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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a 2017 action-adventure video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Shadow of War is the sequel to 2014's Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, both of which are based on J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. The game is set in between the events of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings film trilogies, from which the game also takes inspiration. The player continues the story of Talion, the Gondorian Ranger who bonded with the wraith of the Elf Lord Celebrimbor, as they forge a new Ring of Power to amass an army to fight against Sauron. The game builds upon the "nemesis system" introduced in Shadow of Mordor, allowing Talion to gain followers from several races of Middle-earth and command them in warfare.
Shadow of War expanded on the scope of Shadow of Mordor by introducing new game mechanics and extending the nemesis system, which procedurally generates orc characters for players to fight and recruit. Compared to its predecessor, the game features more light-hearted moments, and the five regions were designed to be bigger and more colorful. Locations in the game were inspired by the landscapes of eastern Washington, Alaska, and Iceland. Troy Baker returned to provide the voice of Talion, while simultaneously serving as the game's motion capture director. Other cast members include Alastair Duncan as Celebrimbor, Laura Bailey, and Pollyanna McIntosh.
Announced in March 2017, the game was released worldwide for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on October 10, 2017. Shadow of War had a generally favorable reception from critics, albeit more mixed than its predecessor. Reviewers praised the gameplay and improved nemesis system, while criticizing the game's microtransactions (which was removed in a post-game update in July 2018) and story, including changes to characters seen in Tolkien's books. Many critics noted that the game's increased scope caused it to feel bloated. The game was the best-selling video game in the United States in its month of release. Monolith supported the game post-launch with free updates and two story expansions.
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Wish we got another one in this series instead of Gollum
I wonder where they'd take the story, pretty definitive ending.
@@MohseenLala They pretty much covered all loose ends with the dlcs as well so it'll have to be a completely new plot setup along with characters.
Unfortunately most publishers won't justify investing into a game this expansive unless you can prove ROI and monetization
gollum wasn't made by these people nor is it in the same in game universe
I wish we get another gollum, it's game of the year material...
I remember in Shadow of Mordor having an orc nemesis that returned from death 5 or 6 times and would seemingly always pop back up when I least expected him. It kinda became like an inside joke for me. Having that kind of dynamic, unique relationship with a foe in a game was so powerfully enamoring that I still remember it to this day, despite not playing for years. The Nemesis system is such a fascinating mechanic and could be the recipe to something incredible, and seeing it vanish from the industry is a shame.
I had one come back for almost every single mission in my story from third mission coullusium mission I can’t spell
The nemesis system with ai assistance would be quite interesting.
Didn't they patent it? And sued some other game that tried the same??
@@detach103ff4 They did patent it, but I'm unaware if any other developer has tried to replicate the system.
I believe an upcoming Wonder Woman game by Monolith is supposedly going to be using it
Played it Day 1 and I loved it. Never spent a dime and completed the entire game with the post game battles with only the orcs I got in the game.
Right? I remember the loot boxes just being ignored and loving everything else about it
bro me too.Altough the 10 stages of shadow wars were kinda rough. Only realized it after they changed it to 3 for the people who didnt have as much freetime as we did lol
True but the true ending was worth the grind
@@matthewrobertson5342 yeah true one of the only videogames that got tears out of me
Eh, I couldn't get into it since they didn't rebalance it after getting rid of the microtransactions
At the end of the game you are just kind of handed an overpowered necromancy set as a bit of a "well done you beat the game" and that armor set completely changes how you play the game. Overall the game is amazing with so much to do like turning every orc in an enemy citadel into a spy and then waltzing on in there to no resistance
I love the necromancy set, basically a sith lord now lol and the mask is sweet
If I remember correctly with the same reward comes an massive upgrade to the starter weapons, wich was very neat, because his "dagger" was the broken sword of his fallen son, which he used solely in shadow of mordor. At the beginning I thought it was a bit sad, that this Weapon which symbolized the bond between Father and Son got useless so quick. But after it was Upgraded I was more than happy.
@@comicfan3133I’m happy to hear this, I also feel dirty using anything other than acharn. Do you get to wear his wife’s cape?
@@riplix20yep
The necromancy skill is utterly fantastic. At level 72 I can take down almost any orc that has weaknesses, with different effects on my revenants.
