Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™

At first it will be the best game you will every play but near the end it will be just boring with repetitive missiosn

To start with the good - combat is fluid and dynamic, with a range of simple inputs that yield more and more complex outcomes as you progress. No matter how tough the target, you'll eventually get to a point where you'll have at least one way to damage even the most frustrating Orcs (some of whom have a frankly obnoxious level of "that doesn't work on me, and neither does that, and neither does that... and neither does that... or that... or that" defensive abilities that turn the otherwise cinematic and enjoyable combat into a tiresome slog regardless of whether I have a countermeasure or not). And speaking of the Orcs, they're the biggest draw in the game for me. I find myself rooting, not for the grim protagonist who is also possessed by the grim secondary protagonist, but for the Orcs, Uruks, and Ologs that I've recruited along the way. They have personality, they grow and adapt and learn, and some of them even even seem to have some level of college education based on their speeches. The banter among trash mobs is also fantastic - I even overheard two Orcs having the fandom's "do Balrogs have wings" argument. Which leads me to one of the negative points. If you don't like gameplay interruptions, this is probably not the game for you. The deluge of mission complete screens, region status updates, and introductory speeches for the NPCs has made up something close to 20% of my play time. When you get to certain stages of quests, the game will stop you entirely until you follow an on-screen prompt. It's my single biggest complaint about the game. After that ever-present stream of interruptions, my next-biggest complaint is stability. When it was released, the game was one of those that demanded the newest, shiniest hardware. My rig is no battle bot, but it's not on the low end either, and I still usually get at least one crash for every few hours played. So, do be aware of that before buying. In the end, do I recommend it? Yes.

2 stars seems a bit harsh, it's really more like 2.5. I'm not even sure why I bought it, I think it was mostly just to check out what the fuss was about the Nemesis system. The game gets compared to both the Arkham games and Assassin's Creed, and I'd say they're both pretty fair. If you loved both of those series you'll probably like this, too. My problem is that it's just repetitive. You visit an area, fight orc captains, kill or recruit them, then run around and grab all the collectibles. It's not terrible, but I find that it gets pretty old fairly quickly. You do this in several locations and run into so many orc captains that none of them are really memorable. I think the game would be better if there were fewer of them that were able to be turned, give them bigger roles and more personality, and maybe have your strongholds come under full-blown assaults now and then. There's some leftover triggers on the map from when the game had an online component, apparently you used to be able to assault other player's castles, but not any more. Maybe it was more interesting then. I also don't see how this game has any replayability. You do the same thing in every area, with level scaling each time you visit a new place. There's optional places that you can clear if you're somehow not sick of the formula and need more. You also get enough skill points to unlock basically every ability your character can ever perform and can switch between them at will, so there's no temptation to go back and try again with more of a focus on stealth or range or brute force because you can experience it all in one playthrough. I'm not a huge LOTR fan so can't really comment on that. It's often on sale for under $10 and there's worse ways to spend your money. I can understand how some people might like it, but I am not one of them and don't recommend it.

I have been playing this game on console since it came out, I have hundreds of hours. The story is surprisingly good, keeping the spirit of LOTR while taking a departure from sticking strictly to the written lore. The nemesis system is amazing and adds an insane amount of replayability. I am obsessed with the orcs and I spend hours interacting with all the different personalities they have. I would give this game a 5/5 but there are two issues that are only really present on GOG. Unlike the first game, Shadow of Mordor, this one does not have achievements enabled. If you are a perfectionist like me this is a bit annoying but not a killer. The biggest issue is that a major game feature, the Garrison, which allows you to move, upgrade, and further customize your Uruks is missing, as well as some online features such as Online Vandettas which give access to a legendary gear set. Strangely not all online features are missing. What is missing deprives you of a gear set as well as a collection of unique Uruks that are gifted to the player after completing the DLCs. I reccommend this game, just not on GOG

The game concept could be very satisfying, but the gameplay experience is ruined by bad interface issues. My experience with this game has been mingled immersion and frustration, because there are MANY possible actions bound onto very few keys, and the game does a terrible job of deciding which action or which enemy you meant. This leads to MANY experiences of accidentally killing the worm you meant to interrogate, because the game selected the wrong target, or repeatedly vaulting a vault-resisting foe whom you're trying to JUST HIT for crissakes. Many enemies have the Death Defying ability, which you CAN counter IF you can hit the correct key at the correct instant, but the indicator flashes up so briefly you don't get time to see what key/button it is, and even if you guess right, by the time you see the momentary flash it's already too late. So you have to fight them again and again and again, until you manage to deliver the deathstroke in a way that Death Defying doesn't apply to. But the real joy-killer here is that the drakes are UTTERLY BROKEN. They are almost impossible to fly with PC controls, and if they get too close to almost anything the drake gets stuck in it and all you can do is abandon the mission and start over. The final straw was being on a drake stuck between the balrog Tar-Goroth's legs, unable to move, unable to break free, unable to dismount, unable to attack or be attacked, and still with no idea how to perform the optional-extra goal of hitting the balrog 3 times with ice bolts because the game never sees fit to tell you how to fire one (even if you could steer the drake well enough to ain one). The entire drake control system is broken beyond usability -- and if you can't complete drake missions, you cannot complete the main storyline. I don't know what playing Shadow of Waris like on a console. But on the PC it is an exercise in misery and frustration, and that is ENTIRELY, 100% because of control and interface issues.