LTTP: Shadow of War (maybe spoilers)

[Zedelima]

Sooooo, i really enjoyed Shadow of Mordor when i played back then, the nemesis system was really a refreshing mechanic and having a excuse to jump back to Middle-Earth is great to me, so i decided to buy this for PC and see if this game is as bad as ERA make it out to be. (Yeah, i know that this get a pretty bad rep here, or at least some people are very vocal about it)
I know that they updated the game to remove some microtransactions and other bullshit that it had, but as i didn't played with it, i cannot comment on that.Also, i dont know if they add more orcs variety post launch. Soo i will start with my highlights of the game

Nemesis System: They greatly expanded this, now we have much more enemy variety, more dialogue, more options and more encounters. It hardly gets repetitive (the first game gets repetitive really fast with dialogue) and you seem to always discover something new. The "drunken" variety is the best one

Gameplay: yeah, is a batman-arkham clone, but is really well done and the execution system is sooo satisfying. Killing a captain with it is a joy as you get to watch it in slow-mo and close camera. Also, you can climb in almost everything, and is mostly smooth (sometimes you get stuck or doesnt land where you want, but it doesnt happen so often)

Writing: now this is good. Every orc seem to have their own personality, and some of them are soooo fun. They are really well done and every now and them i still laugh at some dialogue

Army System: i know that a lot of people didn't liked this, but im very fond of it. The variety of the orcs never let it be repetitive, and i enjoyed all the process of training your captain to be a bodyguard to help you take out a warchief. The fortress battles were so good too! They really felt like a war

Equipament: A shout out to this too, you have a lot of different swords (some of them with different effects, like they set on fire when the meter is full) and unique sets, and i really wanted to get all the sets

Now pretty much my only gripe of the game, the story. Its on the same level of the first game, and this means that is pretty shit. I hated it to be honest, and didn't wanted to make story quests, but they are necessary to advance and adquire some skills that are story locked.
Also, Talion's face looks weird.
Im glad that i bought this, i always see people saying bad things about it, but i really enjoyed the game and really hope that they make a third one to expand even more on this foundation.

 

[Maneil99]

The gameplay loop is so good

 

[SublimeAnarky]

I've just started it (Thank You Game Pass!) and while i see a lot of the points that OP makes - I have noticed something which is driving me crazy.. I'm not sure if its just me, so putting this out there for the others on ERA that might have an opinion about it -

There seems to be godawful input lag!? I can quite distinctly see the delay in me moving the sticks and seeing Talion move/change camera on screen. This is further worsened when when Talion is trying to make a run for it at high speed and then climbs the wrong surface! The combat also seems to suffer, though there is a lot of button mashing anyway that makes it less pronounced. You do still see Talion make an extra swing after having made a killing blow on a grunt for example.

Is this just me? Am I excessively sensitive here? I'm not one to normally notice such things. I'm running on a X1X and and LGC7 OLED with the settings that P40LO has shared with ERA.

 

[WellbornWarrior]

It was really good mechanically, but most of the content is pointless filler and the story is shit as already pointed out. I think the game would have been better if it wasn't a Lord of the Rings game.

 

[Knight in Shining Armani]

I tried this a couple of times, having loved Shadow of Mordor at the time, but I just can't get into it. It's too overwhelming.

 

[Zedelima]

I've just started it (Thank You Game Pass!) and while i see a lot of the points that OP makes - I have noticed something which is driving me crazy.. I'm not sure if its just me, so putting this out there for the others on ERA that might have an opinion about it -

There seems to be godawful input lag!? I can quite distinctly see the delay in me moving the sticks and seeing Talion move/change camera on screen. This is further worsened when when Talion is trying to make a run for it at high speed and then climbs the wrong surface! The combat also seems to suffer, though there is a lot of button mashing anyway that makes it less pronounced. You do still see Talion make an extra swing after having made a killing blow on a grunt for example.

Is this just me? Am I excessively sensitive here? I'm not one to normally notice such things. I'm running on a X1X and and LGC7 OLED with the settings that P40LO has shared with ERA.

Click to shrink...

Im afraid i cant help you :( haha i played via PC with a DS4 pluged in

I never noticed any input lag, but im not that sensitive to that, so i wouldn't take my word at that

 

[Mathieran]

I enjoyed it quite a bit when I played it last winter. I agree with all your points.

 

[The Shape]

There's just too much of it. In the last act, when I had to do the same shit again by the seventh time in what seemed like an infinite loop, I just gave up and went to youtube to watch a 30 second cutscene that I was "missing out" for not completing the game. It could be a very good game, as I loved the first, but the way it is I just unninstalled it as fast as I could and never looked back.

 

[Kazuhira]

Love the game,it feels like the series gained its own identity with SoW and not just a batman game with a lotr skin like SoM was.
I really liked the story,yeah there's no such thing as bright lord,new ring or ranger posessed by a wraith but i don't care,they did their own thing and i really liked the interaction between characters,voice acting etc.
Celembribor's betrayal and Talion turning into a nazgul to keep sauron's army at bay for decades was a great turn of events imo.
Hopefully they will do another shadow game, i know they are already working on a new game but we dunno if it's another middle earth game or something entirely new.

 

[mogster7777]

I tried this a couple of times, having loved Shadow of Mordor at the time, but I just can't get into it. It's too overwhelming.

Click to shrink...