I actually thought the core mechanics were so good that I never even thought about buying anything
Right. He’s over exaggerating how unbalanced the game was, buying the orc packs actually worsened your experience cus you cut out the most interesting part of the game - engaging with the nemesis system.
Agreed.
It's so engaging the developers want you to skip it entirely.
@@jonasking9587 not the developers, the publisher... WB
Corrected, and I appreciate it. You're right. I mean, probably. Still. Not interested in anything from Monolith anymore. Weird how that works.
This game aged very well. Absolutely love it
Yeah it's really good. The orc captains carry this game
Great game
This game deserves the Skyrim reboot. Imagine a reboot with no loot systems. It would sell like hot cakes
@@LIMSAkaRiorulz Disagree, you'd have to rework the whole system. It isn't just the monetization. It's that it suffers from an identity crisis. It strives to be one thing while actively doing another and at no point do they ever actually intersect I'd like to expand on this in an edit. Cyberpunk 2077 also suffers from an identity issue, but there are moments where both the immersive RPG it was marketed as and the ARPG that it actually is intersect and creates a really cool, unique experience. I feel like the Shadow of Mordor games are carried now after so many years because of the nemesis system
Even the normal orcs in interactions out of cutscenes give them own opinions about anything like weapons,Talion,routine,ect.
I played shadow of Mordor and didn’t realize there was a sequel until way after they took out all the micro transactions. And looking at the game without ever feeling a micro transaction system, it felt great. Played for like 100 hours
It is a very good game.
The game after the microtransactions was literally exactly the same as before the microtransactions. The microtransactions did nothing. You could buy boxes that had a random orc in them. That's it. You could just go out into the world and take over an orc, or you could buy an orc. So you've played the game, right? Well imagine instead of taking over the orcs in the world, you could just buy an orc. Just a normal ass random orc just like any other orc you'd find in the world and take over. That's literally all the microtransactions did. They were completely unnecessary. I had literally thousands of microtransaction boxes that I got for free through my gameplay by the time they shut down the in game store, because the boxes didn't contain anything that made them valuable enough to waste my time opening them. KZheadrs just lied about this game, because they got a bunch of clicks by trashing it. It's a travesty.
Youre supposed to send your orc on missions and stuff to level them up while you tend to other tasks or help them with their task to ensure they survive. Helping them also aids in your "bond" with your underlings if you choose to engage with the nemesis system in that way. Sure you can grind out a whole new army if your guys are under leveled, but that is only fun for so long.
The combat in this game and the first one is so satisfying. Only gets better as you progress through the game
for me i prefer talions look in mordor and some of his combat animations are not in war
Biggest issue is that the counter prompt is kinda glichy. Not always working when it needs to. Same goes for the entire game
I love when the sword glows blue and you push 🔺️+ 🔵 for one hit kills
It definetly had moments with combat but besides those moments the game is shallow and as deep as an water puddle on the road
@@kowaikokoro I'll still play 100 times then the gollum game bullshit
I have almost 200 hours on Shadow of War and it is one of my favorite games of all time. The microtransactions were a huge problem, of course, but when you really dive deep in the mechanics of the game you can feel the love Monolith put into it. The nemisis system, massive battles of orcs, RPG mechanics, a great protagonist, an over-the-top story that is nowhere near being canon with the books, and a world full of fun maps to explore just felt like a good time. I'll never forget what I felt after seeing the reveal for this six years ago as a kid and flying through the roof.
The Microtransactions were never a problem. They were so pointless that it made no sense to ever buy a single one. The biggest selling point of this game was the Nemesis system. Everyone loved it so much and they patented it.. So why does everyone claim they tried to pay money to get random orcs with random traits that would just die in their first fight? If you went out and actually played the game. You would find cool orcs. Orcs that could stay with you for ALL your sieges.
Were they a huge problem? I feel it was incredibly overblown.
@@Paradox-es3bl so true
@@cynical8464 SO TRUE!
@@Paradox-es3bl I think the original "P2W" drama originated not just from the loot boxes (which were completely unnecessary and avoidable anyway) but from the fact that orcs obtained from the loot boxes could be used in the PvP esque mode where you can siege other players strongholds and garrison your own stronghold using orcs from your playthrough. So in short it was massively overblown since it was honestly easier to just brand your own orcs rather than obtain them from loot boxes, although in saying that the very fact that lootboxes were included at all justified at least some backlash.
