What's so great about video game sequels is that the developers can take all the criticism with the first game and improve upon their flaws and expand into new ideas to keep the game fresh. Shadow of War accomplishes this almost perfectly. My favorite mechanic, the army system has been expanded on and now you can build siege teams to raid enemy fortresses and guard your own. My least favorite thing about the first game, the traversal and open world has been greatly improved. Climbing is more consistent, you can now press the x button each time you grab a ledge to increase your speed. You can also double jump and use up focus to super sprint shortly. But the best addition is the ability to instantly call a creature to mount to reach destinations even quicker than simply running. In the first game, you would climb a tower and hit it with a hammer and that unlocked a fast travel point and revealed all the collectibles nearby. In this game, you cleanse the Haedir towers and use Sauron's flaming eye to look around the area to find the collectibles. I thought that was really neat. Had I wrote this review a couple of days ago, before 100% completing the game, I would have given this a 9 or 10. However, as I near the end the game was losing a lot of steam.
First off is the Pit Fights. Why do I have no control over what's happening? You have to hope and pray your guy wins. I thought this was really stupid, especially since you need to win 15 times (3 for the 5 regions).
Second is the combat. Mechanically, it's not bad or anything, but when you raid enemy fortress and you got 100 different people fighting each all at once, I start losing track of what was going on and I ended up dying because I couldn't figure out where I was getting hit from.
Third is the story. Like in the first one, there's a bunch of side stories that combined make up one big story. This time, it's very clear the main narrative is on Eltariel on her missions. Unlike the first one, the side stories are more interesting, but there's a lot more missions to play. For the most part, they're fun and interesting, but there's also a lot of missions that feel very filler. All the missions are very short which helps keep the fast paced nature of this game.
My biggest problem is the ending to Act 3 and the overall ending. Those were a total gut punch. Warning! There will be spoilers! Celebrimbor, the guy that stood by your side for two games, the guy you sacrificed the ring for at the beginning of this game to save, betrays you and leaves you for dead. There's no real build up, it just happens. I was kind of upset, but I was more curious of how things were going to end. Would you have to fight/kill him at the end? No. Celebrimbor and Sauron fight, which is a pretty lame boss by the way, they can't each other so they fuse into one. Talion sees this all unfold inside a snow globe, does nothing about it and that's the end of Act 3. What kind of conclusion if that? But wait, it gets worst. Talion needed Celebrimbor to survive. But since, Celebrimbor betrayed him, he needed another way to stay alive. So, he wore a Nazgul ring (Nazguls are servants to Sauron). Eventually, Talion gave in to its dark powers and became a Nazgul. Kind of tragic considering he spent two games trying to kill Sauron only to end up as his servant. It would have been cool to end it there and maybe get a third game to save Talion from the Nazgul and properly kill Sauron. But no. Instead, a narrator explains that some decades after this game, the movies happened and Talion is free again. What the fuck? How could you gloss over something important regarding your main protagonist in two minutes like it's nothing? To me, that just says "we need to wrap this up and quick". The games aren't canon, but they are written as in they actually take place in between the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Make up your mind. Which is it? You can't have both.
To wrap up, Shadow of War improves upon Shadow of Mordor in every aspect. This is a game I enjoyed playing a lot and would have liked even more if the ending was on the same quality level as the Gollum game.
First off is the Pit Fights. Why do I have no control over what's happening? You have to hope and pray your guy wins. I thought this was really stupid, especially since you need to win 15 times (3 for the 5 regions).
Second is the combat. Mechanically, it's not bad or anything, but when you raid enemy fortress and you got 100 different people fighting each all at once, I start losing track of what was going on and I ended up dying because I couldn't figure out where I was getting hit from.
Third is the story. Like in the first one, there's a bunch of side stories that combined make up one big story. This time, it's very clear the main narrative is on Eltariel on her missions. Unlike the first one, the side stories are more interesting, but there's a lot more missions to play. For the most part, they're fun and interesting, but there's also a lot of missions that feel very filler. All the missions are very short which helps keep the fast paced nature of this game.
My biggest problem is the ending to Act 3 and the overall ending. Those were a total gut punch. Warning! There will be spoilers! Celebrimbor, the guy that stood by your side for two games, the guy you sacrificed the ring for at the beginning of this game to save, betrays you and leaves you for dead. There's no real build up, it just happens. I was kind of upset, but I was more curious of how things were going to end. Would you have to fight/kill him at the end? No. Celebrimbor and Sauron fight, which is a pretty lame boss by the way, they can't each other so they fuse into one. Talion sees this all unfold inside a snow globe, does nothing about it and that's the end of Act 3. What kind of conclusion if that? But wait, it gets worst. Talion needed Celebrimbor to survive. But since, Celebrimbor betrayed him, he needed another way to stay alive. So, he wore a Nazgul ring (Nazguls are servants to Sauron). Eventually, Talion gave in to its dark powers and became a Nazgul. Kind of tragic considering he spent two games trying to kill Sauron only to end up as his servant. It would have been cool to end it there and maybe get a third game to save Talion from the Nazgul and properly kill Sauron. But no. Instead, a narrator explains that some decades after this game, the movies happened and Talion is free again. What the fuck? How could you gloss over something important regarding your main protagonist in two minutes like it's nothing? To me, that just says "we need to wrap this up and quick". The games aren't canon, but they are written as in they actually take place in between the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Make up your mind. Which is it? You can't have both.
To wrap up, Shadow of War improves upon Shadow of Mordor in every aspect. This is a game I enjoyed playing a lot and would have liked even more if the ending was on the same quality level as the Gollum game.