I don’t believe in daylight saying. And I’m not saying this as an excuse to make it look like I posted this on a Sunday and that I didn’t forget because I ended up eating a giant pizza while watching season 2 of Reacher (great show btw). I’m just saying…
Anyway, last week was quite productive. Finally got an SSD (two in fact) for the first time, after using an HDD for everything for about 14 years give or take. I will leave you with these screencaps of my live reactions to using an SSD for the first time as I installed Windows 11, its updates, and all the funky jazz one installs when you clean install a PC. But I also played some cool “new” games. Still going through Shadow of War, but I found the time to start the Battlefield 3 campaign and revisit Crysis, the original. I also played a Cat Lady game… it has cats and cards and stuff. Very nice thing to just chill out with.
But my Screenshot Sunday #49 post will be from Shadow of War as I have a ton of cool shots from it, so I’m gonna milk it while I play it. I will say that the game feels a bit bloated when compared to Shadow of Mordor. It’s as if they could have easily just removed two forts from the game and it would have cut out the unnecessary fluff and made the game progression more focused. I love the new levels, they each feel unique (wish orks that inhabit them were also unique), but this is a game of its time. It’s not as bad as Mad Max when it comes to open-world pointless grind, as the Nemesis system does make it “fresh”. Still, sometimes less is more, ya know?
Anyway, here’s a cool shot coming to you post-live through the power of the Shadow of War photo mode and me uploading it on Imgur’s website.
Enjoy.
The Bright Lord is your master!
Is it better than the first one? I like the first one, but it gets very boring close to end.
In some ways yes, in some not. Depending on how much you enjoy the gameplay loop relying on the Nemesis System, you might find it either fun or boring. But there’s definitly more to do, which I personally found a bit dull near the end, as it was just same thing over and over with a different scenary.
I have exactly the some thoughts about the first part xD. Close to the end i just rushing to main objective and ignoring most of the enemies and side quests. But i like the first one, combat was really satisfying
Still one of the best gameplay features ever made, the Nemesis System.
Yeah. But I do think this game asks too much of it, and for me, it just didn’t do enough to keep my playtime fun throught the 60 or so hours i spent playing the base game. This is mainly due to how the game was designed to push orc grind (especially during the last chapter, Shadow Wars, which has since been “retconned” by a patch which also removed those lootboxes). Instead of four forts, why not make two and that starting location. Instead of quantaty, go for quality. Make not just the area you explore unique, but also the orcs you come across. The Nemesis system really doesn’t do much in that area, as I got tired of seeing so many same-y orcs given how many I had to kill/dominate. The way sub-skills work also would have benefited from each region having say a certain orc tribe that has a special weakness (with maybe the warchiefs or overlord overcoming them, or the chiefs overcoming them too if they kill you or smt like that), so that you could actually switch your loadout and not have to do it for each individual orc. I just don’t like time wasting by having to go into the menu and manually change my skills so many times given how many chiefs and warchiefs there are. Why they couldn’t let us use all sub-skills is beyond me, as it’s not like Talion isn’t OP as is. I had to scrap my Normal run bc by the time I got to the second area, I was just executing these warchiefs with ease, sometimes even three at a time.
But, overall, I did have fun, even if the end did sour it more than I would have liked (the end gameplay loop, not the ending of the actual game, which I did like). Now playing Desolation of Mordor DLC as Chadamor. Really unique feel, as he is mortal, so they had to adapt the gameplay with those restrictions in mind. And it has a rougelike feel as you keep your skills if you die.
I personally never had issues with the things you’re struggling. Maybe the game was more designed for someone like myself, who liked to see different dialogues, unique encounters and such. Sure, it can be grindy, but I’ve 100% the game without even worrying much.
The game has its flaws, which I am very much aware of, but the system itself for me was very interesting and I am looking forward for future games like that.
The story is what bothered me the most. I wouldn’t have expected it to end the way it did, therefore I’m curious to see if a part 3 is yet to come some day.