I only discovered this game about 6-months ago and I really dig it. The gameplay loop is quite satisfying; so satisfying I never thought about buying something.
It was always awesome. Did I have to google how to grind efficiently ? Yes ! But it's not so difficult to figure out if one really immerses oneself into the game.
And the personalities of the orcs is even better
You can’t buy anything anymore
What do you mean? They took out the market place completely?
Dude, the micro transactions have been reomove from the game since a long ago
Ironically enough I just did my first ever full 100% playthrough of this game. What a great game it is at its core. It's truly a shame that monetization killed the hype for it because it's fundamentally representative of how this genre should be developed and improved upon. I loved Shadow of War and felt like it was well worth my time.
Upgrading an orcs level can be done by telling them to kill another captain, and if they succeed they will get like 7-10 levels.
They can't level past you.
@@TacticusPrime I know, he was complaining that his orcs levels could only be raised by pit fights, I was just letting him know.
@@austinrader8135Yeah, I'm a new player to shadow of war, only something like 15-20h into the game, and I already know that pit fights are kinda the worst way to level up your orcs. They gain less levels, and you need to train the hell out of them if you want them to have a chance (and at my stage of the game, this is quite the investment). And they can die even to characters 10 levels under them just cause they are stupid, which means back to square one. Sending them to kill other captains is far better as you can make sure they don't die like hopeless morons
@@docomega7862orc fights are more for like . Hm let me pit all my guys together and see which one survives . He’s worth being in my army
That was my favorite exploit besides the infinite lootbox trick in the early days, and the 'recruited by remote' exploit that was recently found! My method for powerleveling Uruks was to find an enemy captain with an easily exploited Terrified weakness, and keep ordering my dudes to kill him. As soon as the mission started, I'd scare him into retreating, which meant my guy won the mission and gained the levels, but the target lived for me to do it again. If the target was enough levels above the guy you sent to fight him, your dude could gain up to 20 levels in a single mission! This also had the useful side effects of getting Talion lots of XP, and gaining a bunch of loyalty with your troops since you were assisting them in missions all the time. Edit: Oh, and the powerleveled one would nearly always gain the Enraged By Cowards trait, which is really good.
I would literally sell my soul for another game of this series, such an amazing game. Not even LOTR fans myself, watched cuts of the movies but this is something else man... Amazing crafted game imo, from the gameplay to the cinematics. Don't even care about the boxes tbh, has replay value with the Nemesis system, etc etc. What more you want? lmao
you should watch the movies they are amazing
Shadow of War is one of the better games from a major studio in a long time, I have replayed it 3 times I think and it's all the nemesis system that carries it, people still crying about the lootboxes they removed what a month after launch or something like that?
If I remember correctly you didn't have to even buy the lootboxes and you would enjoy the game the same lmao. It would give you better orcs but that is bypassing the game and making it easier which in the end you are making the game without the earning aspect which is bad. Edit. Oh and one thing people should be more mad about the battle passes. Why? Because it uses fear of missing out and you cant earn items in games just by playing. They are not even respecting our time
@@Grandmaster-Kush you really dont get it do you? Removing the lootboxes after does not excuse their inclusion in the first place. That is short sighted thinking and is exactly the reason why game companies get away with their egregious practices.
@@LiveforHM would you rather them keep them in the game? Why are you getting pissy about a feature that is not in the game anymore
It's a really cool experience if you play in a high difficulty. The nemesis system works incredibly well if you die fairly regularly. This allows you to devep the orcs and create a sort of rivalry with them as they rise through the ranks and gain traits that make them even harder to kill.
I loved this game. I actually did ignore the loot boxes and just played around the systems. I loved how some orcs would just be immune to certain types of attacks or would Rage + Regen if you tried something that is usually OP like releasing a caragor. I also died a ton to randos trying to make certain styles of kills or I'd get crippled by a wild twist like getting hunted by an adversary, or getting betrayed at a fucked up time. It was great. They need another game with this Nemesis system. Probably not another Shadow game, but either a new or at least different IP.
Warner bros has the nemesis system patented, but I’m pretty sure they’re going to make a Wonder Woman game or something similar with the system
@@realamericanman them boys are throwing away completed films (the Wiley Coyote one). I wouldnt hold my breath.
