for some people, and you want the additional 4K Videos or Texture Pack for Shadow of War, they're totally free so just use the same method and get downloading!
Hope this helps save you some hard drive space, folks! Now you can keep that Star Wars Battlefront 2 Beta on a little while longer!
