Am about 4 hours into this sequel on PS4 Pro.
I really enjoyed the first game and was expecting this to build on all of the potential there.
So far? This is an absolute mess.
Firstly the UI and countless menus are ugly and counterintuitive.
Pressing L1 and R1 to accept quests and such is silly and makes no sense why they'd be used over X or O.
The Skills menu, you can barely tell where your cursor/selection is hovering. There is shit everywhere. Flashing and pulsing on all the skills, including ones you have already unlocked, can unlock and can't yet unlock. The frame of each section is pulsing as well. How the hell am I supposed to know where my cursor is and what I am to select? Ridiculous.
Same as the inventory screen. You can barely tell what is selected. You think it's the icon with the little pulsing circle, but no. That is trying to tell you you have a new item.
Ever managed an inventory in a game where you can't tell if the piece of armour you are looking at is the one you're wearing or the new one you could equip? This is Shadow of War x10. Then to make it worse, some items can be destroyed by hovering over them and pressing triangle, others for whatever reason need to be selected to be upgraded and only then can you destroy them. No clue.
The map is a mess as well. Ubi style icons every freaking where.
But surely the gameplay will make up for it.
Not really.
The same fun fighting is there. The Lord of the Rings super hero with his Arkham Asylum style works well.
But, there is no point. In a game with armies upon armies of orcs, you don't need to even encounter them, or really want to.
Firstly, they don't grant you ANY XP. None. Secondly, you can just shadow run past all of them (which still looks like a comedy, hitting the fast forward button) to your destination.
Secondly, the placement of quests and enemies is laughable. I sprinted towards a quest marker and saw a door guarded by 6 or 7 well equipped orcs. I guess I have to finally fight some so I can start the quest. Nope. Walk up to the glowing quest marker and even when the group attack you, as long as you press 'begin quest' they disappear and the cutscene begins. No 'clear area before starting' as most games would.
Then at the end of the quest, I'd killed 4 or 5 minor chiefs and 1 boss chief. All of their loot was floating there waiting for me to grab it. But, it didn't let me. It proceeds to a cut scene and mission wrap up overlay and spawns me just outside the area of my orc destruction.
Ok, so I'll go back in and grab all the loot. Well, the game has just respawned 10 orcs on top of my loot. FML.
Who designed this shit?
The combat is fun, the special moves great and the orcs once again steal the show (although many of the chiefs have upgraded their intelligence in their voice-overs which doesn't suit them and a lot of them sound like regular human's rather than orcs).
I am not sure if I'll keep playing. It's one of the most frustrating, baffling game sequels I've ever played.
I really enjoyed the first game and was expecting this to build on all of the potential there.
So far? This is an absolute mess.
Firstly the UI and countless menus are ugly and counterintuitive.
Pressing L1 and R1 to accept quests and such is silly and makes no sense why they'd be used over X or O.
The Skills menu, you can barely tell where your cursor/selection is hovering. There is shit everywhere. Flashing and pulsing on all the skills, including ones you have already unlocked, can unlock and can't yet unlock. The frame of each section is pulsing as well. How the hell am I supposed to know where my cursor is and what I am to select? Ridiculous.
Same as the inventory screen. You can barely tell what is selected. You think it's the icon with the little pulsing circle, but no. That is trying to tell you you have a new item.
Ever managed an inventory in a game where you can't tell if the piece of armour you are looking at is the one you're wearing or the new one you could equip? This is Shadow of War x10. Then to make it worse, some items can be destroyed by hovering over them and pressing triangle, others for whatever reason need to be selected to be upgraded and only then can you destroy them. No clue.
The map is a mess as well. Ubi style icons every freaking where.
But surely the gameplay will make up for it.
Not really.
The same fun fighting is there. The Lord of the Rings super hero with his Arkham Asylum style works well.
But, there is no point. In a game with armies upon armies of orcs, you don't need to even encounter them, or really want to.
Firstly, they don't grant you ANY XP. None. Secondly, you can just shadow run past all of them (which still looks like a comedy, hitting the fast forward button) to your destination.
Secondly, the placement of quests and enemies is laughable. I sprinted towards a quest marker and saw a door guarded by 6 or 7 well equipped orcs. I guess I have to finally fight some so I can start the quest. Nope. Walk up to the glowing quest marker and even when the group attack you, as long as you press 'begin quest' they disappear and the cutscene begins. No 'clear area before starting' as most games would.
Then at the end of the quest, I'd killed 4 or 5 minor chiefs and 1 boss chief. All of their loot was floating there waiting for me to grab it. But, it didn't let me. It proceeds to a cut scene and mission wrap up overlay and spawns me just outside the area of my orc destruction.
Ok, so I'll go back in and grab all the loot. Well, the game has just respawned 10 orcs on top of my loot. FML.
Who designed this shit?
The combat is fun, the special moves great and the orcs once again steal the show (although many of the chiefs have upgraded their intelligence in their voice-overs which doesn't suit them and a lot of them sound like regular human's rather than orcs).
I am not sure if I'll keep playing. It's one of the most frustrating, baffling game sequels I've ever played.