The orcs ability to adapt was super fun to play around as well. If you spammed a move too much, the game essentially takes it away from you and forces you to approach the fight differently. Granted, there were some times that this system felt oppressive - in a raid I once had the war chief (who was already immune to many of my abilities) adapt to one basically all my sources of damage. I spent 15 minutes fighting this dude to no avail. Luckily I had a savior who finished the overlord just as he was about to kill me, but if I hadn’t it would mean restarting the raid and losing a bunch of time because I couldn’t physically damage the boss. In any case, this game was GOATed
The fact that WB has never really used the Nemesis system since War really highlights the problems WB has been having since War launched. Nemesis would fit so many of WB's IP perfectly and they've never done anything with it. They also trademarked the system, meaning other developers couldn't use it either, so we haven't seen it anywhere. Sad to see something that was set to expand gaming just sitting on a shelf untouched all these years later.
Honestly hate it. The nemesis system would be beautiful in alot of newer games coming out(Starfield)
i still think that trademark totally bullshit to this day, like what kind of logic about law can allow this.
It’s such bs they can patent concepts in games at all. It stifles innovation and progress. I bet we’d have a lot of options if not for that.
just a tip for anyone, dont kill or dominate every orc you see because that basically ends their story. Yes if you kill them they have a chance to come back and if you dominate they can betray you but you get more story from an orc the more interactions you have with them.
What's other choice? I find every orc text kinda boring after 10h
Also you can't recruit higher lvl then your character
Yea so what should you do just run away?? Or what?
@@justwatchinfunnyvids shame shame! Shame!!!!
I once had one of my captains die once and then he came back, but he was still on my side. Made me very happy lol
I didn't know about the state of this game at launch... I discovered it in 2020 and loved it. I still go in and defend a fortress a few times a month.
I love this game and the fact they added extra free content like Nazgul Masks really showed that the developers cared I played since day one never had a problem loved every second I truly hope we get another game in the series would recommend gets 10/10 for fun!
One of the best games to just go back into and have fun. It’s always slightly different and unique.
“Shame him so you can grind against him in the future.” -words to live by.
Started playing it again a few weeks ago while waiting for Baldurs Gate. I ended up assigning a legendary orc with legendary bodyguards at every outpost and I just had a blast playing online conquests. Sucks that a great developer like Monolith is stuck under WB's greedy thumb
My experience replaying this recently was largely... I loved the core, but it quickly felt like a tredmil of sameyness. I think the fact that on the hardest difficulties, even just nemisis, major orcs become just tedious healthpools with swarms around them
Yea it's a solid game but I just got bored before I ever finished it
I luckily never played it until about 3-4 years ago after they had ended the micro transactions and I thought it only Improved from the first one. A perfect sequel
The betrayal aspect drove me away. I don’t have the time and patience to put work into a game and find a character, only for the game to say “you can’t have that anymore”. Being a father of two teenage girls will really change you.
My girls were 11 and 7 when this game came out
you can get them back but if they gain the iron will trait you need to shame them until they loose it no orc is every truly off limits
@@wetnoodleman8166it’s still too much work nowadays. Especially with cheer practice, dance practice, my 17 year old plays sports and is starting college, so there’s those events. I literally don’t have the time or patience to even attempt it. I don’t want to experience putting the effort in getting a perk, lose it, and then more grind less hours to get it back. That’s my definition of sun. If that’s yours. Go for it. Enjoy it, man.
betrayals mostly happen when you get too many orcs in main pool of the region. try to not dominate every orc and you'll not have many betrayals I usually keep 6-8 in main pool, I know for sure game will trigger mass betrayals if you dominate almost 100% orcs in a region (cause you need someone to fight) also die less cause orcs don't tolerate weakness, they will betray you if you keep dying. Being humiliated by other orcs is even worse if they happen to be nearby to witness it it's guaranteed they'll betray you right away.
I still think the nemesis system is one of the most fun world building things they did. I still remember when I played the first game before this one, and there was a dude who just kept coming back and killing me, and so when I started this game that same orc ambushed me and started messing with me in this game, that was so cool. Creating your own little story lines is the funnest part of this game
I have to be honest, I played this game to DEATH. From the beginning till the time lootboxes were completely removed. I have never noticed much about the lootboxes or about the aggressive lootloop. It was an absolute blast for me. This reminded me that I will have to play this game again someday. Great game all around for me even back in the day!
