Without the Nemesis System, this would be just one generic boring game tied to a franchise. The combat is nothing innovative, the skill tree is just a linear set of skills that you can max out in normal gameplay, quest are all variations of go there and kill some orcs. The open world is confusingly laid out, consisting of several relatively small areas that don't connect at all and that suddenly appear without any introduction or narrative reason to explore. The plot is complete garbage without any clear goal and comprised of completely unconnected storylines and quests.

But the orcs do elevate this game from mediocre crap to pretty good. They have personality; both as a race and also as individuals. Captains have their own personality and the Nemesis System works pretty well in creating pseudo-random little narratives. I had a lot of good moments with orcs that kept defeating me, or cheating death or that had some interesting angle.

But I think there are a few issues with the system.

One is that is very stochastic, which leads to uneven experiences. For example, you might get unlucky and get a death-defying orc with little personality, like what happened to me with an orc that just screamed "sweet"; fun gimmick for a single fight, but not a rich vein to mine.

Another issue is that the system only really works if the player dies a lot because that's almost the only way that a story can last longer than a single encounter. My memorable moments were mostly in the early game, when I was low level and still getting my bearings with the combat and game systems. But once I eventually got to a high enough level I was killing captains left and right. I eventually increased the difficulty and that helped.

It also would've been nice is recruited orcs were a stronger presence in the game. Here, once you recruit an cool orc, you essentially never get to see it again. Even if you assign him as your bodyguard, it seems to loose all personality and character growth.

But despite those gripes, I'm glad to have played it and kind of sad that games don't keep iterating on the formula (and infuriating that they can't because Warner Bros owns a fricking patent).

Intro

SOW is a third-person action game in which you sneak/sprint around Mordor murdering orcs and other things.

The Good

• Core gameplay is still superfun, there are so many ways to mess with enemies.
• Lots of cool skills with 2-3 optional settings each.
• Free on-the-fly respeccing.
• They added double-jump.
• You make steady progress in the first 40-ish hours.
• Dying is mostly irrelevant.
• Carnán is a surprisingly well-done addition to the lore. Really seems like the kind of weird thing Tolkien would be into.

The Bad

• The rest of the story and dialogue is the worst Tolkien fan fiction since The Hobbit 3.
• They made Shelob into a hot chick. Seriously?!
• Items that give a bonus to XP or finding items are awful and i wish devs stopped putting those in games.
• One of the ropes you can walk on is bugged and blocks you from walking off.
• Sieges suck for the most part.
• You have to do a million sieges to get the "real" ending.
• Crappy picture interface. Why not add a third line when you can't display every non-legendary item? Why make it scroll?
• Controls sometimes don't respond.
• Captains cheat death far too often.

The Ugly

SOW is one of the most frustrating games i've ever played. It's the type of game that makes you scream at your monitor.

Enemies breaking the rules

You will get damaged despite not being in the indicated area of effect. You will get damaged despite being locked in an animation. Enemies will magically strike you with blinding speed, especially when leaving animations or menus.

Levelling legendary items

This game has one of those obnoxious item levelling schemes where you constantly have to pour money into making them keep up with you. Even worse is how underlevelled items don't just deal less damage but even get their special traits disabled.

Legendary items are the worst offenders because they require you to convert orc captains of a specific type and level. The "army" menu doesn't display this so you have to click on each orc to find the right one. And then you fight them and discover they have "Iron Will" which means they can't be converted. Iron Will can potentially be removed by humiliating them... but this also lowers their level. How incompetent can you be as a developer?

Boss Fights

At the end of each siege and during story missions you are forced into truly awful boss fights. These completely break the normal flow of the game. You can't use stealth, you can't flee and return later and in case of Nazgûl focus (bullet time) doesn't even work. In some boss fights (including every siege overlord boss) there are infinitely respawning orcs too. I almost quit several times because of how awful, frustrating and un-fun these boss fights are. It's like Deus Ex: Human Revolution before the Director's Cut.

