Hi guys! Today I will talk about Middle-Earth: Shadow of War. As always, the review will have four parts, firstly I will talk about the storyline, then about the gameplay, afterward, I will talk about the visuals and finally, I will tell you my personal thoughts and give you a rating for the game from 0-10 (10 being the best).
Table of Contents
Storyline
The story of the game continues from the previous game, as Talion and Celebrimbor forge the ring that will help them defeat Sauron but they lose it immediately, the rest are pretty much spoilers so I will not continue to talk about the story.
Gameplay
Middle-Earth: Shadow of War takes inspiration for its gameplay from the Batman Arkham games and Assassin’s Creed games.
The combat is very similar to Batman Arkham games, meaning that when an enemy attacks you, there is an indication on the enemy before the attack and if you counter at the right time the character will perform a short counter animation that is automated.
Also, when you kill an enemy orc captain, there will be a short clip where you perform an execute strike, which is really fun to watch.
Shadow of War’s main selling point compared to other games is the Nemesis System. The Nemesis System makes the enemies feel unique from one another, and when they appear there is a short clip where they say something.
When you die from an enemy Orc it becomes stronger thanks to the Nemesis System and even simple unnamed Orcs can become captains if they kill you in battle.
Thanks to the Nemesis System, the game becomes harder when you die and that makes it more challenging and forces you to think before you act about the consequences your actions will have.
A very cool element in the game, is that enemies have strengths and specific weaknesses, so doing research about your enemy before you fight him helps a lot.
Furthermore, if you attack using a specific ability all the time the enemy Orc will adapt to that ability and it will be rendered useless.
Now, let’s talk about the RPG elements of the game. There is a big skill tree in the game with 6 main branches and 12 abilities in each, where each ability has 2-3 passives or actives and you can only choose one passive/active from each of the abilities.
The good thing is that you can swap change your available abilities whenever you want without paying anything.
There is a lot of different equipment with different rarity levels for you to choose from. The weapons that you have at your disposal are a sword, a dagger, and a bow or axes for range shots.
You can also equip gems (these gems are attached to the category of gear and not the gear itself so you can swap gear without losing the gem) to weapons and armor to give them buffs.
After a certain point in the game, you will have the option to recruit Orcs that you defeat in your army, and that is very important because you will need to build an army of powerful Orcs for the sieges that you have to do in the game.
Siege is pretty much what it sounds like, you have an army of Orcs and you siege enemy castles and after you defeat the leader of that castle, you will take the castle for yourself. Sieges are pretty much war and are very fun and challenging.
In this game, there are also mounts that you can use to traverse the map faster (even though Talion is very fast and mobile himself).
My favorite mount is the dragon because dragons aren’t only fun because of their flight capabilities, but they are also powerful and can destroy whole armies of Orcs.
Visuals
The game’s graphics are above average, but they aren’t among the best you have seen. The game lacks in detail in graphics, but I guess this helps those that have lower specs.
The map of this game is pretty big, and each of the areas that are available feels and is different than the rest meaning that they have a different landscape, climate, and environment in general.
I also like that each weapon and armor in the game looks different than the rest, that the character doesn’t look the same the whole game.
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Final Thoughts
Middle-Earth: Shadow of War is a very good game that improves upon everything that its predecessor offers.
It has challenging combat, solid graphics, and a good story. There was a talk about the grinding that the game forces you to do and the loot boxes, but let me tell you this, I played the game in the hardest difficulty settings and rarely felt the need to grind.
For me, it comes down to the skill of the player and how lazy he is. This game is worth its price, sale or no sale.
Final Verdict
Storyline: 9.5
Gameplay: 9.3
Visuals: 8.9
General Rating: 9.2
That’s it for my review guys, I hope you liked it. If you liked the game leave a comment down below and tell me what you liked the most about this game. See ya in the next article.
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Follow @GamerWelfareHere is the link for the images I used:
https://www.igdb.com/games/middle-earth-shadow-of-war/presskit