Thats because most people who complained about the lootboxes didnt even play the game... Luke Included... As soon as they heard loot boxes, they never even gave the game a chance.
For me the loot box system wasn’t even that big of an issue cause for me I can roam around the area finding recruits and not to mention with the shadow wars you could just recruit them so I never fully understood the problem. Sure it might’ve been a grind but I felt it was fair and I never spent a single penny on the game cause it was so fun to find enemies rather than buy them.
The problem was that the entire customization of the orcs was locked behind the loot boxes. The loot boxes had stuff like giving your orcs a posse, or flaming weapon, or even traits like “can’t be grappled”, stuff like that. The orc system could have been so much deeper if they put ways to customize your orcs into the actual game, rather than just into the loot boxes.
You get those on online modes
Glad you don’t make decisions. The game is better without them. Though would’ve been even better if it never had them.
Here is the thing with shadow of war in comparsion to alot of other loot box trash, the game is solid and was clearly design around not having loot boxes in the game, you can tell it was wb's decision to force loot boxes in, so the second loot boxes were removed nothing really changed, Shadow of war at base is pheonimal and if it launched without loot boxes it would been praised as one of the greats of the generation.
Spot on. The entire loot box argument falls flat when you realize one simple fact: this game has difficulty settings. Is something too hard or taking too long? Just lower the difficulty. No other game that wants to persuade you to buy loot boxes has difficulty settings. The game was likely already finished when WB came up with the shop, you can tell by how the whole game is designed.
This game is so incredibly fun I still come back to it for the gameplay alone. Even though they went and changed the lore I still enjoy this game as pretty good fan fiction
I'm in love with this game, I just can never get enough. Every time I play the time flies completely. Wish they would make like this again.
They are working on a wonder woman game that will feature a more advanced nemesis system
I've just started playing this game after Shadow of Mordor and its top 10 game for me personally. Love the Nemesis and the developed orc classes. Talion the strongest mf in Middle Earth after Sauron 😅
This is hella weird literally just got back into this game after a good while literally 2 hours ago and you uploaded a video about it now 😂
Always happens
I literally re-downloaded it a couple of days ago on Game Pass
Algorithm telling us what we want to think and do. Quite fascinating
I had the chance to play the game the first time when all microtransactions were removed. One of my best gaming memories.
I loved Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War. The nemesis system is the exact type of procedural content that normally consumes my life when I encounter it. But I felt that the nemesis system lost some of what made it good in Shadow of Mordor. In SoM you had a very small roster of captains to interact with, which meant you got to know them better. With SoW there were so many maps each with their own list of captains plus the captains related to the fortress that it felt like it was almost impossible to "get to know them." I knew more captains in SoM than in SoW. I think the stories were a little better in SoW, but there was so much static from so many captains that I lost track of stories all the time. "Wait, why are you mad at me? Have I killed you before" was a fun moment for me when it happened in SoM. However, there were so many captains in SoW that it became the standard for how stories played out for me. Which sapped it of some of it's value. Like a fantasy novel with so many plots going on that none of them stand out or are relevant.
The worst part is you can still tell that the core gameplay economy was designed around a grind.
Certainly the end game is.
The core gameplay was designed around the Nemesis system. Most fans didn't care about anything other than that. If you think that's a grind then you didn't enjoy the game.
@@cynical8464 okay
@@TacticusPrime Do you know what the biggest feedback from actual fans was? To make it last forever. Shame this game was tarnished by so many simpletons and bandwagoners.
@@cynical8464 There are tasteless lunatics of every stripe, no doubt.
i remember playing this game without buying any loot boxes and having a great time
I 100%ed this game during quarantine and can def see someone finding it too bloated but I actually wanted as much end game as possible, the combat and nemesis system on harder difficulties was fantastic
Shadow of war is hands down on of the best games I’ve ever played. The story is fine, but the gameplay is spectacular, it’s so fun. I’ve replayed it too many times to count. Lootboxes really weren’t an issue at launch, but I’m glad they got rid of them anyway. Great game, always goes on sale, I recommend everyone play it.
