LogFAQs > #947433641

I finished the main story in Shadow of War, and, hoo boy...

Its not bad or even mediocre, but it may be one of the most disappointing sequels Ive ever played. Its quite good fun for the duration of the campaign, aside from a few not so good set pieces in the main story missions and the fact that they dont use the games systems as well as those in the first game. But the sieges are a fun addition and the expansions to the nemesis system are really good. Theres more variety in the world, enemies and missions. It should have been a clean improvement over the original.

What makes it do disappointing is the sheer preponderance of completely unnecessary faults that were easily avoidable by simple decisions. The worst example is easily the epilogue, where it expects you to grind through 20 siege missions (and the corresponding grinds to get enough good orcs) to get the true ending. I did not fo that, because thats ridiculous and mainly seems to exist to encourage you to buy microtransactions that are no longer in the game. I appreciate wanting a postgame, but this should have been a fifth of the length.

This even goes for smaller changes as well. Why is there a gear system now? It just adds busywork. Did it need so many extra collectibles? This even goes for the story, which is bad and disrespectful to the source material, but largely due to a handful of decisions that were totally avoidable. Why is Shelob a sexy humanoid woman? Why is that character a nazgul? Why does the ending happen the way it does rather than a much simpler solution that doesnt directly contradict the story this is a prequel to?

And the story is really a big issue here because they clearly want you to be invested and dedicate a lot of time to it. They also go very deep into the lore which makes the massive deviations much more jarring. The first games story was passable with some issues but they have ramped those issues way up and put more emphasis on the story itself. Talion goes from ok to one of the most dull protagonists I have ever seen. It goes from some issues with crowbarred characters and off timelines to absolutely blatant disregard for the source.

Shadow of Mordor was one of the best games that year, and probably one of the best early 2010s Ubisoft style open world games ever made. I still had fun with Shadow of War, but they had such an opportunity to make an even better game that they made some steps towards but ultimately squandered for next to no reason. So.., 6/10 I guess?

Its decent, worth a go on PS+, but such a step down its really disappointing.

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I just decided to change this sig.
Blaaaaaaargh azuarc