The game builds upon the Shadow of Mordor and has an 'interesting' spin on the Tolkien lore. The gameplay is fun, but it severely outstays its welcome. They really tried to improve on the success of their Nemessis system introduced in the prequel - so much that even the story often falls somewhat shallow just to adhere to the game mechanics. Everything is about building and improving the Orc army, and taking/defending strongholds. This fell well with their inclusion of lootboxes & microtransactions in the original release and it still bears its scars. The endgame (to get the "true ending") is just a grind, plain and simple - but at least it was reduced from the original release. Consequentially I got really tired of everything by the time I got to the 2nd DLC. One of the games I'd have to say it's just "too long"...
A nice mixture of Platinum Games' combat, Kojima's narrative, action one-liners and great music (and also "memes"). If you enjoy the above and/or slicing cyborgs and robots with a blade, this game is for you. Controlls may need getting used to, but once you figure out the patterns, the combat gets quite fun. There's some jank with blocking and dodging (especially in DLC1), but that may be relative to one's experience. All-in-all an enjoyable playthrough that doesn't overstay its welcome.
Moving from the previous Greek- to the Norse mythology, the game thrusts you well into the experience. Fantastic soundtrack, rich story, challenging combat, appeasing mechanics, nice visuals. It also finely leads you into wanting to play the sequel too. Though there are 2 *optional* segments that are a bit too grindy, but all-in-all very enjoyable.
The three stories are fun little spinoffs on the main game with each character having their own quirks - characteristics' and mechanics', though there is a major feeling of recycled assets. But the amount of crashes and save corruptions made me almost quit halfway through the first chronicle. No idea how I managed to garner willpower to complete this. I'd probably recommend avoiding this one, but most definitely do not play it after finishing the main game - it'll just become a slog.