This was my favorite game the year it came out. I still go back and play it from time to time because the nemesis system is so badass
This game is incredible. Was the first game I played start to finish on my Steam Deck. And well worth it. Would love a sequel to this.
I think they should make a new character.Not something already written.I think it would have been cool in a medieval times game.Maybe you play a a knight or something and the warchiefs are nobels.There bodyguards are knights.The captains would also be knights.The commanders or overlords of the places are kings
Love the videos, keep up the amazing work.
The most heartbreaking thing about Shadow of Mordor is the fact that the Nemesis system was trademarked and stored in a safe to die.
Best game system ever
Too bad it will never be used again.
@@maineman5757😭
@@maineman5757 Wonder Women game.
I played it a few years after it came out and absolutely loved it.
I was just thinking about going back to this game. The first one I beat on PC and PS4 and even platinumed on PS4. I loved it so much my sons name is Talion. But the microtransactions kept me from going deep into this game. You are my favorite gaming KZheadr and I believe you just reinforced my desire to return to it 😁 thanks bro.
Man, one of my favorite things to do in that game was definitely to turn a slave orc into an overlord. The nemesis system is what really carried this game I remember just having so many funny interactions, and it felt like every orc had its own type of story, especially when they get renamed by your actions, or if you die to them
I really love the Shadow games, some of favorites that I always find myself going back to every few years
I absolutely loved this game. It’s beautiful looking, plays really smoothly, has interesting mechanics and challenging enemies. It’s easily one of the best games I’ve ever played.
Great review . Thank you I was on the fence with this and another game
I have over 1000 hours in this game and still love playing it till this day. Also Gravewalker mode is the best!
I tried this when it came out, I thought the endless sea of orcs and constant need to run and stealth literally everywhere to be tedious and anxiety-inducing. Its like if Arkham Asylum had bad guys everywhere that constantly respawn. It would not be fun, and neither is Shadow of War.
That's the point? Lol. You can go places that don't have orcs. If you build an army you can have fun with that the orcs literally fear you. This game doesn't play like Arkham Asylum so your comparison doesn't make any sense lol,
@@awsomeboy360don’t try to convince people like this bro got a combat heavy game and got annoyed there was a lot of combat
I was in the middle of shadow wars when reviewers go crazy abt the lootbox and it got me worried at first. I went on and finished it feeling confused, since it really wasn't that grindy. might seem that way since ur orcs will be underleveled compared to the invaders, but there r a lot of ways to get through it without spending a dime. it wasnt rly that long either, i finished the shadow wars part in abt 4-5hrs. this game and mad max r some of the most underrated open world action imo.
I played after all the in game transactions were removed, and honestly I never had an issue with staying strong. My Orks almost always felt strong enough for what I needed and I never felt too weak to take on challenges as long as I was at an appropriate level. The only issue I could point to was the start of the epilogue but thats more of a surprise than anything else, so its hard to prepare for either with or without money
The pit fights for upgrading orcs is the way to go because you can go in their and send the weakest orc you have and then get free info on another orc to recruit if yours fails to win and level up. Best way to quickly level your army
IBefore watching the video, I was there playing Shadows of War day 1 and then once loot boxes were taken out I've done a few more play throughs of the game and to me it never needed loot boxes and wish they were never introduced. I love the game as it took Shadows of Mordor and just took everything and expanded so much. The game is so enjoyable to play.
Really interesting to hear how the game was recieved when it first came out as well as the state it was in. I played it way after it came out and it ended up being one of my favourite games I ever played.
It's one if my all time favorite games. Ir doesn't have an endgame grind, that's the end game. I love redoing battle different ways with/for different orcs. It has an infinite endgame/multiplayer system
In shadow of mordor the orc bosses actually roamed around the map and sometimes would get into fights and even die on their own, I didn't see that while playing shadow of war
This is one of my favorite games of all time, and one of the only RPG style games I enjoy
Loved the gameplay in these games.. the second one I obsessed over hours just putting orcs to kill each other in death bouts.. oddly fun 😅
Ive been playing this since it came out, and have put more hours into this game than any, it has endless replay value to me and I love it, and regularly look for a part 3 that may never come, but I’m glad that ppl are still talking about it 6yrs later
13:29 Trust me, that game having such a predatory store blew up back in the day when it launched. There are just not many videos SHOWING the store... but there was definitely enough talk going on. Which is why I never touched it to this day. The first one was much better. 14:50 It didn't get "bullied out of existence" at least for Shadow of War, they kept it running a couple years and then shut it down when it wasn't worth running the servers for it anymore.
