Current Events > Is Shadow of Mordor/War worth playing if I know zilch about LOTR

(+) Yeah! (+)

I remember trying it a while back but not having the patience for it because I had no idea wtf was going on lol

Also is Shadow of War as bad as I've heard it is? I know some people who loved the first one didn't like this one as much

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Its extremely overrated. I cant even recommend it as a fan of the series.

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fan357 posted...

Its extremely overrated. I cant even recommend it as a fan of the series.

Huh, interesting

People always told me it was like an Assassin's Creed game but good

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i played the first one and thought it was very boring, would not recommend

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First is okay, gets pretty boring since you get OP really fast.

Shadow of War is a lot better. You don't really need to know the lore tbh other than Mordor = bad place. You = good. Orcs and trolls and other monsters = bad. Shelob = ally

It's actually good and I like it but it takes a few hours to really open up
Shadow of War improved on everytihng in the first game. The complaints are two: micro transactions being required (this is a lie) and the lore being ruined (this is true).
The game never required you to use micro transactions, a few journalists used them to beat the game instead of actually playing for more than a few hours so everyone assumed they told the truth

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The core loop of the game is pretty cool, but if that ever wears thin it becomes extremely repetitive. I had fun with the first one, and I've never watched the movies or read the books. Yeah there are stuff I didn't get, but really the loop is what was the draw. Brainwashing orcs to do your bidding, getting killed by an orc and going out for revenge, or an orc coming for revenge against you, that's the fun.
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100% for those reasons actually.

Hmm, I think I'll pick up Mordor during this B2G2 sale and see how I like it, then get Shadow of War afterwards if I like it enough

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AvantgardeAClue posted...

Hmm, I think I'll pick up Mordor during this B2G2 sale and see how I like it, then get Shadow of War afterwards if I like it enough

Might as well just skip the first one.

They also removed the micro transactions from the second because of the blow back, still some cosmetic ones I believe.

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Skip the first one. War is the same game refined.

It's fun for about 3-5 hours depending on your mileage. Then the grind gets real.

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Yeah the hate for Shadow of War is mostly uncalled for. It's a massive upgrade over the first game in every way. Still worth playing the first game though just to get an idea of the story, if you care. Knowledge of Tolkien's works isn't required to understand it.

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Never played the second. The first is just a bad Assassin's Creed clone with a LOTR skin, so if you're into AC then go for it?

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I'll also say skip the first one. Had a good time with Mordor, and while War is clearly a huge upgrade, I got bored of it extremely fast since it felt like the same old thing but fancier.

The story in the first isn't good or important, so don't worry on that front.

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I'd say so

It's a good game and it's not all that related to the books since its a made up story

You won't get some of the characters but "Here's a big baddy, heres some orcs, magic exists" is pretty digestable.
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Also ignore the people saying skip the first one, they are out of their minds.

The 2ND one is exactly the same game except worse in pretty much every measurable way
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UnfairRepresent posted...

Also ignore the people saying skip the first one, they are out of their minds.

The 2ND one is exactly the same game except worse in pretty much every measurable way

Hard proof that you should skip the first one right here

UnfairRepresent posted...

Also ignore the people saying skip the first one, they are out of their minds.

The 2ND one is exactly the same game except worse in pretty much every measurable way

The second one is better in every single way though.

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daily reminder: UR will take whatever opinion will get him the most bites

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Both are great games and very fun. The DLCs are better on the first. The second is longer and has more to do. If you like the arkham asylum style combat and creative narrative you'll enjoy this game. Mordor does a good job of introducing the basics about Sauron (big evil bad) and the ring, then instituting their own creative spin. War continues on from that.

I was going to ask where you heard this:

Also is Shadow of War as bad as I've heard it is

But reading these comments I get it. Ignore these posters, they have bad taste in games.

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War "Continues on from it" in the sense that Mordor was a delicious steak dinner with vegtables that was a little light on the meat but tasty none the less.

And then War took that same dinner, made it 3 times as large, then covered it with cheap tomato ketchup, then dropped it on the floor, picked it back up and squirted even more ketchup to cover that they dropped it.

Then offered to sell you even more ketchup as an ingame purchase.

It's just the same thing but much worse.
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Yeah, it's fun. Honestly there's not much to do, basically just run around and murder orcs. But the combat is so satisfying I can spend 40 hours doing just that while I check off side quests and collectables. You become insanely powerful and it's a blast to mow down dozens of orcs.

EDIT: also the gripe above Abbott the microtransactions has been resolved now. When it was released, the game was heavy in microtransactions, but enough people complained that they all got removed in an update.
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