Other terrible story missions

I had to replay a mission twice because the extremely feeble captain i had to convert kept dying. Captains constantly cheat death outside of missions. The fact this one doesn't shows just how incompetent the devs are. Much the same goes for a mission in which you and Carnán have to stop necromancers. Carnán just kept dying the moment i dismounted, even when at 70% health. I don't even know how it happened, which is even worse. How can this spirit casually kill a balrog then repeatedly die to a handful of ghuls?

Unskippable captain introductions

Just like in the first game you can't skip captains talking to you when they see you. This is annoying enough on its own but gets incredibly insanely frustrating when you run into a bunch of them or they ambush you and they keep talking and talking and talking. At some point i would press X (shows their stats when they stop talking), muted the game then went to do something else for a few minutes. Just... why?

Conclusion

I didn't even mention some of the other flaws, like the boring pit fights (2,5 minutes of watching orcs fight with no input...), but you get the idea. The core gameplay is still really really fun, it's just much of the rest that is awful. The developers don't seem to understand that constantly breaking up the flow of the actually fun gameplay with boss fights, inventory management and orc speeches is bad. SOW is still worth getting on sale for like €8, just keep a pillow nearby to scream into when you have to fight Helm Hammerhand the Nazgûl.

I really enjoyed the first game, Shadow of Mordor—but the controversy surrounding the sequel made me hesitant to pick it up. I only did so recently, after many patches and changes to both gameplay elements and microtransaction practices, and being on sale for Playstation Plus subscribers. Now that we've established which version of the game I've experienced—how is it?

It's pretty good! It retains the positives from the original game, mainly being the gameplay—which is a remix of mechanics from other games, but one that works very well—and the notable nemesis system, which promotes memorable dynamic moments. Shadow of War retains these positives and increases the scale dramatically—elevating its systems to a level only seen in the end of the original game. This takes the form of sieges where the player has to capture, defend and recapture various forts throughout the game's campaign.

While the increased scale is suitably epic and fun, it comes at the cost of pacing—replacing the gradual buildup toward the final epic battle seen in the original with a string of repetitive large-scale battles. Ultimately, I consider the sieges a welcome inclusion that suitably raises the stakes, and the gameplay, to a higher level—even if that raised level results in a repetitive plateau rather than a building slope.

The sequel fails in the same area where the original game did: in its story and story-related missions. The narrative, while on the surface being an interesting twist on the Tolkien mythology, is bland and unengaging—and the missions driving the story equally so. It's rather jarring how brightly the emergent gameplay within this series outshines its scripted parts—I almost wonder if the games wouldn't benefit from having a silent protagonist, perhaps even a player-created character, and focusing more on procedurally generated gameplay while leaning into its RPG elements.

To conclude: my experience with the game was good. It retains the positives and negatives of the original title, making it easy to recommend to anyone who enjoyed Shadow of Mordor.

I would rate the game a 3 out of 5. The game's strengths include a fluid and enjoyable gameplay, a rich story, and impressive graphics. However, the game also has some weaknesses, such as repetitive quests and a demanding economy system.

The gameplay is not much different from Shadow of Mordor. Players fight enemy armies in Mordor as Talion and Celebrimbor, gaining new abilities and increasing their power. The gameplay is fluid and enjoyable. Battles are dynamic and exciting. Players can defeat their enemies using different weapons and abilities.

The game also has a rich story. Players continue the story that began at the end of Shadow of Mordor. Talion and Celebrimbor are trying to take control of Sauron's power. The story is engaging and intriguing. Players eagerly complete quests to progress the story.

The game also has impressive graphics. The world of Mordor is designed in a detailed and realistic way. Players can feel the dark and dangerous atmosphere of Mordor. Battle scenes are visually very impressive.

Among the weaknesses of the game are repetitive quests at the end of the game. Towards the end of the game, players have to repeat the same type of quests again and again. This makes the game monotonous. Additionally, the game's economy system is demanding. Players need a lot of money to buy new equipment and abilities. This can slow down the game's progress.

In conclusion, Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a game that stands out for its strengths as well as its weaknesses. Players who enjoy the game may find it enjoyable if they are looking for fluid and enjoyable gameplay, a rich story, and impressive graphics. However, players who will be bothered by repetitive quests and a demanding economy system should think carefully before buying the game.