Never understood the appeal to this game I played about 15 hours of it on playstation plus a couple years ago got bored and haven't touched it or thought about it since seeing this video
You have to get over your own tastes to understand some things.
The biggest issue I had that seemed entirely money focused was the combination of Blood Brother and Iron Will. It would force you to lose Orcs constantly, then because they're leveled you would need to weaken them over and over and hope iron will get knocked off, and Blood Brother could be a hidden trait right up until you get betrayed. I don't mind betrayal, but it would just completely sweep away that Orc for any purpose, regardless of how much time you invested in building them up. That happens enough times, you're going to generate some Orcs with the lootboxes just to not go through it again.
I think it’s spicy things up
there are ways to deal with blood brothers, send other orcs to kill them and don't show up in those missions yourself, they only betray you if you are present when their blood brother is killed.
shadow imo is actually a really good game,even at release(the gameplay was fun enough imo that allowed me to ignore the bad parts) i loved the idea of having an army and imo it is such an underated gem. im glad you came back to this,as for the entire legendary thing they only ever matter IF ur fighting other legendary orcs. i never went againest other players but i never had a problem with the whole fortress thing. the entire loop is fighitng orcs,recruiting them and then having an insane army. not to mention when you die the voice lines are HILARIOUS. also one thing to note your the orcs master so if ur lower level then them they won't follow you because ur not a strong enough leader. thats why the shaming exist. it also sometimes messes them up mentally
Most underrated game of all time. It felt like I was playing a different game based on the reception it got.
I love this game so much, I wish they would make a 3rd
I played it last year . One of my favorites . I had alot of fun. But The main story was so rushed in the end part if you know you know..
I'd bet good money the whole epilogue was originally an outline for a 3rd game that WB axed in favor of live service loot boxes, which they ironically had to remove due to the intense and justified backlash
@@umphreak9999 that actually makes sense
Ah yes, you've shown why I completely ignored this game. I refuse to play any game with loot boxes.
That game is absolutely superb. I never played it when it was monetized, hence that never factored in my playthroughs. The game becomes so hard overtime, it's insane. When you're trying to do the challenges to upgrade legendary gear, that's when the skills & dedication really kick-in. Building armies of top notch Orcs is also very interesting & the fact that you can loose top lieutenants, maybe get them back. The strategy, luck makes that part very fun. Definitely a gem.
I played this game as a broke college kid, so the card connected to the game never had any money on it. So even the gotcha stuff couldn't get me lol
My main issue with the game even after removing the monitization is the gameplay gets pretty samy over time. And grindy if you dont want to get your orc in another fortress to get steamrolled.
I love the mix it up orc!
I tried it again recently after replaying the first game. It's really fun. My issue with it now is I am constantly looking cool moments, I want to fight orcs that have beaten me or ran away from me I want to collect powerful orcs but it gets old fast. Maybe this is an issue with the game being based on having a grind and then selling ways to speed up that grind or maybe it's just a preference I have? I ran into an issue of having my orc fight another one and it quickly got repetitive having to run to the area to watch it happen. Again though I am willing to admit that might just be my fault playing that way. I don't want to undersell the enjoyment I have with the nemesis system, I love it and I also love the fact it allows this game to actually have a different save system than just "reload last save" I think more games need to change up that formula.
I played this like heck when it launched and loved every minute of 200 hours and not once spent money. Its crazy how your perspective shifts when youre part of a community online. Browsing reddit and such definitely shapes your view of content; I get that with path of exile every league.
I’ve always LOVED this game. I’ve replayed it probably 4-5 times and I think it’s a masterpiece
One of my favorite games of the PS4 generation. I just finished a third play through and enjoyed it as much as the first. I don’t get people saying they were ‘bored,’ because jumping on a dragon and roasting my enemies NEVER got old! There are SO MANY options and powers to use that I constantly switched it up. I played it on release and never even noticed the micro transactions that were supposedly at the center of the game. There was a LOT of bandwagoning around this game’s release, where everyone had to adhere to the group-mind narrative of the day. I never bought a single loot-box, or was asked to. All this game needed was a character-creator, because GODS was Talion a drip, ESPECIALLY when he’s surrounded by all these deranged, demented, DELIGHTFUL Orcs!!! Let me make my own character and wear some of the crazy-cool Orc armor! NOW you’d have a perfect game. I will probably play it again one day.