The gameplay is fine, but it’s clear that they did certain things bc the devs were made by the suits to push lootboxes. Two locations with Minas Ithal would have been enough (like the first game had), and could have been more unique other than the landscape view that is what differentiates each location now. I’m not really bothered with 100% the game, and it is easy. But just the padding is very noticeable, and there’s lot of generic dull content that doesn’t really strike my fancy. As for the Nemesis System, I kinda crystilized my issue with it when i began writing about it. The nemesis system feels likea gimmick, given i don’t care about any orc, even if i get killed. It just never feels like I have a nemesis. Then there’s too much silliness for my taste. Dancing, yelling, and holding a random speech, it just gets boring and tiring after like the 20th orc who does it. I think the system is more focused on making quirky orcs than actually providing me with a nemesis. This is what I have in my draft for my SoW review:
“Imagine if after killing one random Uruk grunt, without you even being aware, he became an overlord with his own army, and he would send his minions to interfere with your progress of liberating Middle-Earth from Sauron’s grip throughout various points of the game, only for this big revelation to be dropped on you during the Shadow Wars chapter where you defend each fort from him?” Something like this would def make me feel more like I have a nemesis than whatever the current system did.
I gotta say, that the Baranor expansion is much much better. The story is also better as it doesn’t feel as disjointed as the base games story mission structure, and each encounter with an orc captain or even just a few orcs feels challenging. Stealth actually matters, and I like that there’s no X-Ray vision that lets you see everything around you easily, you actually have to look. On top of that, the way skills and gear works here is much closer to the original game, than how it is in the base game, which again, has the stupid tier system which was probably forced on the devs to make lootboxes more appealing to users bc otherwise you would need to grind.
Also, don’t think part 3 will come given the story is pretty much done. We saw Talion finally get his peace, and there’s nothing else to tell given we see the events of the LotR books at the end when Sauron is defeated.
You present really good points. The game does carry its flaws, but still, I can’t help to say that I liked it a lot. As a fan of LotR I really wanted a game similar to that that doesn’t retell the story over and over again as other games did. I want more games that boldly try and tell a tale in the Middle Earth.
So, despite not being entirely what you wanted, it’s important that you had fun with the game. At the end, that’s what matters, I think.
Yeah. I think there’s also a bit of me playing it for a second time (already played it when it first came out on a no-no release, and played all those 20 missions, ha). There’s just a clear impact on game design compared to the first game. I don’t really think Monolith had too much to choose here. Loot boxes were popular then, and WB wanted to capitalize on a popular IP. The only thing they miscalculated is that SP loot boxes were not quite popular. Still, to make players feel as if they “need” to buy them, the game had to be expanded. One or two locations less, with more focus on more unique orcs to fight instead of just leaving it all to RNG of the Nemesis System would probably have made each area more unique to tackle as a problem. So, yeah, the game is definitely fun, but it just overstayed its welcome for me near the end, given I was doing the exact same thing only with a different scenary now. Currently trying to do a youtube video on it, ha, and need to play the elf expansion as well. It seems to be more of the same from the base game, and it’s okay, def not as amazing as Baranor’s stuff (hope this is how the next Shadows of game plays, if we get one, i really want to play as a mortal human that takes on mordor, just makes fights more challenging, would need to make dying somehow not mean he really dead so captains can be upgraded and stuff. I will say that I don’t mind the rougelike feel of the expansion. Maybe even that can be a thing where you have a difficulty with only one life and the world around you is moving even if you aren’t, with captains fighting one another at random moments and not just in missions).
It’s true, it can be repetitive, despite the Nemesis system. At the end of the day, it’s just a different ork with a different coat of paint and dialogue.
It’s very possible they might change the 3rd installment, if that ever comes based on the feedback devs got with the DLCs.
Regarding the microtransactions, I’m fairly sure, they will try their hands AGAIN in the cookie jar with them in future installments. Look at Capcom. Despite the hate, they still have it.