I gave up on this game 2 or 3 years ago. I was 14 hours in, I'd already completed half the story missions, and I wasn't having fun.

Then a month or so ago I was thinking about how the hubris of the game is they thought they could just pin it all on the Nemesis system, and I thought maybe I'd write something about that, but I should play the game again just to remind myself what I didn't like about it. So I booted it up and within an hour had said "Woah, I didn't know it could do that" like 3 times.

Something clicked that hadn't clicked before, and I played all the way through the Sauron/Celebrimbor fight. I was even fully committed to seeing through the Shadow Wars, but for whatever reason a took a break for a couple weeks and when I came back to it...whatever had clicked had unclicked, and all I was feeling was how incredibly frustrating this game is to play.

So, yes, the Nemesis system is cool. When I'm walking through a camp and poison a grog barrel and then suddenly an orc Captain shows up and is critiquing my poisoning technique before attacking me, like, yeah, that's pretty amazing emergent storytelling.

But when I finally killed a Captain who I had killed previously but then he came back from the dead and then killed me like three times, eventually becoming an Overlord, and then when I finally defeat him I shame him instead of killing him because it's more narratively satisfying and then when he ambushes me I'm initially like "I'm going to recruit him" but then it takes like 10 minutes to break him and so I change my mind and decide to kill him but then it takes another 20 minutes to kill him (this dude was so fucking annoying, he had a shield, he had vault breaker, he was immune to basically every way I could damage him, and HE COULD HEAL)—when I finally killed him...I was just mad. Everything up until that last fight was narratively satisfying, that was great, but that last fight was just frustrating, and it was frustrating because the game's combat mechanics are horribly balanced.

A lot of captains, especially at higher levels, are essentially immune to your basic attack, either because they have a shield or can dodge. If they have Vault Breaker, you can't even use your vault to freeze them. You could attack from stealth then try to run away and regain stealth, but aside from being tedious that's also not guaranteed to work, as they may be immune to stealth, or they may be able to heal, they may accomplish their objective while you're hiding (if you're in a Nemesis mission), or they may just run away. You could attack from range, but you only have a limited number of arrows so you'll need be constantly trying to find ammo—also, they could be immune to ranged attacks. You could summon a beast, but once they kill your beast (which usually happens pretty quickly) it's on a cooldown—also they could be immune to beast damage. You could summon allies, but once they kill your allies, they're on a cooldown. You could summon a bodyguard, but then you risk losing that asset permanently. You could use Might skills, but then you need to be able to build up Might, which is going to be difficult if you can't hit them with your attacks. You could use Elven Rage, but Wrath builds up so slowly you're only going to be able to use that once—and they might be immune to ranged damage.

Now, it is unlikely that a Captain will have all possible immunities. But even 1 of them can be annoying, and 2+ sucks the life out of combat. And while combat is fun and dynamic when you're just mowing down mobs, as soon as you throw a Captain into the mix suddenly you're trying to be very intentional and precise with a combat system that laughs in the face of those concepts. The number of times I have dodged an enemy attack only to find myself vaulting over and then freezing one of my own allies is truly innumerable. Likewise the number of times I've used an Execution, or Domination, or Shadow Kill on the wrong orc. Much of why I gave up on the Shadow Wars is because in a siege you will frequently find yourself in a situation where there are 1-3 enemy Captains and 3-5 of your own Captains, plus a bunch of grunts from both sides, all in tiny area, and navigating that situation is basically impossible. At some point you kind of just want to sit back and let the game play itself, except that's incredibly boring and also would probably result in you losing because your allies are kind of stupid.

