Shadow of War 1st impressions
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I get that you're hung up on lootboxes and you have the knife to grind but you're honestly playing the game wrong if you're buying lootboxes for gear.CritialGaming said:
The purple gear you get for collectables and online revenge missions are the most brokenly overpowered items in the game, they have challenges to level the gear up and the set bonuses far outclass any items you get from chests. And the chests you get from the online missions dole out gear appropriate to your level.
You're supposed to spend silver on upgrading your siege team and your fortresses.
I played and completed the first one. Enjoyed it but killing these little green fucks over and over(and over) got really tedious after a while even if it was mitigated by the Nemesis system which could lead to some hilarious encounters. I think the first game also had a fortunate launch window of there not being many (then)next-gen games available. Not big on LotR lore but I don't think it stood in the way of enjoying the game. The Arkham combat was also really well implemented even if it feels a bit too 'automated' for my tastes. Still a fun little game when there weren't many games to choose from.
The new game just looks like more of the same but on a bigger scale but now with 'lootboxes'. So ehmmm..no thanks.
The new game just looks like more of the same but on a bigger scale but now with 'lootboxes'. So ehmmm..no thanks.
I was disappointed with the game.
Its just incredibly average in almost all aspects.
Combat - Arkham combat is good, as OP says, but after AA, AC, AO, AK, and SoM, I think I am done with it. SoW doesn't do anything interesting with the system, at least anything that SoM didn't also do, so I just felt a little let down by it. It isn't bad - it is actually incredibly well done - but because I have basically played the same game 5 times before, it just felt like I was treading the same ground, again.
Graphics - Incredibly disappointed. This is a post-Witcher 3 world, and anything that doesn't meet that quality - 2 years later, no less - will always be disappointing, and this game doesn't look even half as good. Monolith need to step their game up.
Nemesis system - Its more fleshed out that SoM, and that is cool. The orks have more decorations on them, there are more classes, there are more personality types, and the different tribes give each a distinct aesthetic and ability.
There are also some cool new encounters, too, like where I shamed an Orc, and he came back with painted handprints all over him, declaring that he had accepted his mark, and he wouldn't let it shame him. I then branded him again, and he went crazy. Poor bastard.
I soon realised though, that I had seen the extent of the system when I came across another Orc with the exact same suffix as one I had faced previously, and he approached me spouting the same stuff the previous orc had said. I get its not limitless, but I didn't expect to reach the end of the character pool in one playthrough. Kinda broke my immersion.
Content - Very Ubisoft-y. Climb to the top of the watchtowers to add tat locations to my minimap, and unlock a fast-travel point. More unlockables than you could want. A few sidequests.
As for these sidequests... eh. I had reached the end of one quest chain without realising it, two felt like like complete filler, and the final 2 actually had some important content, but all felt like busywork. Again, this is a post-Witcher 3 world, and that game has more interesting sidequest chains within the first area, than this game has in its entire game. Inexcusable.
As for the fortress sieges and defences: again, disappointing. I never felt like I needed my followers, especially as they wouldn't help in the final boss room, and otherwise, its not even like you need your followers to do anything, because you are so extremely powerful and agile, that you can just shadowstrike to the top of a tower, kill all of the archers, and capture the points by yourself. Only to be left with a boss battle at the end that felt like any other Ork captain, but "oooh, the floor sets on fire", or whatever. Can't say I was pining to do those again.
Story - I have been informed that there was in fact a story in this game, but I mostly stopped caring after the intimidating evil spider, turned into another scantily clad woman because reasons - so basically after the first cutscene. Celebrimbor and Talion were beyond annoying, and all of the other characters were basically only involved in the boring sidequests.
As for Act IV: Fuck off. You want me to do how much? Sorry, but im just going to quit right here, and watch the 5 minute ending cutscene on YouTube, thanks.
Also, why were most of the cutscenes pre-rendered? The cutscenes were in-engine, so why were they done like this? All it did was break my immersion when my armour changed everytime one started, add artifacting up the wazoo, and add another 25GB to the file size if you want them in 4k. You might have caught that I said "most", not "all". Some cutscenes are rendered in real time, so it is obvious that the game can support real-time cutscenes, so what is the point?
Conclusion - Overall, I was a bit bored. I only really finished it becayse I paid $30 for the thing, I was far enough into it anyway, and I havent finished a game in ages, so I felt like I probably should.
