[Megathread] Middle-earth: Shadow of War

[Selastan]

It's also hella short, so its not much of a time investment. For a newbie, maybe around 30 hours.

[Deleted]

I'd only suggest buying the first game if you don't want to play the 2nd immediatly... Pretty sure that after 30h in the first one, you don't really want to start playing the 2nd one right away.

It's a pretty good idea however if you want to wait for a sale.

[WarpedAcorn]

I'd only suggest buying the first game if you don't want to play the 2nd immediatly... Pretty sure that after 30h in the first one, you don't really want to start playing the 2nd one right away.

It's a pretty good idea however if you want to wait for a sale.

To piggy back on this comment, I just rented the game from Redbox for a few days and after a couple nights of playing it I am not hurting to return it. Don't get me wrong, its a really fun game and I am in Act 2 where you get to start building your army. That part seems very fun and interesting (if not really oddly familiar to a mobile card battle game). But the thing is that the Talion gameplay is very repetative and the gear system is not particularly interesting to me. Similarly with the leveling system. It would "feel" better if the skills you gained were tied to story missions, but the ability points could unlock the specializations of those abilities.

[Kathandira]

It's also hella short, so its not much of a time investment. For a newbie, maybe around 30 hours.

lol, it took me a while to complete the first. Not because it was long, but because I had so much fun messing with Orcs. I am a huge fan of the nemesis system. For me, it creates a unique story which I felt was actually more engaging than the actual campaign.

[GreenJesus]

The game is so cool i feel sorry for anyone that decided to not buy it because "microtransactions".. The microtransactions aren't even needed and you make the currency in game anyway. I legit feel sorry for them since I enjoyed the game that much.

[Fenzha]

I was thinking about buying the game when i free up some spare money but i just watched this and while i don't always agree with Jim it is contributing to the doubt i already had.

Opinions?

[AndyF1069]

I'm ten minutes in and he's only raised two points. Lack of uniqueness of captain orcs and flaws of the pit fights (a tiny part of the game). I feel he is nitpicking. He spent way too long talking about names of orcs being recycled and not recognising his nemesis orc from Shadow of Mordor is his own problem, not a flaw of the game. His complaints about Pit Fights (too much non action) whilst valid, is hardly something to not buy the game over. I'm not engaged by his video and I don't feel compelled to keep listening. I'd assume he saved the biggest issues to start off with. If this is the worst of the game then Shadow of War is doing pretty well.

[AndyF1069]

Finished the Shadow Wars. It started off fun but quickly grew to a tedious grind. It got to a point where my mentality was "I've started so I may as well finish". That's not really healthy. I found myself alt f4ing the game if I happened to get killed because the tedious nature of the grind was enough that I didn't have the patience to overtake a fort over defending it, when you factor in having to fight off five warchiefs and a legendary overlord. I was also hugely underwhelmed at the conclusion. No special event, no glitz or glamour. No acknowledgement that you've done something hard or accomplished anything. The story conclusion was disappointing as well. It comes across as something that was rushed together at the last minute with little effort put into it. If I had known that it would be so underwhelming I would have skipped the grind and gone to YouTube.

That said, it doesn't detract from the game as a whole. The gameplay is still great, the nemsis system still unique in the video game world and there is more than enough elements to praise over the negatives that exist, not even factoring in lootboxes. As far as lootboxes go, I've completed 95% of the game. I don't have the patience to do the optional skill challenges. I played 55 hours in Nemesis difficulty. There was literally not a single situation in which I needed to buy a lootbox, which includes the ones you can earn ingame. I have more than enough ingame currency (regular and premium) to order dozens of lootboxes, but I didn't need to. The likelyhood of getting to a point that you need Orcs and don't have any ingame currency to purchase a lootbox and therefore feel compelled to spend money is so drastically small that it boggles my mind why it was even considered in the first place. I've already said it in this thread, but it saddens me that the game ultimately got a Shadow (har har) over it that blighted it in the eyes of the consumer over something so completely unnecessary. I do believe that this game will pass the test of time however and be considered a great game when looked back upon.

[Regalbeast]

Great game. It's been a LONG time (probably since Vanilla?) where a game made me literally have a jaw-drop moment. I loved M1 but M2 is just freaking amazing.

BTW, I haven't felt the need to get into micro-transactions EVER. Definitely not necessary.

[-aiko-]

I was thinking about buying the game when i free up some spare money but i just watched this and while i don't always agree with Jim it is contributing to the doubt i already had.

I'm personally staying away. I don't want to support the microtransaction garbage (even though I know my lack of support means nothing to them ) and it doesn't look like that much of an upgrade from the first game. If I get the itch to slay a bunch of Orcs and make enemies I'll just play the first one again.

[WarpedAcorn]

BTW, I haven't felt the need to get into micro-transactions EVER. Definitely not necessary.

After waiting for a Sale, I bought this one the other week. I'm on the last leg of the game, the Shadow Wars Act that has been touted as this terrible grind. I'm Stage 6 so far and it hasn't been as bad as people have been making it out to be. I will *probably* finish it up tonight or tomorrow unless the last few Stages have a huge power spike that makes it stupidly difficult to beat. At the current power increase I should be fine though.

Currently I am regaining enough Orcs through recruiting the assaulting army to replenish the Forts as my own Orcs die. I've also still got about 20k Mirian to buy about 10-15 more Silver Chests if need be. I was happy to see that Forts retain their upgrades between assaults. I thought otherwise that WOULD be a huge case for not doing upgrades and conserving Mirian.

So yeah, I'm not feeling the whole "you have to buy Orcs for the final Act" that people have been saying...yet.