On the other hand, it might surprise people (not least of all myself) that I don't actually have a huge problem with the game's writing. I think it's cool to see people play around in Tolkien's world in a way that is completely unattached to canon but is clearly doing something intentional. In this case it's kind of goofy, but it's still interesting. And sure, sexy Shelob is an incredibly obvious (and kinda out-of-left-field) attempt to add some sexuality to a famously chaste setting, but she's also a surprisingly compelling character. As is Carnán, for that matter. Hell, there are more women in this game than in most Middle-earth-related works, and they're all decent characters (although I remember Gondor lady as being kind of annoying but I could be completely misremembering, I'd already finished her storyline before I stopped playing the game the first time so I never interacted with her while I was finishing it up). Isildur being a Nazgûl is patently absurd, but it leads to a great character moment and ends up connecting Talion to his most obvious canonical analogue, Aragorn, in a way that the game wisely chooses not to draw attention to but it is a nice layer to have nonetheless. And I think their take on Celebrimbor is actually interesting and not even out of line with Tolkien's ideas.

So that's what it comes down to—the Nemesis system is cool, the playing-with-a-LOTR-Lego-set-without-reading-the-instructions approach to writing is actually pretty fun, but minute-to-minute, on a purely mechanical level, this game is frequently unpleasant to interact with, with everything from traversal to mount controls to combat feeling awkward, imprecise, and poorly balanced, actively impeding both my success and enjoyment.

p.s. Making Brûz the Overlord was such an obvious choice, it was annoying and confusing when the game wouldn't let me do that. The fact that it was just to set up a betrayal made it that much worse. Like, you're so proud of your emergent storytelling system, but you still have to script this one thing and not give the player a choice in the matter, even though this exact same situation could have cropped up organically within the Nemesis system and felt much more satisfying?

So WB Games did their best to put me off with a tiered release, pre-order bonuses and sodding microtransactions in a single player game. It’s hard to overlook and I wouldn’t blame anyone for boycotting the title, although it would be a shame in my opinion, especially if you enjoyed the first.

Shadow of War does what a good sequel should do, by fixing the things that didn’t work and improving on those that did. One of my biggest issues with Shadow of Mordor was in the lacklustre environments and SoW improves this no end by creating more interesting and varied locations to run, climb, jump and stab in. The wonderful nemesis system has also been enhanced with the orcs given more character and variation in abilities, making fighting them even more fun. There are also a number of scripted orcs and the new conquest system which is fun and adds more depth.

There are a few problems other than the loot boxes, one being the usual map full of side missions that can start to grate (an arkham-creed staple) and another being the surprisingly narrow fov that can make fighting in close quarters difficult. I’m also not too enamoured with the two ‘token’ good characters but the story is entertaining enough and other than that it’s just nit-picks. I’m not at the end game yet so have no idea if the rumours of grind are true, but I wouldn’t be surprised because so far I have had no compulsion to purchase a loot box.

I had very high hopes for this game, and was resoundingly disappointed.

The initial game is great, you get to explore the changes to the Nemesis system, get to fight some sieges, and it is really fun.

However, quickly, the game play devolves into a repetitive bore.

The first siege is fun, the second one as well, but the 3rd, 4th, 5th, ect. ,ect. of relatively similar game play grew incredibly dull. Recruiting an army could have been really fun, but it just ended up being a chore on the way to crossing

In addition, in the first game the nemesis system really made it clear how your actions and interactions influenced the personalities and evolution of the orc leaders. If you set a orc on fire, but it escaped, it would have a fear of fire. If it hunted you down, it would often gain an ability that corresponded to how it beat you.

In the swirl of "extra" Nemesis content Shadows of War brought the game, in the pit fights to level up, the side missions, sending followers to attack others, ect. this direct correlation between gameplay and evolution of the enemies was lost. Instead, the enemies really seem to gain random effects.

In addition, the story of the game is disjointed and not as interesting. The game tried too hard to be big, and lost some of the focus that the other game managed. There are some very enjoyable moments in the story, but these brief glimmers of good content are surrounded by blandness.

The final nail in the coffin is the climax of the game. After conquering every castle, you have to defend them from a series of sieges, which is actually really, really fun! However, what is not fun, is when/if you lose the siege, you lose the castle and then have to go back through the extremely repetitive process of reconquering it...all... over... again...after every single loss....

After thinking I was an hour away from beating the game several times, I kept losing castles, and having to commit another 2-3 hours reconquering the castle, which became extremely dull and boring.