If you are interested in the game, just get Shadow of Mordor, or any of the Arkham games. Or just play The Witcher 3 again, like I wished I was doing.
Its just incredibly average in almost all aspects.
Combat - Arkham combat is good, as OP says, but after AA, AC, AO, AK, and SoM, I think I am done with it. SoW doesn't do anything interesting with the system, at least anything that SoM didn't also do, so I just felt a little let down by it. It isn't bad - it is actually incredibly well done - but because I have basically played the same game 5 times before, it just felt like I was treading the same ground, again.
Graphics - Incredibly disappointed. This is a post-Witcher 3 world, and anything that doesn't meet that quality - 2 years later, no less - will always be disappointing, and this game doesn't look even half as good. Monolith need to step their game up.
Nemesis system - Its more fleshed out that SoM, and that is cool. The orks have more decorations on them, there are more classes, there are more personality types, and the different tribes give each a distinct aesthetic and ability.
There are also some cool new encounters, too, like where I shamed an Orc, and he came back with painted handprints all over him, declaring that he had accepted his mark, and he wouldn't let it shame him. I then branded him again, and he went crazy. Poor bastard.
I soon realised though, that I had seen the extent of the system when I came across another Orc with the exact same suffix as one I had faced previously, and he approached me spouting the same stuff the previous orc had said. I get its not limitless, but I didn't expect to reach the end of the character pool in one playthrough. Kinda broke my immersion.
Content - Very Ubisoft-y. Climb to the top of the watchtowers to add tat locations to my minimap, and unlock a fast-travel point. More unlockables than you could want. A few sidequests.
As for these sidequests... eh. I had reached the end of one quest chain without realising it, two felt like like complete filler, and the final 2 actually had some important content, but all felt like busywork. Again, this is a post-Witcher 3 world, and that game has more interesting sidequest chains within the first area, than this game has in its entire game. Inexcusable.
As for the fortress sieges and defences: again, disappointing. I never felt like I needed my followers, especially as they wouldn't help in the final boss room, and otherwise, its not even like you need your followers to do anything, because you are so extremely powerful and agile, that you can just shadowstrike to the top of a tower, kill all of the archers, and capture the points by yourself. Only to be left with a boss battle at the end that felt like any other Ork captain, but "oooh, the floor sets on fire", or whatever. Can't say I was pining to do those again.
Story - I have been informed that there was in fact a story in this game, but I mostly stopped caring after the intimidating evil spider, turned into another scantily clad woman because reasons - so basically after the first cutscene. Celebrimbor and Talion were beyond annoying, and all of the other characters were basically only involved in the boring sidequests.
As for Act IV: Fuck off. You want me to do how much? Sorry, but im just going to quit right here, and watch the 5 minute ending cutscene on YouTube, thanks.
Also, why were most of the cutscenes pre-rendered? The cutscenes were in-engine, so why were they done like this? All it did was break my immersion when my armour changed everytime one started, add artifacting up the wazoo, and add another 25GB to the file size if you want them in 4k. You might have caught that I said "most", not "all". Some cutscenes are rendered in real time, so it is obvious that the game can support real-time cutscenes, so what is the point?
Conclusion - Overall, I was a bit bored. I only really finished it becayse I paid $30 for the thing, I was far enough into it anyway, and I havent finished a game in ages, so I felt like I probably should.
If you are interested in the game, just get Shadow of Mordor, or any of the Arkham games. Or just play The Witcher 3 again, like I wished I was doing.