Me too and this is coming from someone who platinumed the first game because it was easier to get into. I found this to be just really overwhelming. The Nemesis system is needlessly convoluted compared to the first. It's almost a game in itself. I really didn't understand why they needed to add so many features to it. It adds nothing but bloat and unnecessary objectives and features.

I played it for about 3 hours before I just put it in my backlog again. I found it kept introducing too many things and just lots bloat with all the icons on the map. I felt like I was always fighting a losing battle with the nemesis system too. If I took out someone on the list another one would simply replace the orc it never felt satisfying. I just don't get the point of the system. It added very little to the first game and doesn't add anything here either. It's just more bloat on top of an already bloated game.

Don't get me wrong it isn't any worse than the first game but I didn't think the first game was more than a 7.5/10 either. Pretty good but nothing amazing.

Very bog standard open world tropey gameplay with this weird confusing complicated nemesis system that's just designed to make the game longer than it should be.

 

[DarkFlame92]

The gameplay loop is so good

Click to shrink...

Yea,great gameplay loop. But imo the army thing was the thing I hated the most. It's not bad per se,but it gets progressively worse as you go.

Still ,both Shadow of Mordor and War were amazing action games that every fan of the genre needs to play

 

[Genetrik]

Love the game to death and the true ending and the beautiful song were pulling my heartstrings.

What I would do to get a dynamic theme either with that song or the main theme...

 

[Igniz12]

Toyed with the idea of getting this last Steam sale but idk if this is better than Ass Creed: Odys or not. I like the first one and put time into it but dropped it near the end because it had gone on for too long by then and I was tired of the loop.

Judging by some of the posts here I think I should get Ass Creed instead. Looks like SOW is more of the same. Will still get SOW but at a later time.

 

[ryseing]

The gameplay loop is so good

Click to shrink...

Agreed, especially once you get a dragon.

 

[FlintSpace]

Yeah I started this game a week ago too, been loving it so far, and it fixes all my previous Mordor problems.

Dominating Orc bosses in Mordor seems a little bit tougher, in SoW it has become much faster. Quick adapt Orcs makes you try new tricks than the usual Vault over + Auto-Ice + Sword Damage + Dagger Damage + Execution Damage on repeat. They nerfed the Health Stealth to a believable level, it was too OP in SoM. All Orc events have a timer now, thank god, and no herbal plants for health.

And all the new additions like the first time I assaulted a base. Fighting Pits, Multiple Skill tweaks per your liking, the heavy Spectral Glaive Weapon, easily broken Gruags, Drakes. Orcs have classes and clans now which is important for Legendary drop.

The gameplay indeed is awesome and at no point (till now) I was remotely forced/hinted to use loot boxes. You don't need them at all.

I've just started it (Thank You Game Pass!) and while i see a lot of the points that OP makes - I have noticed something which is driving me crazy.. I'm not sure if its just me, so putting this out there for the others on ERA that might have an opinion about it -

There seems to be godawful input lag!? I can quite distinctly see the delay in me moving the sticks and seeing Talion move/change camera on screen. This is further worsened when when Talion is trying to make a run for it at high speed and then climbs the wrong surface! The combat also seems to suffer, though there is a lot of button mashing anyway that makes it less pronounced. You do still see Talion make an extra swing after having made a killing blow on a grunt for example.

Is this just me? Am I excessively sensitive here? I'm not one to normally notice such things. I'm running on a X1X and and LGC7 OLED with the settings that P40LO has shared with ERA.

Click to shrink...

100% there is an input lag. FOV was broken in V1.0 and the lag was quite noticeable at first boot.
Fortunately I don't notice it now since I played it for 20 hours.

 

[Sheepinator]

I enjoyed it because I liked the core gameplay, and the gameplay loop. I also enjoyed the meta-game of getting all the equipment and leveling it up. I ended up putting in about 100 hours. The story is weak though, and there's too much reliance on the (excellent) Nemesis system. That basically is the game. I agree the dialog was good, there were some laugh out loud lines there.

I strongly recommend the DLC too. The first one, Galadriel, has decent story and new combat skills so it plays a little differently. The second one, Desolation, has you playing as Baranor with cool new gadgets in a rogue-like system where death means starting over. You also get a new map the same size as the base game maps which you can visit and play during the main game.

It was nice to see the game support ultrawide on PC.

My recollection of the MTX saga was that everyone who didn't play it were certain it ruined the game, and practically everyone who did play it said it wasn't an issue at all.

Have you shamed an orc all the way to the lowest level?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDEqREyb820

 

[WGMBY]

I liked the gameplay, but I hated that you couldn't get XP for killing regular grunts, only captains. I stopped playing when I realized I was running away from most fights so I could stealth up to the next captain and get a sneak attack. I loved in the first game having these huge fort-spanning fights, but you don't get anything for doing it in the second game.

 

[SublimeAnarky]

100% there is an input lag. FOV was broken in V1.0 and the lag was quite noticeable at first boot.
Fortunately I don't notice it now since I played it for 20 hours.

Click to shrink...

Thank You!! I thought I was going nuts!

Its a pity, but that might be the largest single detriment to the game for me. More so because I never normally sense stuff like this.

I'll keep playing it though. There's so much done well imo - I guess I too can get used to it.

 

[chanman]

The gameplay loop is so good

Click to shrink...

It seems like it was at first for me but once I got to Act IV I was burned out and only put just under 30 hours into the game. I did one Siege Defense and was done as the XP gain at that point seemed like it was going to be a tedious ride leveling up and to get good enough Orcs to fight alongside me.