Honestly, I was very disappointed with this game, and ended up giving up on beating it. It received a 2 star because there are some great moments and features, but this is a game where trying to make it more "open world" I think ruined the charm of the game by surrounding it with boredom.

I played Shadow of War in two chunks. I played through most the story back when I got it as a free game from PS Plus, but stopped after the pseudo-ending. I finally had the urge to finish the Wraith story arc last week and get the official ending. With that break in between there, I have forgotten the finer points of the storyline.

Let’s start with that. I have never been a huge LOTR fan. I’ve not been a huge fantasy fan in general, and LOTR is the grandaddy of modern high fantasy. That’s all to say, I probably missed a lot of background context or “wink, wink” moments that fans would’ve picked up on. Still, the game’s plotline is by no means dense. Even without knowing all the lore, I still enjoyed the story. Your player character, Talion, is a dead Ranger driven by duty to protect the world and he’s kept alive by a vengeful spirit that possesses him, Celebrimbor. Your ghostly friend is the elf who created the rings Sauron used to corrupt the nine kings. He creates a new ring for Talion that is meant to be a neutralizer to the One Ring. Shelob shows up as a sexy spider lady to serve as sort of a seer and patron saint for Talion.

The climax of the story, so spoilers, has you fighting Sauron, but it turns out your elf ghost friend was more interested in ruling the world than stopping Sauron, so he betrays you. At the end of the fight, he gets sucked into the giant eye with Sauron, setting up the world for the LOTR trilogy. But there’s still a final act after that big fight. Talion, now sans ghost elf & using a Nazgul ring to keep himself alive, strives to keep Mordor in a constant state of infighting to keep it from invading other lands. He does it for as long as he can resist joining Sauron as a Nazgul.

That final act is very much a “if you really like the gameplay, here’s a little more” add-on. There’s no more story beats within the chapter itself, it’s just defending and attacking fortresses. So, about that gameplay. The meat of the gameplay is about capturing regions by taking out the orc commanders in charge of it. This is done through a game of capturing victory point throughout the fortress. There is a basic planning stage that allows you to assign orcs in your army as commanders, up to 6. Each one unlocks a choice of bonuses to either your attack or defense, like attacking with war beasts or defending with fire archers. During the final act, you will lose most of your fortresses. The invading orcs are usually 15-20 levels higher. You can spend money to level up your orcs, but that requires a decent amount of funds. It’s much easier to let your fortress fall and then just recapture it. There are missions that allow you to thin out the commanders defending a fortress, but not those attacking it.

And the selling point of this game is the orcs themselves. Talion’s a bit generic, with the orcs having all the personality. I was surprised by the orcs in this game. I always put them in the same camp as Fallout Super Mutants, basically just dumb Hulks. They are actually a bunch of cockney English dudes that possess average intelligence and culture. Each named orc has a set of strengths and weaknesses, some are dependent on his tribe and class, others are randomly generated. You can tell there’s a pool of different physical values they pull from when creating the orcs, but it’s large enough that no two feel like exact clones of each other. There were a few more crafted orcs that were specially designed to stand out, like the bard orcs or the necro orc.

And there’s the Nemesis System™ that links all these captain orcs together. You have orcs that are blood brothers or bitter rivals, orcs can betray you, spy on their masters for you, come back from the dead, sneak attack you, etc. Death is important in this game, if you die to an orc they will gain levels, be promoted to captain, and remember you when you come back. While it was cool to see all these interactions play out, I never felt it was as cool as it was hyped up to be. You do get attached to some of the ugly bastards, but the whole political power moving and such the system seemed to be based on wasn’t as in-depth as expected. It was no more strategic than a Total War or Civ game in regards to recruiting captains or setting up spies.