I'm not far enough in the game to have unlocked fortresses or whatever. That's why this is just a first impressions review as I have only about 15 hours into the game and most of that was trying to clear a map that infinitely refills with shit to do. One thing I will say about the game is that combat is fun enough that I didn't even notice that the game was just generating stuff on the fly and that I wasn't making any clearing progress.Rednog said:
That last act is when you start needing useful orcs, because the difficulty of the sieges rises quite quickly, getting to the point where if you don't have at least 2 good orcs on your side you're going to get swamped by 12+ lvl 55 to 65 captains at the last defense point. Good orcs aren't necessarily legendary either, but ones that have good ai for their class. My best orc is a berserker with throwing weapons that just shreds everyone with non-element damage and he's only epic. The last act is also when you have the biggest hunk of just straight up slaughtery gameplay to sink your teeth into. Each defense only takes about 10 minutes, meaning you've got less than 4 hours of content there, and it's hard but fair for the most part making it enjoyable if you like the gameplay part of the game.Laggyteabag said:
Actually the dark set, beast set, and thresher set are also pretty impressively powerful, most likely the others are too but that's the only ones i've gotten 4 pieces of or more so far. The ending siege stuff doesn't require legendary orcs, but does end up throwing at least one, sometimes two at you in the defence, and if you die during the defence the orc that kills you becomes legendary 100% of the time. So that's up to 3 legendary orcs for each of 20 sieges.Rednog said:
Unfortunately unlocks happen right up until the end of the story sections.Saelune said:
The online spoils of war related chests guarantee a legendary orc, taking 20 vendettas or 5 sieges to get without a booster, coming out to an hour or two per box. But you really don't need legendary anything that you won't get from gathering collectibles, doing a handful of vendetta missions, or finishing the main story. Also there are at least 15 story based legendary orcs that will spawn through a single playthrough guaranteed. You can't recruit most of them but you'll get a drop from them.CritialGaming said:
It's just an Ubisoft game made by someone other than Ubisoft. Climb towers, commute back and forth across the map, collect pointless crap, engage in repetitive combat and simple stealth etc etc.
Gets grindy as fuck later on too. I can't prove they made it that way as an incentive to buy loot boxes, but...
The nemesis system is more fleshed out now. Hopefully another developer copies it to use in an actual good game.
What they did with Shelob was remains dumb as fuck. No really guys, the giant spider is actually a shape-shifting fortune teller! The funny thing is, after watching the scene you get if you collect all her busywork bullshit I actually wish I was playing as her. A stylin' lady who tears shit up with her bare hands and can turn into a giant spider would be ten time as interesting as that boring doofus Talion and his cookie-cutter dead family. It's just stupid that she's supposed to be goddamn Shelob.
Gets grindy as fuck later on too. I can't prove they made it that way as an incentive to buy loot boxes, but...
The nemesis system is more fleshed out now. Hopefully another developer copies it to use in an actual good game.
What they did with Shelob was remains dumb as fuck. No really guys, the giant spider is actually a shape-shifting fortune teller! The funny thing is, after watching the scene you get if you collect all her busywork bullshit I actually wish I was playing as her. A stylin' lady who tears shit up with her bare hands and can turn into a giant spider would be ten time as interesting as that boring doofus Talion and his cookie-cutter dead family. It's just stupid that she's supposed to be goddamn Shelob.
Isn't he an hardcore LoTR fan? The game shit pretty heavily on the lore and run hardcore against every message that the book has. I think anyone who care about LoTR lore would want to avoid the game. Or pretty much anyone whose not particularly interested in the nemesis system, really this is a one pillar game (the story is pretty atrocious) and the nemesis game is really the only reason you'd play it.wizzy555 said:
I don't think he has yet, but he did make a column on the ESRB ruling that loot boxes aren't gambling.wizzy555 said:
Also, he wasn't a huge fan of the first game.
I often point out his article on the first game when people ask me why I don't really care for the series. It sums up my feelings perfectly, and I would like to hear if he gave this one a chance at all, or if he's going to be like me and just go, "Nope. Not this time."Meiam said:
I tried. I really, really, really tried to give this game a chance. I turned off so much of my brain just to get through the first one, and when the first trailer for Shadow of War came out, I thought it looked promising. But then Shelob happened. And then crafting your own Ring happened. And then the Balrog happened. Drakes happened. It was just one thing after another that drove this game so far into fanfiction--power fantasy, badly written fanfiction--that I was hanging on by a thread.
And then I saw him meeting what I can only assume is an Ent Wife. And that was when I washed my hands of the game. The grinding loot box system that I've heard so much about is just icing on the cake for me.
She isn't an Ent Wife. (Her glossary entry specifically says she isn't.) She's some of kind of general forest/nature spirit.Sniper Team 4 said:
I like the way she talks, although it reminds me of Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Just to be clear, I'm not trying to change your mind or anything.
We should get this game. And it definitely isn't Shelob, no matter what they say.Zhukov said:
Since I haven't played Shadow of War yet and I might not until it's very cheap because haha microtransactions and all of that other wallet-wringing nonsense, the above is about the extent of my opinion on the game so far.