I kinda miss the old system because of how hard it made the game. The late stage where your forts are constantly under attack was actually really challenging and I would often lose orcs and sometimes my forts entirely. With the new more balanced system the sieges are much easier.
loved the first one. I played this one for the first time a few months ago and thought it was decent enough. I didn't really notice a lot of the monetization stuff you pointed out probably just cause i'm so use to tuning those things out in general lol buuuuuttttt i thought the game was decent buit i definitely enjoyed the first one much more.
Can’t believe they made Gollum instead of a sequel to this. Loved Shadow of War, they have super solid Arkham-like combat with some really awesome features such as the nemesis system which they’re the only ones allowed to make since they patented it. I really hope they make another game.
There's an indie roguelike called Star Renegades that implemented a light version of the Nemesis system. If you died to a boss that boss would get promoted and be stronger the next time you faced them in a new run and even gain skills.
i got shadow of war after the microtransations were removed, good sequel to shadow of mordor, nemesis sistem is better and its fun to play, i usually play until the true ending then i just start over
This was perfect timing because I've been playing this for the first time after only playing for 5 minutes a year ago and i might be my GOTY before Spider-Man 2
It came out 2017
@@ArkhamJacks sorry meant game i've played that i enjoyed the most this year
@@ArkhamJacksthat's why he said his goty. His favorite game
Ive bought my copy only a couple years ago, never knew about the loot boxes. However i did have fun doing the vendetta missions and from there you can get boxes which would have i guess orc upgrades which i thought was pretty good
Technically lootboxes are still present. You get them for every single online conquest or vendetta each differenttly titled conquest loot boxes (5 items) vendetta loot boxes (2 items).
I played this after the loot boxes had already been removed. I never finished it but I loved the mechanics. The combat is so fun that it's a perfect sandbox to just jump into for an hour or two when you feel like taking out some frustrations after a rough day. The core of the game is fantastic. It's a shame they nearly ruined it with excessive greed.
I never even knew about the loot boxes until after i beat the game lol. game is a solid 9/10 for me
this game is a true stress releaver when it came thru to a cunning worse than death skill, them maniacs made me a maniac god
Best thing about this game were the ads. "Not today Brian" & "Eat it Jerry" are so good
This game is so good. I played it for the first time a year ago
I’ve loved these games so much since they came out, it’s literally the first games I’ve ever wanted to 100% especially shadow of war
I never got to play this one. It somehow slipped under my radar back then, but I DID play Shadow of Mordor and absolutely loved the Nemesis-system. Funny you review this now because with all the lackluster releases lately I've been thinking about picking this one up.
Played this recently and loved it. Didn't find it that hard to get higher level orcs. Chuck a weakling in a pit fight let him die and kill the winner after the battle
Oh my God, I remember the endgame grind just to get the ending so many frustrating hours of constantly defending and attacking. I remember getting so frustrated any time I would lose a siege or die during a defense because it just meant spending more hours, grinding up my orcs, and using infiltration tactics just to take the place back
Shadow of Mordor was a gem for its time. Shadow of War was ok not a great game, but not a bad one either. Unlike 2014’s Lords of the Fallen. That game has major bug issues
I like the game I played it and I don’t buy in game purchases I completed the story and I’m Xbox player and I enjoyed it
Weirdly prefer the gameplay of the 1st until the later game of shadow of war then you really get to play w/ the bells and whistles. Play the pc version to play w/ all the upgrades.
Lmofa. Shadow of War is ABSOLUTELY superior to the first game. It's not even close. It has the better story and mechanics. What are you on?
Im in a boat where i played this game multiple times after the period the monitization was gone, i didnt even know how bad it was. In the grand scheme, this is one of my favorite action games of all time. Just endless action, thats all i need in a game like this.
I loved "Shadow of Mordor." I bought " Shadow of War" in 2023 and I loved it. I don't think it ever asked me to buy anything. I got the version that came with the DLC, Eltariel, Baranor.
This is one of my favorites. Ive sunk hrs into this game on the hardest difficulty