As for how Talion controls, it’s a very standard “rhythm fighter” type game, like Mad Max or Assassin’s Creed. Even though it was basic, I do enjoy those types of fighting systems. Talion felt good to control and there’s enough extra special powers sprinkled in to mix up combat. Being able to shoot any orc in the leg and pin him down was a fun tactic to use that helped when you needed to pin down a captain so you could clear out his underlings before trying to convert him. There’s a skill progression system, because of course, that let’s you unlock new abilities or add new flavors to old ones. You can ride almost any beast, though the controls are pretty simplistic. As far as Talion gameplay goes, it’s not reinventing the wheel, but it’s at least got some good tread on the tires.

The music also doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it’s standard high fantasy, orchestral stuff. The world gives you lots of varied locations to explore around Mordor. It’s not all just craggy, lava ridden, barren brown landscapes. You do get to fight through that area of Mt. Doom, but you also explore other biomes. There’s the snowy mountains, the fallen city of man, the lush jungles. It’s still Mordor, so while the jungle is colorful and teaming with life, it’s not a nice place you’d take a peaceful walk through. With the art design, there’s still that little bit of Mordor evil that taints everything.

I know this game had some type of monetization program when it first released where it hid all the good orcs behind loot boxes or overpriced real life currency. Luckily for me, by this time they got rid of all that nonsense, probably because it stopped being profitable.

All in all, this game is not anything revolutionary. It stands upon the shoulders of all that came before it. Still those well trod gameplay and story beats are done well that this game is enjoyable. The last act of just attacking and defending can start to grind, even if you love those gameplay systems. Shadow of War hasn’t made me a LOTR fan, but I’m glad I played it.

Shadow of War started with a good idea with its fluid combat and skill upgrading system. But they lost their way adding everything they could think of to the game. It reminded me of the Key and Peele skit about Gremlins 2 where some fancy Hollywood producer approves every single wacky idea that writers can come up with and it all ends up in the movie. The more I played the game the further it took me from what I liked about the game. I wanted the game to focus on the combat and utilizing the right strategies to fight high-ranking officers for good loot. However, so much else was pushed into the game, they did not spend the time fine-tuning the combat and movement as they should have. Why is there no locking system in this game? Why am I constantly button-mashing one button? Why I am fighting three high-ranking officers at once? I wanted the movement and combat to be more like the 2018 Spider-Man game, but it was too clunky and unintuitive at times. I found myself rolling into walls a lot trying to escape mobs of guys. It also felt like the devs wanted to waste your time. From the unskippable combat introductions to the constant inane "puzzle" solving. By the time I got to the sieges I just gave up on it altogether. It's too bad because with a little more focus on the core experience of the game, they could have had something great on their hands. For reference and lulz:

The truth is that now, in 2021, with the loot box drama gone and all the issues ironed out, Shadow of War is a great game to play. The relatable world, lore and characters make this a no brainer for anyone into the Tolkien universe, and the original Nemesis system gives a ‘personal’ feel to the whole experience. The grind around Orcs and armies can feel repetitive, but all in all it ends up being quite enjoyable. The story isn’t the main aspect in this game, but to be honest, after the opinions I had read about it, I was expecting a lot worse. The aspects that shine the most amongst the game’s strengths are the movement and combat, which are fast, slick, brutal and stylish. Once you get the hang of it, walking in Talion’s shoes can make you feel like a god. Even with a couple of frustrating mechanics, this was easily one of the best gameplay experiences I’ve had in recent years.

All of this stays true until the end, provided you correctly decide when that ‘end’ should be based on what you favour. To me, SoW finishes at the end of Act III. The post-epilogue grind is the clearest example of how Warner Bros intended to milk its user base. And even though a lot of that grind has been eliminated, it still feels like a pointless effort to go through just to get to a 3 minute cutscene (unless, of course, you absolutely can’t get enough of Orc battles and fortress conquests). After having put in 42 hours on the first 3 acts, it took me 40 minutes of the epilogue to realise I wasn’t enjoying it anymore. And because you’re in full control of when to end it, none of this ultimately taints the SoW experience as a whole.

Overall I’d rate SoW a 7.5/10. If you like good visuals, enacting sweet vengeance upon your killers, and a combat system that makes you feel like an absolute badass you can’t go wrong with this game, particularly if you play it through a subscription service like Game Pass.