Middle-earth™: Shadow of War™

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War was the second and final entry in the duology; it still holds up nearly a decade after its release with tons of improvements and expansions on the base formula. The unfortunate closure of Monolith Productions and the corporate patenting of its main system are the sad legacy of a solid game. Shortly after Shadow of Mordor, the Gravewalker Talion continues his never-ending battle against the forces of darkness, teaming up with fellow humans and elves to protect the fortress of Minas Morgul and eventually building his own army. The first thing you should know about Shadow of War is this; everything is bigger. The size of the open-world, the scale of the battles and most importantly the nemesis system which has expanded greatly with new features and outcomes. The gameplay trifecta of Assassin's Creed, Batman Arkham and God of War is still on top form. Talion's swordplay and stealth is satisfying with a ton of different moves and special attacks. Extra features like ranged combat, riding creatures and draining orcs of their health are layered on top; a highly versatile system all around. Moving through the world is also a breeze and never becomes tiresome as Talion can use focus to speed up his running and climbing. This is paired up with a deep upgrade system with tons of loot items and a gem system that allows for further enhancements. Then there's the expanded Nemesis system which still creates all kinds of inventive scenarios. Orcs can be killed outright, shamed to reduce their level or recruited to Talion's cause which opens up even more options. You can send one of them to infiltrate a fort or betray their master, ensure that they survive their own missions to gain more strength, test their might in the battle pits or promote them to warchief. In turn, the orcs can counter these operations by ambushing you, cheat death and come back for revenge, develop new strengths and weaknesses and be promoted after killing Talion in battle. Rather than feeling like one man struggling to hold back the tides, this time you're a full-on general, recruiting orcs, sending them on missions and commiting all of your resources to capturing strongholds. These large scale battles are a ton of fun in the second act as your orc captains fight alongside you to take the points and face off against the Overlord within the keep. This gameplay loop persists over four seperate regions with many story missions along the way. Some of the major set-pieces sees you take on the more iconic entities from Tolkien's world. Shadow of War isn't without problems; the main story and characters are a little lacking in personality and the auto-targeting system in combat can sometimes latch you onto the wrong foe. The game's epilogue, entitled "Shadow Wars", can be a bit grindy as you defend your fortresses from counter-attacks. Luckily the greedy microtransactions were removed, making for a slightly smoother experience. The game is double the length of its predecessor and the constant stream of missions, challenges, collectables and level-ups can become tiresome after twenty-five to thirty hours of play. Despite these issues, Shadow of War is still the best modern Lord of the Rings game by a mile; if you enjoyed Shadow of Mordor, this sequel delivers the goods. Yet it still appeals to any fan of action-adventure titles with a ton of content as well as three DLC packs. Get it on sale if you can.

The nemesis system is one of the greatest things ever and the fact that its patented is a crime

Bu da diğer oyunun farklı rengi gibi bir oyun. Gidiyorsun geliyorsun aynı şeyi yapıyorsun sonra gidiyorsun geliyorsun aynı şeyi yapıyorsun gidiyorsun geliyorsun aynı şeyi yapıyorsun he bir de unutmadan söyleyeyim gidiyorsun geliyorsun aynı şeyi yapıyorsun. Oyunun sana yaşatacağı his işte bu.

A very flawed gem. The Nemesis System that the gameplay loop is dependent on has so much potential, but is bogged down by (1.) lots of bugs that make long-term play unsustainable and (2.) Warner Bros. decision to copyright the system and then refuse to develop it any further (they're sitting on for no reason other than to stop other companies from implementing something similar, lest WB sue them if the new system resembles the Nemesis System in ANY way). Furthermore, Online Conquest is absolutely unplayable in 2026 due to rampant modded enemy Orcs that are essentially unkillable and bugs that replace your own dominated orcs with random enemies over time. It's truly infuriating to think that this game once had microtransactions that allowed you to purchase Orc Captains for real money, only for them to be potentially replaced by randomly spawned enemies. As with almost all my other reviews, the synopsis of this one is that litigious corporations that make games are the problem. I continue to feel sorry for developers who have them as parent companies and are working hard to develop groundbreaking ew technologies and systems under the thumb of greedy corporations like Warner Bros.

cuck warner bros, good game, but cuck warner bros. ♥♥♥♥ you cuck warnerbros

I'm a fan of this universe, and I liked it. A lot of things don't match the story from Tolkien's books, though. Sometimes I got tired of the game, trying to level up my orc army. It's a grind, but you can beat the game without it. So, if you just follow the story, it's a good game. 7 out of 10

O jogo é absurdo de bom, a gameplay, a história... O único defeito é o fim do game/história, que é totalmente apressado e mal aproveitado, ter que ficar defendendo os nossos fortes pra conseguir uma conclusão na história foi muito maçante e cansativo, pra no fim recebermos uma conclusão mal feita porém não tão ruim. Fora o fim do game, vale a pena demais se aventurar ao lado de Talion e conquistar toda a mordor, e tirar o máximo que esse jogo tem a oferecer, que é bom dmais.

Ive had this on my wishlist for literal years, finally jumped the gun and bought it at 90% discount. I really wanted to like this game and its a fine game, no doubt about it. But I was pretty quickly reminded why I never managed to finish the first game, the gameplay loop is so mind numbingly repetitive and controls are straight up awful, with so many actions bound to the same key. I could maybe spend a few hours tweaking controls, but I just dont want to spend that amount of time tweaking the most basic of things, the ability to control my character in a satisfying and intuitive way. I also about had it when the same guy cheated death 5 times in a row, that got really old really fast. The siega battles arent much fun either and overall I just lost interest and moved on to play something else. Its really noticable how this was supposed to be a game designed around purchasing mystery boxes. I mean, its a solid game, imo it just gets boring doing the same thing over and over, especially if youre a completionist like me.